Do school climate scores matter?

On Thursday, the Georgia Department of Education released its School Climate Star Ratings.

With the weather we’ve been having, I figured the climate everywhere would be about two stars.

As it turns out, climate here refers to “the quality and character of school life,” according to the Georgia DOE website.

The site says research shows schools with positive climates tend to have better test scores and those with negative climates have lower scores.

I wondered if the correlation between academic performance and climate would be similar to the one between performance and poverty.

In Muscogee County, the lowest performing schools have the most students living in poverty, and the best performing schools have the fewest.

For example, for the 2014-2015 school year, the top schools at the elementary, middle and high school levels (Britt David, Blackmon Road and Columbus) also had the lowest percentage of students in the free and reduced lunch program.

And the lowest performing schools at these levels (Forrest Road, Eddy and Spencer) had all of its students eligible for free and reduced lunch.

So did the best performing schools have the best climate scores? Did the lowest have the worst?

Britt David Elementary, with a College and Career Ready Performance Index of 104.5, had the district’s top climate score at five stars. Blackmon Road Middle, with a CCRPI of 88.9, got four stars.

But Columbus High, the top high school with a CCRPI of 98.0, got three stars. Meanwhile, three other high schools – Northside, Early College and Shaw – each got four stars. And three more high schools, two of which are considered academically failing, matched Columbus’ three star rating.

Forrest Road, the lowest performing elementary school in 2014-15 with a 50.8 CCRPI, also got three stars.

In fact, four more of the nine lowest performing elementary schools, all with scores below 56 and every child on the free/reduced lunch program, also got the same climate score as Columbus High. These are Martin Luther King Jr., Brewer, South Columbus and Fox.

Eddy, the lowest performing middle school, also got three stars. And a couple of middle schools with failing CCRPI scores, Arnold and Richards, got four stars.

So should schools with exceptional academic scores be beating themselves up for having average climate scores?

I don’t think so. Columbus High dramatically increased its academic score in the same year its climate score dropped from five stars to three. As a CHS parent, am I worried about that? Not a bit. If I wanted to have a great climate score, maybe I should have filled out the survey.

But should failing schools be patting themselves on the back over high climate ratings? I think so.

Take Fox Elementary School, which has a sharp new principal named Yvette Scarborough. I read to pre-kindergarten students there as part of a Literacy Alliance program. My first day, I noticed a big sign in front of the school: “IT IS AFTER 8:00 A.M. Your child is now tardy! Learning has started. Please park and bring your child to the office to check in.”

The school was clean and the staff was calm and professional. Though students were still struggling with poverty and other disadvantages, the message was clear: You are safe here, and we’re going to help you succeed.

Will these failing schools with good climates grow academically and eventually become passing schools? I believe they will.

We get a fresh round of Georgia Milestones results this summer, and it will be interesting to track the growth.

This story was originally published June 3, 2016 at 3:20 PM with the headline "Do school climate scores matter?."