High School Teacher Ratings of Academic, Social, and Behavioral Difficulties: Factor Structure and Normative Data for the School Functioning Scale

Because academic, behavioral, and social difficulties are highly prevalent among U.S. high school students, teacher report is a critical component of comprehensive screening and assessment of adolescents. Currently available teacher questionnaires have limited utility in high school settings because of time demands and lesser opportunity to observe a wide variety of student behaviors relative to elementary school teachers. The School Functioning Scale (SFS) is a 9-item measure designed to efficiently obtain teacher perceptions of specific indicators of student performance across academic, behavior, and social functioning. Online SFS ratings were collected for 799 9th through 12th grade high school students (50% female) from 400 teachers (63.7% female). Teachers also reported each student’s subject grades and percentage of assignments completed within the past month. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses indicated a general factor and three-factor structure for the SFS: academic, behavior, and social factors. The general factor demonstrated adequate levels of internal consistency and evidence of convergent validity. Findings regarding the group factors less robust. The factor structure was consistent across age, gender, and ethnicity groups. Normative data along with suggested cut-points for screening and assessment purposes are provided. Findings support the potential use of SFS teacher ratings for multimethod assessment and, possibly, screening and treatment evaluation.