SCHOOLS AS COMMUNITIES, POVERTY LEVELS OF STUDENT POPULATIONS, AND STUDENTS ATTITUDES, MOTIVES, AND PERFORMANCE - A MULTILEVEL ANALYSIS

Hierarchical linear modeling was used to examine relationships between students' sense of school community, poverty level, and student attit udes, motives, beliefs, and behavior among a diverse sample of 24 elem entary schools. Major findings were that: (a) within schools, individu al students' sense of school community was significantly associated wi th almost all of the student outcome measures. (b) Between schools, sc hool-level community and poverty were both significantly related to ma ny of the student outcomes (the former positively, the latter negative ly). (c) Most of the relationships between school community and studen t measures held for schools at different poverty levels. (d) Several s ignificant interactions between school community and poverty level ind icated that some of the strongest positive effects of school community occurred among schools with the most disadvantaged student population s.