A systematic review of school psychology research on racism and school climate.

Promoting safe and supportive school climates for all students is an essential role of school psychologists. However, like other social institutions, schools engender overt and covert systemic racism that marginalizes youth of color. Thus, it is critical that school psychologists conduct research at the intersection of racism and school climate. In this systematic review, we identified and synthesized studies investigating both racism and school climate for K–12 students in the school psychology literature. We queried all articles published in 10 major peer-reviewed journals published between 2011 and 2021 and identified 33 studies that explored school climate with regard to race. The majority of studies employed survey methods using a cross-sectional design and explored community (i.e., relational and school attachment) dimensions of school climate. Most studies included Black and Latinx participants, with relatively fewer including Asian and Indigenous participants. Findings explored school climate in relation to (a) academic outcomes, (b) behavioral outcomes, (c) mental health outcomes, (d) school-level factors, (e) racial identity and discrimination, and (f) psychometric properties of specific measures. Implications for research on school climate and racism are discussed.