School Climate: Its Impact on Teachers’ Commitment and School Performance

The aims of this study were to determine the perceptions of school climate, teachers’ commitment and school performance held by principals, teachers and parents and the relationship among these variables. Thirty elementary schools of the third congressional district of Bohol consisting of 200 teachers, 30 principals and 60 parents who were randomly sampled took part in the study. The teachers and parents completed two survey instruments: Organizational Health Inventory for elementary schools (OHI-E) from Hoy and Tarter to examine school climate and Organizational Commitment Questionnaire (OCQ)from Celep to test teachers’ commitment, while the principals were made to answer an additional questionnaire that solicits data regarding the school performance. With the school as the unit of analysis, the OHI-E outlined and measured five elements related to school climate (teacher affiliation, institutional integrity, collegial leadership, resource influence and academic influence). Those five were the independent variables used for the study. The dependent variables were the teachers’ commitment with regard to the commitment to school, teaching profession, pupils and work group; and school performance measured by graduation, retention, promotion, participation, repetition, failure, drop-out rates and the National Achievement Test Result. Data were analyzed using frequency count and simple percentage calculation. Weighted mean score was used to assess the level of school climate, teachers’ commitment and school performance. Furthermore, parametric test like Pearson Product-Moment Correlation (rxy) was used to determine the degree of relationship between school climate and the teachers’ commitment; while Spearman Rank Correlation (rs) was used to determine the relationship of school climate and school performance. Results indicated that school climate is related to teachers’ commitment and school performance. These findings have significant implications for the implementation of change in schools, motivation, productivity, well-being, and learner achievement.