Contemporary Educational Psychology 29 (2004) 389409

www.elsevier.com/locate/cedpsych

Authoritative schools: A test of a model

to resolve the school eectiveness debate
Michele Gregoire Gill,a,* Patricia Ashton,b and James Alginab
a
Department of Educational Studies, P.O. Box 161250, University of Central Florida,
Orlando, FL 32816-1250, USA
b
University of Florida, USA
Available online 14 January 2004

Abstract

School eectiveness research has fueled debate on the importance of a press for academic
excellence versus communal values. Research on parenting styles oers a theoretical frame-
work that may resolve the debate. We hypothesized that dimensions of parenting stylesde-
mandingness (academic press) and responsiveness (communal values)predict students
mathematics achievement, engagement, and locus of control. HLM analyses of NELS: 88 data
on 19,435 eighth-graders partially supported the hypothesis: Students perceptions of school
responsiveness predicted their engagement and internal control. In addition, students in re-
sponsive schools had smaller dierences in mathematics achievement and internal control at-
tributable to SES, suggesting that responsive schools may increase equity. We oer suggestions
for further investigation of the model in hope of resolving the debate.
2003 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Authoritative schools; Academic press; Communal values; Parenting styles; Responsiveness;
Demandingness; Mathematics achievement; Student engagement; Internal control; Middle schools

1. Introduction

A controversy has emerged in research on school eectiveness (Phillips, 1997). In

the 1980s, researchers dened school eectiveness in terms of academic pressan
emphasis on academic excellence, indicated by schools commitment to high

*
Corresponding author. Fax: 1-407-823-5144.
E-mail address: mgill@mail.ucf.edu (M.G. Gill).

0361-476X/$ - see front matter 2003 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.cedpsych.2003.10.002
390 M.G. Gill et al. / Contemporary Educational Psychology 29 (2004) 389409

standards for student achievement, clear academic objectives, homework, and school
time devoted to achieving those standards. In the early 1990s, however, some re-
searchers (e.g., Battistich, Solomon, Kim, Watson, & Schaps, 1995) challenged the
focus on academic press. These scholars advocated a communal perspective (vari-
ously referred to communitarian organization, social support, and communal values)
dened in terms of shared values, supportive studentteacher relationships, and an
ethic of caring as the basis of school eectiveness (Lee & Smith, 1993). Competing
visions of schooling underlying the two models have continued to fuel debate be-
tween the advocates of academic press and communal values (see Shouse, 1996,
for a historical perspective). Conceiving of academic press and communal values
as competing models may impede progress in understanding how to increase school
eectiveness. McCaslin and Good (1992) oered an alternative perspective on school
eectiveness by proposing that the construct of authoritative schools based on
Baumrinds (1991) parenting research could guide the design of eective school re-
form. We believe that the construct of authoritative schools provides a basis for
the development of an integrated approach to understanding and enhancing de-
velopment at home and in school that may also help to resolve the academic
presscommunitarian debate. The construct of authoritative schools, like authori-
tative parenting, combines the responsiveness of communal values with the demand-
ingness of academic press. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the
construct of authoritative schools conceived in terms of two dimensions of the au-
thoritative parenting style (i.e., demandingness and responsiveness) oers a useful
psychological framework for understanding school eectiveness.

2. Background of the study

2.1. Research support for academic press

The research on eective schools of the 1970s and 80s emerged in reaction to
inputoutput studies (e.g., Coleman et al., 1966) that suggested that the eects
of schools on student achievement are weak. To counter that argument, a popular
approach was for researchers to identify on the basis of achievement test scores un-
usually eective and ineective schools and contrast them in terms of school pro-
cesses. On the basis of these and other studies of school eectiveness, numerous
researchers concluded that an academic emphasis was a major characteristic of ef-
fective schools. These studies have been widely reviewed in the literature, most no-
tably by Good and Brophy (1986) in their chapter on school eects in the third
Handbook of Educational Research. In the interest of space, we will not review that
literature here. However, it is important to note that most of these studies had rel-
atively small unrepresentative samples; their process results were often based on
case studies of smaller subsamples, and most did not use school as the unit of anal-
ysis, which would have made it more dicult to obtain signicant results. Research
on the eect of communal values on school eectiveness began to appear in the
1990s.
 M.G. Gill et al. / Contemporary Educational Psychology 29 (2004) 389409 391

2.2. Research on communal values

In an early study of the relationship of communal values to aective outcomes in

students, Bryk, Lee, and Holland (1993) found that Catholic schools scored more
than two standard deviations higher than public schools on the measure of commu-
nal values and, when schools communal index was entered into their analysis, it ac-
counted for Catholic schools higher scores on students interest in academics. The
authors concluded that students interest in academics would be as high in public
schools as in Catholic schools, if public schools were as communal as Catholic
schools. However, Bryk et al. did not assess the relationship between schools com-
munal values and academic achievement.
In one of the rst studies of communal values to examine both aective and cog-
nitive outcomes, Battistich et al. (1995) found that school communal values pre-
dicted sizable eects (b :4094) in their aective measures of students in third
through fth grades in 24 elementary schools, including enjoyment in class and liking
of school, intrinsic motivation, trust in teachers, conict resolution skills, and proso-
cial motivation and behavior at both the school and individual levels. However, all
of the relationships between students communal values and academic outcome, in-
cluding standardized test scores in reading and mathematics were nonsignicant,
with the exception of one researcher-constructed measure of reading comprehension.

2.3. Research examining academic press and communal values

More recently, a few researchers have included both academic press and commu-
nal values in their studies. First, Shouse (1996), in a study of mathematics achieve-
ment in 398 high schools from the NELS First Follow-Up schools, found that
students in low-SES schools with strong communal values and strong academic press
averaged over 4 points higher on the mathematics test than students in schools with
low academic press. In contrast, students in low-SES schools with low academic
press and high communal values had achievement levels a point lower than schools
with low communal values and low academic press. Phillips (1997) pointed out that
Shouse had confounded academic press with communal values in his measure of ac-
ademic press and had confounded them again in his measure of communal values.
Further, she criticized the Battistich et al. (1995) study for failing to control for prior
achievement or SES, which she believed might have masked signicant negative ef-
fects of communal values on achievement. Phillips addressed these weaknesses by in-
cluding controls for achievement and students SES and constructing her measures of
communal values and academic press empirically in her study of longitudinal data
from three cohorts of students in 23 middle schools. She found that academic press
was related to mathematics achievement (b :24), but academic press was dened
narrowly as average amount of homework. Communal climate was not related to
achievement. In fact, teachers caring in schools was negatively related to students
test scores. On the basis of her results, Phillips urged researchers, educators, and pol-
icy makers to question the benets of communal schooling. Phillipss study, however,
was weakened by her small (23 schools) and unrepresentative sample that was more
392 M.G. Gill et al. / Contemporary Educational Psychology 29 (2004) 389409

advantaged than the population of students in the district (p. 640). In a more recent
study, Lee and Smith (1999) examined academic press and communal values in
30,000 sixth- and eighth-grade students in 304 inner-city Chicago public elementary
schools and found that both were modestly related to achievement (b :04 for
mathematics and .03 for reading for both). In this study, communal values were
measured in terms of students perceptions of social support.

3. The need for a more conceptually distinct and integrated model of academic press
and communal values

In sum, the evidence for a relationship between communal values and academic
achievement is weak. However, the study of Battistich et al. (1995), the only study
to include aective student outcomes, suggests that communal values may have an
important eect on students attitudes and motivation. Thus, continuing to view ac-
ademic press and communal values as contradictory perspectives seems counterpro-
ductive. Research is needed that combines academic press and communal values with
academic and aective outcomes. No study reviewed here has combined these four
components. Our study addresses this need. The research on academic press and
communal values, however, suggests that these variables are not consistently dened
and not carefully dierentiated. There was practically no overlap in the way these
variables were dened in the studies. As Phillips (1997) pointed out, Shouses
(1996) measures tended to confound the two variables, and whereas communal val-
ues are often conceptualized as focusing on supportive teacherstudent relationships
and an ethic of caring, most measures seem to focus on shared values and collegial
relations, which may fail to capture the critical aspect of student support. It is infor-
mative that Lee and Smith (1999), who measured communal values in terms of stu-
dents perceptions of social support, were the only researchers to nd a signicant
although small relationship between communal values and student achievement,
as measured by standardized tests. We propose that the construct of authoritative
schools based on the dimensions of responsiveness and demandingness from parent-
ing style research may capture the essence of the variables of academic press and
communal values while oering a more conceptually distinct framework for demon-
strating that both academic press and communal values are necessary for students
optimal development.

3.1. Parenting styles

Baumrind (1971, 1991) examined the relationships between two orthogonal di-
mensions of parentingresponsiveness and demandingnessto childrens develop-
mental outcomes. Responsiveness refers to the extent to which parents are warm,
aectionate, and sensitive to their childrens needs, and demandingness refers to par-
ents insistence that their children meet high expectations for appropriate behavior.
Baumrind identied three parenting styles on the basis of the two dimensions:
authoritarian parenting, which is high in demandingness and low in responsiveness,
 M.G. Gill et al. / Contemporary Educational Psychology 29 (2004) 389409 393

permissive parenting, which is low in demandingness but relatively responsive to

children, and authoritative parenting, which is high on both dimensions. For adoles-
cents, outcomes associated with authoritative parenting style include greater psycho-
social competence, perceptions of internal control (Lamborn, Mounts, Steinberg, &
Dornbusch, 1991), and higher achievement (Steinberg, Lamborn, Dornbusch, &
Darling, 1992). Although studies of parenting styles are correlational, and reciprocal
eects of students temperament interacting with parenting style cannot be ruled out,
Steinberg, Lamborn, Darling, Mounts, and Dornbusch (1994) pointed out that their
use of a longitudinal design that controlled for initial group dierences provides in-
direct evidence that parenting practices precede and inuence adolescent competence
and adjustment.
We focus here on authoritativeness, as that style has been most clearly associated
with positive student outcomes and has implications for the debate between aca-
demic press and communal values. We hope that our work will encourage research-
ers to explore whether the other parenting styles (see Maccoby & Martin, 1983, for
an overview) have implications for school eectiveness research.
McCaslin and Good (1992) proposed that the construct of authoritative schools
based on Baumrinds (1991) parenting research could guide the design of eective
school reform. We agree, and, in addition, we believe that investigation of the con-
struct has the potential to resolve the debate on academic press vs. communal values.
Authoritative schools, like authoritative parenting, combine the responsiveness of
communal values with the demandingness of academic press. Thus, we hypothesized
that students in schools with high academic demands and high responsiveness will
have high internal control, high engagement, and high academic achievement similar
to children of authoritative parents. Given the similarities between the conceptions
of academic press and demandingness and between communal values and respon-
siveness, we believe that investigation of whether school eectiveness can be charac-
terized in terms of demandingness and responsiveness and whether these dimensions
are associated with student outcomes similar to the outcomes in parenting research
may help to resolve the debate over academic press vs. communal values.

4. Focus of the research: Middle school climate and early adolescent outcomes

In the last decade, much of the research on school eectiveness has focused on mid-
dle schools. Concern about declines in student engagement and achievement during
these important school years (Eccles, Lord, & Buchanan, 1996) may account for this
recent interest. Eccles and her colleagues proposed that the mismatch between the or-
ganization of middle-grade schools and the intellectual and emotional needs of young
adolescents may be related to the decline in students achievement and engagement.
This stage-environment mismatch suggests that adolescents developmental needs
for responsiveness and demandingness are increasing at the time that schools are be-
coming more bureaucratic and less responsive to students needs. Therefore, some re-
searchers have advocated that schools should become increasingly responsive to the
developmental needs of early adolescents and promote positive aective outcomes in
394 M.G. Gill et al. / Contemporary Educational Psychology 29 (2004) 389409

students, such as engagement in learning (Connell & Wellborn, 1991). The middle
school movement (George & Alexander, 1993) publicized this theme, calling for re-
sponsive practices to counteract the more bureaucratic, control-oriented organization
of junior high schools. These recommendations are consistent with advocacy of a
communal school organization. Midgley and Edelin (1998), however, warned that al-
though the trend in middle school reform has been to become more responsive by im-
plementing a variety of restructuring practices, the academic climate of middle
schools has not improved. Research on academic press and communal values
(Shouse, 1996) suggests that communal values without academic press may be detri-
mental to student learning. Research is needed to provide insight into whether an au-
thoritative school climate that combines demandingness and responsiveness might
attenuate the decline in achievement, engagement, and psychosocial outcomes during
the middle-grade years. To explore this possibility, we focused on the responsiveness
and demandingness of middle schools and examined their relationship to three out-
comes relevant to school eectiveness and parenting styles research: student engage-
ment, internal control, and mathematics achievement.

4.1. Student engagement

Parenting styles research has consistently demonstrated a relationship between

authoritative parenting and student engagement (e.g., Glasgow, Dornbusch, Troyer,
Steinberg, & Ritter, 1997; Steinberg et al., 1992). Advocates of a communal view of
schooling have typically included student interest or engagement as an outcome var-
iable either alone or with academic achievement on the basis of theoretical claims
that the positive eects of communal values extend beyond academic achievement.
For example, in a study of 8845 eighth graders in 377 middle-grade schools from
the National Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS: 88; Ingels, Abraham, Spencer, &
Frankel, 1990), Lee and Smith (1993) found modest relationships between schools
communal values and students academic engagement. In light of the evidence relat-
ing authoritative parenting to student engagement, the research that has reported
modest relationships between communal values and student engagement, and con-
cern about declines in student engagement in middle schools, we included student en-
gagement as an outcome variable.

4.2. Perceptions of internal control

According to Rotter (1990), perceptions of internal versus external control of re-

inforcement, commonly referred to as locus of control, is the degree to which per-
sons expect that a reinforcement or an outcome of their behavior is contingent on
their own behavior or personal characteristics [i.e., internal control] versus. . . chance,
luck, or fate,. . .the control of powerful others, or is simply unpredictable [i.e., exter-
nal control]. (p. 489). Since the publication of the Coleman Report (Coleman et al.,
1966), researchers have recognized the importance of internal control as a predictor
of students achievement, especially for minority students. Many studies have
shown signicant positive relationships between internal control and achievement,
 M.G. Gill et al. / Contemporary Educational Psychology 29 (2004) 389409 395

and internal control has been associated with many positive psychosocial outcomes,
such as adaptive coping, healthy behavior, ability to delay gratication, willingness
to take reasonable risks, information seeking, self-condence, and resistance to
emotional disorders (Strickland, 1989). In addition, several studies on parenting
styles have demonstrated a relationship between authoritative parenting and mid-
dle-grade students internal control (e.g., Lamborn et al., 1991; McClun & Merrell,
1998). Also, in a study of 1608 8- to 13-year-olds, Skinner, Zimmer-Gembeck, and
Connell (1998) reported that in comparison to students who perceived their teachers
as unresponsive, students who perceived their teachers as warm were more likely
to develop internal control, which related to student engagement and higher achieve-
ment. In light of the evidence relating internal control to students achievement and
positive socioemotional outcomes and research showing that authoritative parenting
is associated with adolescents internal control, we included internal control as an
outcome in our study.

4.3. Mathematics achievement

Studies of academic press and mathematics achievement have consistently shown

positive relationships (e.g., Phillips, 1997; Shouse, 1996), although studies of commu-
nal values have not. In fact, Shouse (1996) and Phillips (1997) warned that commu-
nal values without academic press may have negative eects on students
mathematics achievement. In parenting research, authoritative parenting is consis-
tently related to academic achievement, although until Gray and Steinbergs
(1999) recent call for unpacking the construct of authoritative parenting, demanding-
ness, and responsiveness have not been disaggregated in parenting studies.
In the last decade, studies of academic press, communal values, and middle school
reform have all focused on mathematics achievement (e.g., Battistich et al., 1995; Lee
& Smith, 1993; Phillips, 1997; Shouse, 1996). One reason for this emphasis may be
the disappointing mathematics performance of US students in international studies
(Shouse, 1996). Shouse and Mussoline (2002) described the mathematics test as the
most valid indicator of school eectiveness in the NELS: 88 data set because math-
ematics scores are more likely to reect in-class instruction than other subject-matter
tests and because it contains more items and ability levels than the tests in reading,
history, and science, making it least susceptible to oor and ceiling eects. Inasmuch
as our data source is the NELS: 88 database and in light of the need to examine
whether authoritative schooling is related to mathematics performance in middle
schools, and to be able to compare our results with studies of academic press and
communal values, we focused on mathematics achievement.

4.4. School responsiveness as a moderator of school equity

Both Battistich et al. (1995) and Lee and Smith (1993) have suggested that some
students especially those from a low SES background feel alienated in schools that
are based on academic press without the buering provided by social and emotional
support. Students in such schools are at risk of disengaging from the academic life of
396 M.G. Gill et al. / Contemporary Educational Psychology 29 (2004) 389409

schools if they feel that they are unable to achieve the academic goals set in such
schools. Consequently, it is possible that school responsiveness, by providing sup-
port that counteracts feelings of alienation, may reduce the impact of factors that
create inequitable outcomes of schooling, for example, the likelihood that students
with higher prior achievement will have higher subsequent achievement than stu-
dents with lower prior achievement.

5. Research hypotheses

To investigate whether authoritative schooling measured in terms of the two di-

mensions of responsiveness and demandingness oers a basis for resolving the debate
on whether school eectiveness depends on academic or communal values, we inves-
tigated the following hypothesis:
1. School responsiveness and demandingness relate to student outcomes in patterns
similar to those found in the parenting literature; that is, school demandingness
and school responsiveness are positively related to student engagement, internal
control, and mathematics achievement.
In addition, we examined the possibility of moderating eects of school respon-
siveness on school inequities:
2. In schools that students and principals perceive as responsive, the inequities in
student engagement, perceptions of internal control, and mathematics achieve-
ment due to SES, prior grades, gender, and minority status will be reduced.

6. Method

Student and school data were compiled from the base year of NELS: 88, a na-
tional survey of eighth-grade students, school administrators, teachers, and parents
of selected students sponsored by the National Center for Educational Statistics
(NCES; Ingels et al., 1990). The NCES used two-stage stratied sampling, with over
sampling of underrepresented schools and students, to select schools and then to se-
lect 25 eighth graders on average within these schools for the base year (Ingels et al.,
1990).1 The total sample consists of 24,599 students in 1052 schools. For this study,
only student and principal responses in the base year were analyzed. Additionally,
students and schools with missing data were not included in the analyses, reducing

1
Due to NCES over sampling of students and schools in NELS: 88, all analyses were weighted.
Weights were normalized according to the following formula: Normalized weight (Number of
participants
NELS: 88 weight)/Sum of weights. The base year design weight (BYQWT) was used to
calculate descriptive statistics of student-level variables, whereas the administrator weight (BYADMWT)
was applied to the aggregated school-level data. To weight the level-1 and level-2 analyses correctly in
HLM, a base year student weight was calculated by dividing the design weight by the administrator weight
to use in the level-1 analyses (Ralph LeeNCES, personal communication, June 10, 1998). The
administrator weight was retained for the level-2 analyses.
 M.G. Gill et al. / Contemporary Educational Psychology 29 (2004) 389409 397

the student sample size to 19,435 and the school sample size to 997. Fifty-one percent
of the eighth-grade students sampled were female, and 22% were Black, Hispanic, or
Native American. Because we eliminated participants with missing data, these pro-
portions dier slightly from the original random sample of students drawn for the
NELS: 88 study, which consisted of 50% female and 26% minority students.

6.1. Measures

6.1.1. Outcome measures

Three outcome variables were investigated in this study and were operationalized
as follows:
1. Mathematics achievement was measured by students scores on a standardized, 40-
item, test of eighth-grade students general mathematical knowledge. Students
scores on the mathematics test were standardized. NCES reported an a-coecient
of .89 for students mathematics scores on this measure (Rock & Pollack, 1995).
2. Internal control was a standardized NELS-created composite of six items that re-
ect the degree to which students perceive themselves as internally controlled
rather than as passive victims of circumstances or luck (e.g., When I make plans,
I am almost certain I can make them work.). Higher numbers reect greater in-
ternal control. Coecient a for the students scores on this weighted composite
was .68 (Ingels et al., 1990).
3. Students engagement. Our measure of student engagement was created as a sum of
three items reecting students engagement in school work and readiness for learn-
ing. The items were reversed coded on a scale ranging from 3 (usually) to 0 (never).
The items and factor loadings were as follows: (a) Comes to class without books
().81); (2) Comes to class without homework ().79); and (c) comes to class without
pencil/paper ().77). Coecient a for the students scores on this measure was .69.

6.1.2. Student-level predictors

Previous research has demonstrated the need to control for individual students
socioeconomic status, gender, minority status, and academic background when in-
vestigating the relation of school-level predictors to achievement (Battistich et al.,
1995; Lee & Smith, 1993). Each of these variables was included in the analysis to
hold relevant individual dierences constant as well as to model variation in their
slopes in the between-school analyses: (a) Gender: BYS12 was coded as a dummy
variable in which females were coded 1; males were coded 0. (b) Minority status:
For consistency with Lee and Smiths (1993, 1995) treatment of race when using
NELS data, race was coded as a dummy variable in which Whites and Asians are
coded 0, and Blacks, Hispanics, and Native Americans are coded 1. (c) SES: BYSES
is a standardized NELS-created composite of the following parent questionnaire
data: BYP30, BYP31, BYP34B, and BYP80fathers and mothers income and ed-
ucation, respectively. Higher numbers reect higher socioeconomic status. (d) Prior
grades: BYGRADS, a NELS average of students self-reports of their grades in En-
glish, mathematics, science, and social studies, with A 4; B 3; C 2; D 1, be-
low D :5, was used to control for students general academic performance and
398 M.G. Gill et al. / Contemporary Educational Psychology 29 (2004) 389409

their academic motivation. We acknowledge that students self-reports are a proxy

for actual grades, but a measure of prior achievement was not available. This vari-
able was standardized for use in the HLM analysis.

6.1.3. School-level predictors

The main predictors in this study were the following measures of school climate
variables created to represent the parenting style dimensionsresponsiveness and
demandingness (Baumrind, 1991).

6.1.3.1. Student perceived school responsiveness. This seven-item measure of students

perception of a warm, responsive school climate was created from a principal
components analysis of student questionnaire items. See Table 1 for individual item
descriptors and factor loadings. The factor eigenvalue was 3.05. The Kaiser criterion
and scree plot both supported a one-component solution for this group of items.
Higher scores indicate a more responsive school environment. Coecient a for
students scores on this variable was .78.

6.1.3.2. Principal perceived demandingness and responsiveness. A principal compo-

nents analysis was conducted on 10 items taken from the administrator ques-
tionnaire that seemed to reect the constructs of demandingness and
responsiveness. A two-component solution was selected according to the scree
criterion and was rotated using oblique varimax rotation. See Table 2 for indi-
vidual item descriptors and factor loadings. Two variables were constructed by
summing scores for the items that had salient loadings for each factor. Item
BYSC47M had loadings above .40 on both factors. We used the item to dene the
Principal Perceived School Responsiveness variable because it loaded more highly
on the Principal Perceived School Responsiveness factor. The following paragraphs
describe the two variables.
1. Principal Perceived School Demandingness: The rst component consists of six
items and represents the degree to which principals perceive their schools to be
demanding institutions with well-established discipline procedures, structured
rather than loose or informal organization, high expectations for homework,
low tolerance for deviation from school rules, and high teacher expectations for

Table 1
Item descriptors and factor loadings from principal components analysis of students perceptions of de-
mandingness and responsiveness
NELS:88 Item Code Description Factor loading
BYS59G Teachers are interested in students .78
BYS59F Good teaching .77
BYS59J Most teachers listen to what I (the student) say .71
BYS59A Students get along well with teachers .68
BYS59D Discipline is fair .58
BYS59B School spirit .56
BYS59I Feel put down by teachers in class .51
 M.G. Gill et al. / Contemporary Educational Psychology 29 (2004) 389409 399

Table 2
Item descriptors and factor loadings from principal components analysis of principals perceptions of
demandingness and responsiveness
NELS: 88 Descriptors Factor 1 Factor 2
Items Demanding Responsive
Demandingness items
BYSC47J School day is structured for students .80 .08
BYSC47D Classroom is structured .73 ).11
BYSC47B Discipline is emphasized at this school .72 ).02
BYSC47K Deviation from school rules not tolerated .70 .05
BYSC47F Students are expected to do homework .68 ).27
BYSC47E Teachers encourage students to do their best .67 ).39
Responsiveness items
BYSC47M Teachers respond to individual needs. ).43 .51
BYSC47I Teachers have diculty motivating students. .22 .77
BYSC47H Teachers have negative attitude about students. .11 .84
BYSC47A Conict between teachers and administrators. ).08 .52
Note. All items were recoded so that higher scores on the observed variables represent higher student
engagement, demandingness, and responsiveness.

students performance. High scores on this component reect a commitment to

structured education for students. Higher values indicate a more demanding
school environment. Coecient a for principals scores on this weighted compo-
nent was .85.
2. Principal Perceived School Responsiveness: This component represents the degree
to which administrators perceive their school to consist of positive teacher atti-
tudes towards students and responsiveness to students needs. Higher values indi-
cate a more responsive school environment. Coecient a for principals scores on
this weighted component was .63.
The correlation between Principal Perceived School Demandingness and Principal
Perceived School Responsiveness is .32.
Mean SES: Schools in poor neighborhoods generally have fewer resources than
schools in higher SES neighborhoods, and the communities in which poor students
live may be less supportive of education. To reduce the likelihood that the data anal-
yses would yield spurious relationships caused by socioeconomic advantage, stu-
dents SES was aggregated at the school level (Mean SES) and controlled in the
school-level equations. BYSES was aggregated at the school level and then standard-
ized. Higher numbers reect higher SES.

7. Results

7.1. Preliminary HLM analyses

Because this study focused on the relationship between school climate variables
and individual student outcomes, the data were multilevel and nested within schools
400 M.G. Gill et al. / Contemporary Educational Psychology 29 (2004) 389409

and were analyzed with hierarchical multilevel modeling (Bryk & Raudenbush, 1992).
The results for random eect ANOVAs showed that schools accounted for a larger
proportion of variance in achievement (.25) than in student engagement (.06) or inter-
nal control (.06). Similarly, the reliability of the school means was larger for achieve-
ment (.75) than for student engagement (.43) or internal control (.44). All variance
components were signicant, v2 996 9351:81; p :000 for math achievement;
v2 996 2252:88; p :000 for engagement; v2 996 2235:07; p :000 for locus
of control. Tests of hypotheses were conducted at a :05.

7.2. Within-school analyses

Table 3 presents the results of the random coecients models for each outcome
variable. Coecients for SES and prior grades were standardized using the total
standard deviations from the random eects ANOVAs for the dependent and inde-
pendent variables. Coecients for gender and minority status are eect sizes based
on the total standard deviation for the dependent variable.

7.2.1. Math achievement

The average SES-math achievement and prior grades-math achievement slopes
were signicant; the standardized regression coecient was larger for students pre-
vious grades (b :46). Minority students, on average, were 1/3 of a standard devi-
ation behind their nonminority peers in mathematics achievement. Additionally,
female students lagged signicantly behind their male peers in eighth-grade scores
on the standardized math assessment, and students with higher SES scored higher
than their peers with lower SES.
Schools varied signicantly in adjusted mean mathematics achievement,
v2 691 2247:52; p :000. Furthermore, schools diered in the relationships be-
tween mathematics achievement and gender, v2 690 989:09, minority status,
v2 691 915:51, SES, v2 691 1084:80, and prior grades, v2 690 1221:25;
p :000 for each. Finally, an R2 -type statistic indicated that 39% of the within-school
variance in students mathematics achievement was associated with these four student-
level predictors.

Table 3
HLM within-school models for student outcome measures
Dependent variable Mean Independent variables
Gender Minority SES Prior grades
Math achievement .00 ).14 ).33 
.18 
.46
Student engagmt .03 .19 ).00 ).01 .32
Internal control .03 ).13 ).04 .12 .30
Note. All predictors were centered around their grand mean and were allowed to vary randomly in the
model. Means are adjusted for dierences among students in gender, minority status, SES, and prior
grades.
*
p < :05.
**
p < :001.
 M.G. Gill et al. / Contemporary Educational Psychology 29 (2004) 389409 401

7.2.2. Students engagement

The standardized regression coecient was larger for prior grades (b :32) than
for the other variables (b 6 :19). Students with higher grades were more likely to
be prepared to engage in learning. Also, girls were more likely than boys to report
engagement.
Schools varied signicantly in adjusted mean students engagement, v2 690
1284:55; p :000, as well as in all of the slopes for each level-1 covariate and students
engagement, v2 690 1108:23 for the engagement-gender slope; v2 690 1037:94
for the engagement-minority status slope; v2 690 1015:38 for the engagement-
SES slope; and v2 690 1117:75 for the engagement-prior grades slope, p :000
for each. Additionally, 19% of the variance in students engagement was associated
with gender, minority status, SES, and prior grades.

7.2.3. Internal control

Students internal control averaged across schools was signicantly related to prior
grades (b :30), SES (b :12), and gender (b :13). Schools varied signicantly in
adjusted mean internal control, v2 690 1170:98; p :000 as well as in all the level-
1 slopes, v2 690 965:56 for the control-gender slope; v2 690 908:92 for the con-
trol-minority status slope; v2 690 913:11 for the control-SES slope; and
v2 690 1006:51 for the control-prior grades slope, p :000 for each. Finally,
17% of the variation in students internal control was due to these four covariates.

7.3. Between-school analyses

In these analyses, the relationships of adjusted means and within-school slopes

to school-level predictors were investigated. Results are presented in Table 4. Co-
ecients have been standardized using between-school standard deviations. On
the basis of the results of the previous within-schools analysis, all slopes were al-
lowed to vary randomly across schools. For each outcome variablemathematics
achievement, students engagement, and internal controlthe variance compo-
nents for the random eects of all adjusted means and slopes were highly signif-
icant (p :000); thus, the means and slopes were left as random in the nal
analyses.

7.3.1. Math achievement

Mean SES was the only signicant predictor of students adjusted mean math
achievement. Adjusted mean achievement was higher in schools with higher mean
SES (b :37). Neither school climate nor school SES predicted the gender gap or
minority gap in achievement. However, the relationship between SES and achieve-
ment was larger in schools with higher SES and smaller in schools principals per-
ceived as having a responsive climate.

7.3.2. Students engagement

Mean school SES did not predict adjusted mean students engagement; rather,
Students Perceived School Responsiveness was signicantly related to adjusted
402 M.G. Gill et al. / Contemporary Educational Psychology 29 (2004) 389409

Table 4
Standardized regression slopes for between-school models of student outcomes
Dependent var. Predictors
MeanSES Responsive Demanding Responsive
(student) (principal) (principal)
Math achievement
Adj. mean achvmt. .37 .00 ).03 ).02
Gender gap ).09 ).02 ).08 .01
Minority gap .05 .10 .12 ).13
SES-ach. Slope .17 .01 .07 ).17
Prior grade-ach. slope .55 .04 .05 ).02
Academic engagement
Adj. mean engmt. ).02 .35 .04 ).09
Gender gap ).21 ).13 .04 .01
Minority gap .18 .04 .00 ).09
SES-engmt. slope ).06 .05 .06 ).17
Prior grade-engmt.slope .02 ).12 ).07 .04
Internal control (IC) orientation
Adj. mean IC .28 .28 ).06 ).09
Gender gap .24 ).03 .04 ).10
Minority gap .03 ).05 .14 ).12
SES-IC slope ).16 ).06 .17 ).22
Prior grade-IC slope .20 .02 ).07 ).00
Note. N 997.
*
p < :05.
**
p < :01.
***
p < :001.

mean students engagement (b :35). The gender gap in engagement was predicted
by mean school SES (b :21) and Students Perceived School Responsiveness
(b :13). That is, smaller gender gaps in engagement tended to occur in high-
SES schools and in schools that students perceived as responsive. The minority
gap was only related to mean school SESschools with higher SES had greater dis-
parity between minority and White and Asian students in engagement than low-SES
schools. In addition, the eect of prior grades on engagement was smaller in schools
that students perceived as responsive (r :12).

7.3.3. Internal control

Both mean school SES (b :28) and Student Perceived School Responsiveness
(b :28) were related to students adjusted mean internal control. Dierences be-
tween male and female students in internal control were greater in higher-SES
schools (b :24). Further, in those schools students prior grades were more strongly
related to internal control (b :20); however, mean school SES was less likely to be
related to internal control (b :16) in higher-SES schools. Finally, the relationship
between students SES and internal control was weaker in schools that principals
perceived as responsive (b :22).
 M.G. Gill et al. / Contemporary Educational Psychology 29 (2004) 389409 403

8. Discussion

Our hypothesis that school environments perceived as responsive and demanding

(i.e., authoritative schools) are positively related to students engagement, percep-
tions of internal control, and mathematics achievement received only weak support.
The student data oered some support for the responsiveness dimension; students
perceptions of school responsiveness were moderately related to students engage-
ment and perceptions of internal control but were not related to achievement. The
failure to nd a relationship between school responsiveness and achievement, how-
ever, is not surprising. It is consistent with all of the research on communal values,
with the exception of Lee and Smiths (1999) study, which found quite small but sig-
nicant relationships between social support and student achievement. Our results
indicating a relationship between school responsiveness and our aective outcomes
are consistent with the research on parent responsiveness and provides important
support for the responsiveness dimension of authoritative schools (Lamborn et al.,
1991; Steinberg et al., 1992). Principals perceptions of school demandingness were
not related to the students outcomes. In sum, we did not nd clear evidence support-
ing both dimensions of authoritative schooling (i.e., responsiveness and demanding-
ness). Thus, our ndings do not provide convincing evidence that the construct of
authoritative schooling oers a resolution of the school eectiveness debate over ac-
ademic press and communal values.
Our failure to nd a relationship between demandingness and mathematics achieve-
ment is contrary to the widely held belief that academic press is strongly related to ac-
ademic achievement and it may reect a weakness in our measure. However, it should
be noted that the relationships between academic press and achievement have not been
strong in the recent studies, using HLM analyses and controls for SES and achieve-
ment. Our study also used HLM and two control variablesSES and prior
gradesthat may have reduced the likelihood of our nding a signicant eect.
The lack of consistency in the results for students and principals perceptions of
responsiveness suggests that it is important to investigate the possibility that students,
teachers, and principals dier in their perceptions of responsiveness and demanding-
ness. This possibility has implications for research on school eectiveness in general
and research on academic press and communal values in particular. Researchers
studying academic press and communal values have tended to use composite mea-
sures of principals, teachers, and students perceptions (Lee & Smith, 1999; Shouse,
1996). Composite measures may be misleading; for example, in a study of relations
between parenting style and the academic achievement of 247 ninth graders, Paulson
(1994) reported that students perceptions of their parents style was more predictive
of their achievement than were their parents perceptions of their parenting. Thus, in-
vestigation of the extent to which dierent types of informants dier in their assess-
ments of demandingness and responsiveness and whether the pattern of the
relationships with outcome variables diers for dierent informants is needed.
Using a large, national database for research has advantages and disadvantages.
On the one hand, the large sample size oers sucient power to detect relationships
that may exist in the population, and random sampling of the population allows us
404 M.G. Gill et al. / Contemporary Educational Psychology 29 (2004) 389409

to generalize results nationally. On the other hand, questionnaire items are general
and often are not theoretically grounded. The lack of a student measure of demand-
ingness in the NELS data and the failure to nd a relationship between principals
perceptions of demandingness and students mathematics achievement, engagement,
or internal control contributed to our inability to provide convincing evidence of the
role of authoritative schools in school eectiveness. To provide a strong test of the
application of Baumrinds (1991) parenting styles to school eectiveness research
and to assess whether the construct of authoritative schools might resolve the debate
between academic press and communal values, more comprehensive theory-
grounded measures of demandingness and responsiveness are needed to unpack
the construct of authoritative schools, as Gray and Steinberg (1999) have unpacked
the construct of authoritative parenting. In a questionnaire study of 8700 14- to 18-
year-olds, they separated demandingness into behavioral and psychological control,
which they labeled strictness-supervision and psychological autonomy granting, re-
spectively. Strictness refers to the monitoring of behavior and setting of limits,
and autonomy granting refers to the degree to which parents use democratic disci-
pline and encourage the expression of individuality in their adolescents. Gray and
Steinberg found that parents lack of behavioral control was strongly related to be-
havior problems in adolescents, whereas psychological autonomy granting was sig-
nicantly positively related to psychosocial development. They also found
curvilinear relations and interactions among the parenting variables and adolescent
adjustment, depending on the outcomes assessed. Similarly, research on authorita-
tive schools should include psychological autonomy granting, especially in light of
the research that has shown positive relationships between the support of student au-
tonomy and important outcomes in adolescents (Connell & Wellborn, 1991). Simi-
larly, the possibility of curvilinear and interactive eects of the authoritative
schooling dimensions on student outcomes should be studied. Investigations of these
style variables should also include examination of whether dierent patterns of strict-
ness, responsiveness, and autonomy granting are related to dierent outcomes for
students of diering cultures, as suggested by recent parenting research (Leung,
Lau, & Lam, 1998). Similar unpacking of responsiveness is needed to clarify our un-
derstanding of its components, such as warmth and involvement, and their relation-
ships to student outcomes. Furthermore, the parenting literature oers many other
cognitive and psychosocial student outcomes, such as creativity, problem solving,
sense of responsibility, maturity, and intrinsic motivation (Maccoby & Martin,
1983) that should be studied to determine if they are positively associated with au-
thoritative schooling and negatively associated with authoritarian schooling, as pre-
dicted by McCaslin and Good (1992). In sum, parenting styles research oers a
wealth of ideas for enriching school eectiveness research even though it may not re-
solve the academic press vs. communal values debate.

8.1. School responsiveness and school eectiveness

The positive relationships we obtained for students perceptions of school respon-

siveness and their reports of their engagement and perceptions of internal control
 M.G. Gill et al. / Contemporary Educational Psychology 29 (2004) 389409 405

adds important support to the literature claiming that communal values are related
to important aective outcomes for students (e.g., Battistich et al., 1995). Having a
strong internal sense of control is related to a variety of benecial student outcomes,
particularly active involvement in class and positive aective states (Patrick, Skinner,
& Connell, 1993). Thus, our ndings suggest that schools that students perceive as
unresponsive may be related to a host of negative motivational and aective prob-
lems for middle-grade students, which may account for some of the declines in stu-
dents motivation and psychosocial well-being in the transition from elementary
school (Eccles et al., 1996).

8.1.1. School responsiveness and internal control

Measurement of locus of control in NELS was grounded on previous research
and theory on control beliefs, and the items form a composite measure of internal
control that is relatively comparable to measures used in parenting studies.
Therefore, the similarity between our results on the relationship between respon-
sive schooling and students internal control and the results reported in
parenting research oers support for our claim that the parenting dimension of
responsiveness has potential for clarifying our understanding of school climate
eects.
Increases in school responsiveness may be the rst step in increasing students
achievement inasmuch as several studies have demonstrated that increasing stu-
dents internal control may increase students achievement. For example, Connell,
Spencer, and Aber (1994) found in a study of 728 10- to 16-year-old African Amer-
ican students that parent support predicted self processes, including perceived con-
trol, which inuenced student engagement and ultimately achievement. Similarly,
Leung and Kwan (1998) found support for a mediational model in which students
motivational orientations (i.e., intrinsic and extrinsic motivation) mediated the re-
lationship between parenting style and students self-perceived achievement. A sim-
ilar pattern might emerge to explain the relationships between school
responsiveness and students internal control and student engagement. Cappella
and Weinstein (2001) also oered evidence suggesting that internal control may me-
diate the relationship between responsiveness and achievement. In a comparison of
students who had diculty in reading in 8th grade but achieved intermediate or ad-
vanced prociency in reading by 12th grade with students who did not improve,
Cappella and Weinstein found that internal control was a signicant predictor of
academic resilience, a relationship that was mediated by high school curriculum,
suggesting that students with higher internal control took more academic course-
work, which led to their gains in reading prociency. Given the important role that
internal control plays in motivating academic achievement, longitudinal experimen-
tal research is needed to determine whether increases in school responsiveness will
result in increases in internal control and in turn increases in academic achievement.
The use of structural equation modeling to investigate the relationships among
responsiveness and internal control, engagement, and student achievement would
be helpful in increasing our understanding of how school style aects school
achievement.
406 M.G. Gill et al. / Contemporary Educational Psychology 29 (2004) 389409

8.1.2. School responsiveness and student engagement

The signicant positive relationship between students perceptions of school re-
sponsiveness and their engagement suggests the need for a more comprehensive in-
vestigation of the relationship with more sophisticated measures of student
engagement to clarify our understanding of the relationship between responsive
schooling and student engagement. In the present study, items available in NELS:88
to measure academic engagement focused primarily on students self-reports of read-
iness for learning. Nystrand and Gamoran (1989) distinguished between procedural
engagement, which refers to compliance with classroom rules and regulations (sim-
ilar to our measure of engagement), and substantive engagement, which refers to sus-
tained involvement in academic content, and found a strong positive relationship
between substantive engagement and achievement. They concluded that the relation-
ship between procedural engagement and achievement was largely due to the corre-
lation between procedural and substantive engagement. Ainley (1993) identied six
types of student engagement, ranging from disengaged to committed, and found that
they were signicantly related to students choice of learning strategies and their
achievement. Thus, investigating the eect of school responsiveness and demanding-
ness on the development of dierent types of school engagement is an important area
for future research.

8.1.3. Responsive schools and equity

Our ndings indicating signicant eects of school responsiveness on the equity
of school outcomes provide additional evidence of the importance of school re-
sponsiveness. In schools that students perceive as more responsive, the tendency
for students with higher prior grades to be more engaged in school than students
with lower grades is smaller and the tendency for boys to be less engaged in
school than girls is also smaller. Recent concerns about declines in the educa-
tional achievement, interests, and goals of male students make this latter nding
particularly salient (Organisation for Economic Co-Operation & Development,
2003). Similarly, inequities due to SES are smaller in schools principals perceive
as more responsive to students needs; specically, the tendency for students with
higher SES to have higher achievement, greater engagement and stronger percep-
tions of internal control than students with lower SES is smaller. In their NELS:
88 study comparing communal to bureaucratic organizations in 377 middle-grade
schools, Lee and Smith (1995) obtained results similar to our results for respon-
siveness. They reported that communal organization was related to smaller gaps
in achievement between students from high- and low-SES backgrounds. In a
NELS:88 follow-up study in 789 high schools, Lee, Smith, and Croninger
(1997) also found that communal school organization was related to smaller gaps
in achievement between students from high- and low-SES backgrounds. The
similarity of these ndings suggests quasi-experimental research is needed to
determine whether increases in school communal values and responsiveness
will reduce inequities in achievement due to SES as well as inequities in
students socioemotional outcomes, such as student engagement and perceptions
of control.
 M.G. Gill et al. / Contemporary Educational Psychology 29 (2004) 389409 407

In summary, our results support the advocates of communal values who contend
that schools that are fair yet caring and responsive to student needs are related to
important aective outcomes for students (e.g., Battistich et al., 1995). The positive
relationships we found between responsive schools and student engagement and in-
ternal control and the smaller gaps between students from higher- and lower-SES
backgrounds in achievement and internal control and between male and female stu-
dents in mathematics achievement suggest that an increase in school responsiveness
might have important implications for increasing the motivation of middle-school
students whose low motivation for learning puts them at risk for a variety of negative
outcomes, including dropping out of school (Eccles, Wigeld, & Schiefele, 1998;
Rumberger, 1995).
The lack of a signicant relationship between responsiveness and academic
achievement from either the students or the principals perspectives is also consistent
with research on communal values. These results suggest that responsiveness alone
without demandingness is unlikely to result in high academic achievement, and they
should serve as a caution to advocates who argue that communal values are the basis
for school eectiveness. Perhaps teachers at low-achieving schools try to bolster stu-
dents condence by pouring on warmth and caring to buer their students from the
negative eects of their low achievement.

9. Conclusion

The benecial relationships between students perceptions of responsive school

climate and students engagement and perceptions of internal control obtained in
this study considered in light of the nding by Shouse (1996) that communal values
had a deleterious eect on students achievement in low-achieving schools suggest
that both demandingness and responsiveness are needed to foster optimal cognitive
and aective development. Schools need to maintain high expectations for students
within a warm environment that is responsive to their individual dierences rather
than emphasize rigor at the expense of community or warm fuzzies at the expense
of intellectual challenge. Further research is needed to determine whether the vision
of authoritative schooling has the potential to shift educational reform from the
narrow focus on either academic press or communal values to a richer, dual focus
on adolescents needs for both responsiveness and demandingness. Our study fo-
cused on middle schools because of the current concern for the decline in achieve-
ment and motivation during those years and because the research on academic
press and communal values has focused on middle schools. We believe, however,
that the construct of authoritative schooling as measured by the parenting styles
dimensions of responsiveness and demandingness has relevance from preschool
through the college years. We encourage further investigation of authoritative
schools at all school levels to determine whether they oer a resolution to the ac-
ademic press vs. communal debate that will advance our understanding of school
eectiveness and promote more positive aective as well as cognitive outcomes
for all students.
408 M.G. Gill et al. / Contemporary Educational Psychology 29 (2004) 389409

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