Adaptation of Delaware School Climate Survey - Student into Turkish: The Study of Validity and Reliability

The aim of this study is to adapt the “Delaware School Climate Survey - Student”, which developed by Bear, Gaskins, Blank & Chen (2011) and later updated by Yang, Bear, Chen, Zhang, Blank & Huang (2013), into Turkish culture. The linguistic equivalence of the scale with the Turkish version was achieved by on consensus of a group of expert in English and Turkish. The data were collected from 333 volunteer students studying at high schools in the İnegöl District of Bursa city during the spring semester in the 2017-2018 academic year. The Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) showed that the factor structure was to be acceptable and Turkish version has four sub-scales as in the English version. The CFA findings resulted in that model fit indices of the scale proved to be above good fit. The scale items can distinguish individuals from a good degree. The Correlation Coefficient showed that there are statistically significant and positive relationships between scale overall and factors. Cronbach’s Alpha Coefficient used for determining the reliability of the scale. It was found to be .84 for the scale overall. It was .80 for the first factor; .67 for the second factor; .73 for third factor and .73 for the fourth factor. The correlation coefficient values of the scale whole and the sub-dimensions showed a positive linear relationship between the scale and the sub-dimensions. Therefore, DFA has confirmed the original structure. Adapted scale is 17 items in total like their original. The 11th and 14th items are items that is scored reverse. It is in the form of Likert 4 type and degree of agreement varies between “Strongly Disagree” and “Strongly Agree”. In conclusion, it is possible to be said that the adapted scale is a valid, reliable and measurement tool for Turkish culture. In particular, this scale might be useful for administrative, managerial and organizational inferences in the process of making schools more effective and efficient.