School climate can have a notable impact on student academic, social, emotional, and behavioral outcomes. It is also a critical component of school improvement efforts, as demonstrated by recent federal and state initiatives to provide resources and supports for increased school climate measurement, accountability, and improvement. The primary purpose of the current study was to establish measurement invariance of the Georgia School Climate Survey across gender and race/ethnicity among middle school students. The secondary purpose was to explore mean comparisons in school climate experiences across student groups. Participants included 629,584 middle and high school students. Confirmatory factor analyses supported a hierarchical model of school climate that included one overall factor, school climate, and eight subscales: school connectedness, civic engagement, physical environment, adult social support, peer social support, cultural acceptance, order and discipline, and safety. Measurement invariance for a subscale model of school climate across gender and race/ethnicity was established, and student means across groups were compared. Implications for the practical use of the GSCS as a school improvement tool to guide targeted and data-based decision are discussed.

学校氛围会对学生的学业、社交、情感和行为结果产生显着影响。它也是学校改进工作的重要组成部分，正如最近联邦和州为加强学校气候衡量、问责和改进提供资源和支持的举措所证明的那样。当前研究的主要目的是在中学生中建立跨性别和种族/民族的佐治亚州学校气候调查的测量不变性。次要目的是探索不同学生群体的学校气候体验的平均比较。参与者包括 629,584 名初中和高中学生。验证性因素分析支持学校气候的分层模型，其中包括一个整体因素、学校气候和八个子量表：学校连通性、公民参与、自然环境、成人社会支持、同伴社会支持、文化接受度、秩序和纪律以及安全。建立了跨性别和种族/民族的学校气候子尺度模型的测量不变性，并比较了各组学生的平均值。讨论了实际使用 GSCS 作为指导有针对性和基于数据的决策的学校改进工具的意义。