A school connectedness scale for use with adolescents

Abstract

Evaluators are frequently asked to assess the effectiveness of school programs implemented to improve academic achievement. School connectedness has been shown to be directly related to academic achievement (McNeely, Nonnemaker, & Blum, 2002) and is therefore of interest to evaluators. The construct of school connectedness has been shown to consist of 3 elements: connectedness to adults in schools, connectedness to peers, and connectedness to the school (Karcher & Lee, 2002). This paper reports the psychometric properties and factor analyses findings from a School Connectedness Scale (SCS) given to adolescents in 2 very different high schools in the Northeast, one a large urban school and one a medium-sized suburban school. The results indicate that the SCS is highly reliable with a stable factor structure across diverse populations. The broad applications of use for the instrument are discussed.

Keywords:

• school connectedness
• adolescents
• school program evaluation

Notes

1. Portions of this paper were presented at the 2010 annual meeting of the American Evaluation Association in San Antonio, TX.