ABSTRACT
Students, as one specific group of school stakeholders, have unique perceptions of school climate, which predict academic performance. In the Programme for International Student Assessment 2009 Shanghai survey, 5,115 students from 152 schools participated. The results from this study showed that compared with their peers in the countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Shanghai students reported better teacher–student relations, classroom disciplinary climate, and teacher stimulation of reading, although they had worse attitudes towards school. In line with prior literature, multilevel analyses in this study revealed that students’ individual perceptions of school climate predicted reading achievement in Shanghai. Controlling for student background characteristics, these individual perceptions explained 1.71% of the within-school differences in reading achievement.
