A Validation Study of the What’s My School Mindset? Survey

Abstract

The What’s My School Mindset? (WMSM) survey is purported to operationalize teachers’ beliefs of their school’s ability to help all children learn and grow. In today’s data driven educational climate it is important to select a reliable instrument for collecting teacher perceptions about their school culture. Accurate data is necessary to support development of realistic continuous improvement goals and to measure progress toward those goals. This study collected teacher and administrator responses (n = 348) from a stratified random sample of 31 PK-12 public schools in a large northwestern state. A split-half exploratory factor analysis (n = 178) was used to identify a proposed factor structure model. The proposed model was tested using the second half confirmatory factor analysis sample (n = 174) and confirmed the model revealing school mindset is a second order, unidimensional factor with three subfactors. The results of this study are useful for school leaders and researchers who seek to use the What’s My School Mindset? scale to measure growth mindset within a school’s culture. Accurately interpreting the measurement of one’s school culture can increase administrator effectiveness and provide a foundation for opening realistic dialogues with teachers about their self-reported beliefs. A useful discussion of the background of school growth mindset, development of the What’s My School Mindset? instrument, and theoretical framework of learning organization theory is provided.