The relationship between school dropout risk of secondary school students and school climate

This study aims to examine the relationship between secondary school students' perceptions of school climate and their dropout risk levels. The population of the study consists of eleventh grade students who continue their education in Anatolian High School in Erciş district of Van province. "School Climate Scale" prepared by Bugay et al. (2015) was used to determine the school climate perceptions of secondary school students and "School Dropout Risk Scale" prepared by Sütçü (2015) was used to determine the school dropout risk levels. As a result of the application of data collection tools, normality test, independent sample t-test, one-way analysis of variance ANOVA test, Scheffe analysis and multiple linear regression test were used. According to the findings of the research, it was seen that the dropout risk levels of secondary school students were low, the risk of school dropout was higher in males than females according to the gender variable, the risk of school dropout was higher in males than females, the risk of school dropout was higher in students who repeated grades than in students who did not, while no significant difference was found according to the variables of educational area attended, school change, the presence of someone in the family who helps with the lessons and the presence of a library or bookshelf at home. The school climate perception levels of secondary school students were found to be medium level and it was determined that the school climate perceptions of the students attending the foreign language educational area were higher than the other educational areas in terms of variables. No significant difference was found in students' perceptions of school climate in other variables. In the analyzes conducted to predict students' perceptions of school climate and dropout risk, it was found that school climate perceptions were effective in predicting the dropout risk variance by explaining 13.4%. Among the sub-dimensions of school climate, a positive relationship was found in the dimension of relationships between students, and a negative relationship was found in the sub-dimensions of order and discipline, and student-teacher relationship. Order in schools and relationships between students and teachers reduce the risk of dropout.