What Makes Schools Effective? A Comparison of the Relationships of Communitarian Climate and Academic Climate to Mathematics Achievement and Attendance During Middle School

Over the past few decades, scholars and policymakers have been perplexed about why students learn so little in some schools. Many researchers and reformers currently claim that school effectiveness hinges on communal organization. They contend that shared values and activities, positive adult social relations, positive teacher–student relations, and democratic governance enhance students’ school engagement and their academic achievement. Yet a competing theory—that of academic press—posits a more direct link between school processes and academic outcomes. This theory suggests that schools are effective when they offer demanding curricula and employ teachers whose educational expectations for their students are high. The present article used hierarchical modeling to compare the merits of these two theories. Analyses of longitudinal data on three cohorts of students (N > 5,600) from 23 middle schools indicated that communal organization was not related to mathematics achievement or attendance. Academic press, on the other hand, was positively related to both mathematics achievement and attendance. These results call for somewhat greater skepticism about the currently popular communitarian solution to school ineffectiveness.