The concept of school climate associated with the effective schools movement has been identified as central to many school reform agendas. This is because school climate is, first, believed to be related to educational outcomes and, second, thought to be manipulable by principals and school administrators. Most school-climate research has taken place in urban elementary schools, and it is an open question whether this research applies equally well to secondary schools, which frequently are larger and more heterogeneous than elementary schools.

This article describes school climate in a representative sample of American high schools. Based on teacher reports, a variety of school-climate measures are developed, and these measures are related to characteristics of schools and teachers. The results indicate that the effective schools model of school climate does not apply well to secondary schools. Most of the variation in teacher reports of school climate is among teachers within the same school, not among schools. Moreover, the strongest correlates of high school climate are environmental features of the school largely beyond the school’s control. The results call into question the extent to which improving high school climate can be expected to improve student achievement. The concept of school climate predates recent reform efforts in American education. School-climate research began in earnest in the 1960s, and continued to proliferate through the early 1980s. The popularity of this distinctive brand of educational research stems from two major beliefs. First, school climate is thought to be linked to educational outcomes, especially achievement. Common sense suggests that a positive school climate should promote higher achievement. Many of our unscientific impressions about what defines a positive school climate-for instance, well-mannered, motivated students, and high standards and expectations for discipline and academic performance-seem to be linked quite directly to educational achievement. The second reason for the popularity of school-climate research is the belief that school climate is a manipulable variable. While various attributes of student body composition-such as the mix of racial/ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds, and perhaps the raw talents that students