School Satisfaction Rating Scale Development

This study describes the development of the Universal Secondary School Satisfaction Scale (USSC), designed to assess secondary school students’ perceptions of their learning environment in a Ugandan context. The scale was developed through a comprehensive literature review and qualitative insights from interviews and focus groups with content domain experts, resulting in a 12-item measure covering four key domains: student-content interaction, student-student interaction, student–teacher interaction, and overall student satisfaction. A sample of 50 senior four students (33 girls and 17 boys, aged 12 to 17 years, with a mean age of 15) from a government “seed school” completed the survey. Data analysis indicated high internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha = .78), with most items showing adequate difficulty and variability, and inter-item correlations exceeding .30, supporting the scale’s reliability. Item analysis showed that while most items contributed meaningfully to the overall scale, one reverse-coded item had a slightly lower item-total correlation but was retained for content validity. The findings suggest that the USSC is a reliable and valid instrument for measuring student satisfaction in secondary schools, providing valuable insights for educators and policymakers seeking to improve learning environments.