Characteristics of schools with and without Gay-Straight Alliances

Figures & data

Table 1. Frequencies and percentages of high schools with and without GSAs across locations in California.

Location	Total	No GSA (%)	GSA (%)
Rural, Remote Census-defined Rural Territory	44	20 (45)	24 (55)
Rural, Distant Census-defined Rural Territory	47	27 (57)	20 (43)
Rural, Fringe Census-defined Rural Territory	78	36 (46)	42 (54)
Town, Remote Territory	28	9 (32)	19 (68)
Town, Distant Territory	65	26 (40)	39 (60)
Town, Fringe Territory	54	23 (43)	31 (57)
Suburb, Small Territory	37	13 (35)	24 (65)
Suburb, Mid-size Territory	40	18 (45)	22 (55)
Suburb, Large Territory	380	159 (42)	221 (58)
City, Small Territory	86	37 (43)	49 (57)
City, Mid-size Territory	101	38 (38)	63 (62)
City, Large Territory	277	114 (41)	163 (59)

Note. GSA = Gay-Straight Alliance.

Table 2. Robust regression comparisons of school characteristics between schools with and without GSAs, odds ratios of GSA presence by school characteristics, and bivariate correlations between school characteristics.

	No GSA	GSA	B	OR
School characteristic (range)	M (SD)	M (SD)			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
1. Enrollment (2–4814)	779.87 (766.74)	1773.70 (826.22)	26.48***	1.07	–
2. Urbanicity (1–12)	8.28 (3.33)	8.53 (3.16)	.08	1.02	.03	–
3. Average years of teaching (1–21)	8.24 (4.49)	11.30 (3.27)	1.00**	1.09	.49***	−.02	–
4. Pupil/teacher ratio (1.1–272)	21.53 (13.94)	22.93 (3.21)	0.12**	0.34	.39***	.00	.12***	–
5. % Socioeconomically disadvantaged students (0.8–100)	65.24 (23.39)	51.98 (26.25)	−9.86***	0.98	−.23***	−.06*	−.18***	−.14***	–
6. % Dropouts (1.4–92.9)	17.43 (16.11)	8.34 (7.01)	−0.32*	1.02	−.56***	.01	−.35***	.00	.38***	–
7. % ACT scores ≥21 (0–100)	43.01 (25.63)	55.45 (25.01)	35.38***	1.00	.28***	.06	.21***	.13***	−.85***	−.53***	–
8. % Truancy (0–100)	30.64 (25.90)	38.92 (24.19)	24.07***	1.00	.21***	−.05	.20***	−.00	.19***	−.07	−.25***	–
9. Ethnic diversity (heterogeneity) (0–75)	30.01 (16.51)	37.26 (16.48)	4.93***	1.01	.20***	.07*	.10***	.07***	−.51***	−.23***	.55***	−.06	–
10. Number of years GSA was present (0.21–15.67)	–	–	–	–	.22***	.05	.29***	−.07	−.22***	−.08	.22***	.09*	.24***

Note. GSA = Gay-Straight Alliance. For the measure of ethnic diversity, higher values indicate more evenly distributed students among race/ethnicity categories. For the bivariate correlations, sample sizes ranged from 593 to 1337. Bold ORs refer to significant odds ratios.

* p < .05.

** p < .005.

*** p < .001.