The Organizational Health of Urban Elementary Schools: School Health and Teacher Functioning

This study examined the factor structure of the Organizational Health Inventory-Elementary version (OHI-E; Hoy et al. in Open schools/healthy schools: measuring organizational climate. Sage, Beverly Hills, CA, 1991) in a sample of 203 teachers working in 19 high-poverty, urban schools and the association of organizational school health with teacher efficacy, teacher stress, and job satisfaction. Results indicated a similar factor structure of the OHI-E as compared with the population of schools in the original sample (Hoy et al. in Open schools/healthy schools: measuring organizational climate. Sage, Beverly Hills, CA, 1991), and that specific components of organizational health, such as a positive learning environment, are associated with teacher efficacy, stress, and satisfaction. Overall, teachers' relations with their peers, their school leadership, and their students appear especially critical in high-poverty, urban schools. Recommendations for research and practice related to improving high-poverty, urban schools are presented.