Analyses of the Factor Structure and Item Measurement Bias of a School Climate Scale in Chilean Students

Abstract

School Climate is an essential aspect in every school community. It relates to perceptions of the school environment experienced by various members of the educational system. Research has shown that an appropriate school climate impacts not only on the quality of life of all members in the educational system, but also on learning outcomes and education improvements. This study aims to explore a measure of School Climate on Chilean students. A sample of 176,126 10th grade students was used to investigate the factor structure of the items composing the School Climate construct, and to evaluate the potential presence of Differential Item Functioning between male and female groups. Both explanatory and confirmatory factor analysis as well as Rasch models were used to analyze the scale. Differential item functioning between male and female groups was investigated using the Langer-improved Wald test. The results indicated a multidimensional structure of the School Climate construct and that measurement bias for male and female groups exist in some of the items measuring the construct.