Inclusive or Not?: Development of a Student Survey to Measure Students’ Perspectives of Teacher and Leader Abilities to Lead Racially Diverse Schools

Abstract

This research highlights the development of a survey that measures students’ perspectives and the powerful role they play in measuring teachers’ and leaders’ practices for school inclusion in an urban school environment. Using an exploratory student survey, students were surveyed regarding their perspectives of their principals’ and teachers’ abilities to lead a school with changing demographics. Exploratory Factor Analysis, Confirmatory Factor Analysis, and Rasch analysis were used to generate a good fit of the survey constructs, test if measures of the constructs were consistent with the anticipated dimensionality of an inclusion scale and to determine reliability and validity. Overall, the student survey results reflected low inclusion measures for teachers and leaders. The inclusion measure for leaders was much lower than the teacher inclusion measure. The findings suggested students believe their teachers and leaders are not equipped in creating an inclusionary environment for a racially diverse campus. Some students felt their principals were not fair in how they disciplined students of color. Students believed there were concerns about how their parents were treated when they came to the school. These students also believed their schools were not supportive in preparing them for post-secondary programs. By surveying students, the researcher collected data that informed leaders and teachers about how students truly feel about their school regarding inclusivity. The researcher anticipates this study will change practices of both teachers and leaders in schools with changing demographics.