Environment; Student Opinion

The central problem of this study was to describe the educational environment of Oklahoma elementary schools as perceived by pupils who attend those schools, and to determine if schools with differing characteristics differ in their educational environments. Eleven thousand pupils from 373 classrooms in 110 schools throughout Oklahoma participated in the study. Variables examined were: practicality, community, awareness, propriety, and scholarship. The instrument utilized to measure pupils ' perceptions was the Elementary School Environment Survey (ESES). The most significant findings were: 1) Schools in middle/high socioeconomic class settings (non Title I) have a significantly more scholarly environment; 2) Rural school students perceive the environment as more polite and considerate than do students attending urban schools; 3) Self-contained classrooms differ significantly in the educational environment dimension o