PUB TYPE Reports Research/Technical (143) Speeches/Conference Papers (150)

This paper describes the development and validation of measures of students ' and teachers ' perceptions of the extent to which their school is a community. Community, in this instance, focuses on the quality of social relationships in the school. The development of measures of school community is reported, and the construct validity of these measures is investigated, as are relationships between students ' and teachers ' perceptions of the school's characteristics. Subjects were approximately 550 teachers and 4,000 students in grades 3 through 6 from 24 elementary schools across the United States. Developed questionnaires were administered individually to teachers and by group to students. Nine student items and two teacher items were dropped to prepare final measures. Results of these measures indicate that schools where teachers feel a strong sense of community are not necessarily those where students feel