Abstract:

A more robust evidence base around the positive aspects of schools might influence leaders to do more to align their efforts to enhance the positives, rather than to focus on mitigating the negatives, to improve school and student outcomes. The purpose of this research was to assess whether staff hope offered similar academic achievement and school climate outcomes as student hope. Findings from this cross sectional survey research using the Perceived Hope Scale with 45 schools in one U.S. state indicated staff hope scores were unrelated with school socioeconomic status, but related with one measure of school climate – student to faculty ratio. This measure of school climate predicted staff hope when modeled with school level socioeconomic status, offering a potential practical finding. These findings overall, however, do not suggest that staff hope offered similar outcomes as student hope with regard to academic achievement. This study contributes to the hope in schools evidence base and provides support for future research to examine the role of staff hope to influence various school and student level outcomes.

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