School Climate Matters (Shanghai Schools from a Comparative Perspective)

This book describes the effect of school climate on student academic achievement. The unexpected leading position of Shanghai in its first and second appearance of the PISA survey—topping every league table in this assessment by a clear margin—attracted attention from all over the world. This book focuses on the relationship between student academic achievement and the characteristics of students and schools in Shanghai, while showing the effects of these factors within this specific educational ecology.

Bo Ning considers the relationship between school climate and student academic achievement using data from PISA 2009 and 2012, with a focus on reading and mathematics. School climate is confined to the quality and characteristics of school life in relationships, and teaching and learning issues from a student perspective. In each chapter, one or several of the following five school climate variables are explored: school appreciation, teacher-student relations, disciplinary climate, reading atmosphere, and supportive climate. In addition to the focus on school climate, three basic concerns run through the whole book: the Shanghai educational context, the comparative approach, and causal inference.

This book will be of great interest to academics, researchers, and postgraduate students in the fields of international and comparative education.