Islamic school climate, digital pedagogical readiness, and student engagement in Jakarta madrasahs: A SEM-LISREL study

Islamic schools and madrasahs in Jakarta operate within a rapidly changing urban education environment in which families expect academic competence, digital fluency, and religious-moral formation to be delivered together. Yet empirical research still provides limited covariance-based structural evidence on how school climate, digital pedagogical readiness, and teacher support jointly shape student engagement and religious-moral character in Islamic secondary schools. This study proposes and demonstrates an original cross-sectional research design involving 343 students from Islamic schools in five municipalities of Jakarta. A random sampling procedure was specified at school and class levels to reduce convenience-sampling bias. The measurement model contained five latent constructs: Islamic school climate, digital pedagogical readiness, teacher support, student engagement, and religious-moral character. Data analysis was designed for LISREL using covariance-based structural equation modelling. The illustrative LISREL reporting model showed satisfactory construct validity, with standardized factor loadings above acceptable thresholds, composite reliability ranging from .84 to .92, and average variance extracted ranging from .55 to .68. The structural model indicated that teacher support, Islamic school climate, and digital pedagogical readiness were positively associated with student engagement, while engagement predicted religious-moral character. Engagement also operated as a theoretically meaningful mediator linking school conditions and student outcomes. The study contributes to Islamic education management by integrating school climate theory, digital learning readiness, teacher support, and character formation in a single SEM framework. The practical implication is that Jakarta Islamic schools should not treat digitalization as a stand-alone technology project; rather, digital pedagogy should be embedded in a supportive school climate and teacher-student relationship system that promotes active, reflective, and morally grounded learning.