A theoretical and empirical assessment of authoritarianism’s effects on behavior, attendance, and performance in urban school systems

ABSTRACT

Authoritarian school safety measures have become commonplace in efforts to promote safety in today’s schools. This paper attempts to examine the effects of student engagement with authoritarianism in schools using self-report survey data from students (N= 359) across eight high schools in one large, urban school district in the greater New York City area. With consideration of various frameworks for conceptualizing authority in schools, authoritarianism in schools is operationalized by student self-report of engagement between two time points in (1) random sweeps for contraband; (2) surveillance cameras; (3) metal detector searches; and (4) interaction with authority (i.e., school police). Findings suggest those who have increased engagement with authoritarianism in schools throughout the year report increased occurrence of engagement in maladaptive behavior. Concurrently, exposure to authoritarianism over the course of one school year is associated with student behavior, academic performance, and attendance in ways that vary for different racial and ethnic groups. Findings call for educators and administrators to consider and continually assess the effects of authoritarian practices on student performance when developing and implementing safety protocol in their schools.

KEYWORDS:

• Authoritarianism
• school safety
• school violence
• student performance
• attendance

Acknowledgments

Thank you for the opportunity to revise the article entitled “A Theoretical and Empirical Assessment of Authoritarianism’s Effects on Behavior, Attendance, and Performance in Urban School Systems”. We have addressed each of the reviewers’ comments and have outlined how we did this below. Please let us know if further revisions are required. We thank you for considering our paper for publication in Contemporary Justice Review.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Institute of Justice [2017-CK-BX-0008].

Notes on contributors

Matthew P. Gawley

Matthew P. Gawley is a student at Colby College in Maine, USA. His interests are on school safety, student behavior, and school climate.

Matthew J. Cuellar

Dr. Matthew J. Cuellar is a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the Department of Social Work and Child Advocacy at Montclair State University. Dr. Cuellar's current research focuses on school safety and barriers to academic achievement among adolescents, particularly those adolescents in urban and inner-city environments. His work has been published in over 20 peer reviewer journal articles and has been publicly profiled in local resources such as New York Daily News.

Samantha Coyle

Dr. Samantha Coyle is a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the Psychology Department at Montclair State University. Her work focuses on social emotional learning and school climate.