School Climate and School Performance: Basis for Capability Building

The main purpose of this study is to determine the school climate of public elementary and secondary schools in the 4th congressional district of Negros Occidental and its relation to school performance. A descriptive-correlational design was employed by adapting the varied methods of data collection, which are the survey for the quantitative data and focus group discussion for the qualitative data. There were 327 and 284 teachers in the public elementary and secondary schools respectively. Based on the findings of the study, the persistent record of teachers’ perceptions about school climate in the different dimensions of safety, teaching and learning, interpersonal relationships, institutional environment, and staff affects the performances of public elementary and secondary schools in terms of average NAT result, dropout rate, completion rate, and graduation rate. The significant difference in the school climate between the public elementary and secondary schools, the dimensions of safety, and staff have a greater impact on achieving a high perception of school climate in the said schools. The dimensions of the school climate that received the highest score must maintain their positive sustainability to maintain a productive and satisfying life. The areas of average NAT result and dropout rate are the determining factors that affect the performance of both schools. The highlight of this result paved a greater influence on the academic performance of the schools. Regarding the significant relationship between school climate and performance, teaching and learning, and dropout rate, there is a greater correlation with the academic performance of the school.