School climate has been proven to be an important factor for student academic achievement, with teachers playing a vital role in fostering a positive climate (Cohen, 2007; Thapa, Cohen, Guffey, & Higgins-D’Alessandro, 2013; Wang & Degol, 2016). School climate is a complex notion comprising academic, social and physical dimensions (Kutsyuruba, Klinger, & Hussain, 2015). Given its close association with school SES, the relations between school climate and achievement need to be investigated with SES taken into account (Berkowitz, Moore, Astor, & Benbenishty, 2016). Recent research suggests that favorable school climate can positively influence student achievement beyond the effect of school SES. In addition, positive school climate may have a compensating effect on student achievement in lower SES schools (Cheema & Kitsantas, 2014). The main aim of this study was to investigate the role of school climate for 8th graders achievement in mathematics in Sweden based on TIMSS 2011 data. We relied on teachers’ perceptions of school climate in our analysis. Analytical methods were mainly confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling. Preliminary findings show that when school SES is taken into account, only the effect of social climate and teacher education remain significant. Findings also suggest that social school climate may have a compensating function in lower SES schools, with its mechanisms to be explored further.

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