Student Threat Assessment as an Alternative to Exclusionary Discipline

ABSTRACT

Threat assessment has been proposed as a method for schools to respond to student threats of violence that does not rely on exclusionary discipline practices (e.g., suspension, transfer, expulsion, arrest). The present study compared disciplinary consequences for 657 students in 260 schools using the Comprehensive Student Threat Assessment Guidelines (CSTAG) with a comparison group of 661 students in 267 schools using a more general threat assessment approach. The odds that students receiving a threat assessment in CSTAG schools would receive a suspension (OR = 0.59) or law enforcement action (OR = 0.47) were less than those in schools using a general approach. Students in CSTAG schools were expelled at lower rates (0% versus 1.7%) than students in comparison schools. These results indicate that schools using the CSTAG model are less likely to respond to student threats with exclusionary discipline.

KEYWORDS:

• School safety
• threat assessment
• exclusionary discipline
• school violence

Disclosure statement

Cornell discloses that he is the primary developer of the Virginia Student Threat Assessment Guidelines and author of the Comprehensive School Threat Assessment Guidelines.

Notes

1. We recently completed this same analysis using propensity score matched groups and obtained the same pattern of statistically significant findings. These results are available upon request.

Additional information

Funding

This project was supported by Grant NIJ 2014-CK-BX-0004 awarded by the National Institute of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice, and conducted in collaboration with the Center for School and Campus Safety at the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services. The opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the U.S. Department of Justice or the Center for School and Campus Safety at the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services.

Notes on contributors

Jennifer L. Maeng

Jennifer L. Maeng is a research assistant professor in the University of Virginia's Curry School of Education and Human Development. Her research focuses on the role contextual factors of the educational setting, such as school climate and safety, play in supporting effective teaching and learning.

Dewey Cornell

Dewey Cornell is a professor of education and director of the Virginia Youth Violence Project in the University of Virginia's Curry School of Education and Human Development. His research is concerned with school safety and the prevention of youth violence. He led the development of the Comprehensive School Threat Assessment Guidelines.

Francis Huang

Francis Huang is an associate professor in the Statistics, Measurement, and Evaluation in Education program in the College of Education at the University of Missouri and the Methodology Director of the Missouri Prevention Science Institute. His research focuses on both methodological (e.g., analysis of clustered data) and substantive (e.g., school climate, bullying, disparities in disciplinary sanctions) areas of interest.