School Security: For Whom and With What Results?

Abstract

This study utilized school-level data from several combined national databases to address two questions regarding school security policy: (1) What are the school characteristics related to levels of security? (2) How does security relate to school suspension, dropout, and college attendance rates? Among the predictors of school security, having a high proportion of African American students was the strongest. This race/ethnicity effect remained significant when statistically controlling for socioeconomic status (SES), neighborhood crime, school indiscipline, urbanicity, and geographic region. Security was positively associated with school suspension rates but had no relationship to dropout or college attendance rates. Administrator roles and alternatives are discussed.

Notes

1. 1. This is consistent with the correlations in Table 2 that show rural schools stood out as having less security than either suburban or urban schools.

2. 2. Security, followed by racial composition and school size, are the main foci of this part of the study; other aspects of the regressions are discussed only briefly.

3. 3. Using the full 0–100% scales of percent minority.

4. 4. Note that this finding applies to schools and not necessarily to individual students.