Factors Mediating School Safety in Charter Schools: An Analysis of Five Waves of Nationally Representative Data

ABSTRACT

Safety-seeking has fueled the growth of charter schools. Descriptive evidence suggests different possible factors underlying safety in charter schools. This study investigates characteristics mediating the relationship between safety and charter schools by linking five waves of the School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS: 2003–04; 2005–06; 2007–08; 2009–10; 2015–16) to Common Core Data. Analyses of 12,698 schools indicate that charter schools report fewer incidents of school crime and violence and school disruptions than public schools do. Additionally, small school size, school-based parent volunteering, and less use of disciplinary and student removal practices were the strongest mediators of the relationship between charter schools and safety. Future research is needed to understand the relative contribution of self-selection processes and school strategies to safety in charter schools.

KEYWORDS:

• School safety
• charter schools
• school size
• parental involvement
• school discipline

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Negative binomial regression is appropriate for count variables (e.g. school crime and violence) that may be subject to over dispersion (Hilbe, 2011). As a non-linear function, negative binomial regression produces coefficients that are difficult to interpret, so marginal effects estimates are generated to interpret the results of the negative binomial regression models.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the American Educational Research Association which receives funds for its “AERA Grants Program” from the National Science Foundation under [NSF-DRL #1749275]. Opinions reflect those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of AERA or NSF.

Notes on contributors

Daniel Hamlin

Daniel Hamlin is an assistant professor of educational leadership and policy studies at the University of Oklahoma, Tulsa, USA.

Angran Li

Angran Li is an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology at Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.