Presented as part of a multi-paper session titled "Examining Family and Community Influences on Student Achievement," this library entry provides materials corresponding to the presentation "West Virginia School Climate Index: Validity and Associations With Academic Outcome Measures." The West Virginia School Climate Index was derived from 20 indicators tapping three domains: engagement; safety; and environment. Compared to control schools, statistically significant differences in index scores were found among schools identified a priori as low performing and expected to exhibit challenging school climate conditions. Results indicate that improving school climate may moderate factors typically associated with poor school performance such as poverty, disability rate, school size, and grade-span configuration.#2012Conference #Prek-12EducationalEvaluation