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Applying Restorative Practices in New York City High Schools: Perceived Impact and Mixed Findings, New York, 2017-2019 (ICPSR 38200)

Released/updated on: 2023-07-13
Geographic coverage: New York City, United States, New York (state)
Time period: 2016-01-01--2021-09-30

Recognizing the potentially deleterious consequences of criminalizing school discipline, schools are increasingly turning to alternative methods for holding students accountable for misbehavior. Restorative justice (RJ) practices--which seek to hold students who cause harm accountable without removing them from their learning environment--ostensibly represent an antidote to traditional discipline. However, RJ practices have been the subject of limited high quality scientific inquiry. This study aims to fill this gap through the implementation and evaluation of a restorative program in a school district (District 18) that struggles with the highest suspension rates in New York City.

Related literature presents inconclusive results regarding the effectiveness of restorative justice (RJ) in schools (Anyon et al. 2016; Augustine et al. 2018; Gonz?lez 2015; Gonz?lez et al. 2019). There is little uniformity in restorative justice implementation, although some key components of successful implementation (e.g., staff buy-in, resources) have been identified. Because no two schools are likely to implement restorative practices identically, evaluating them with scientific rigor--typically requiring large samples--has been inherently challenging. As such, randomized controlled trials of restorative justice in schools were virtually non-existent in 2015 (at the time the current study was proposed), and most existing research relied on qualitative, quasi-experimental or pre-post designs. The push for quantitative rigor resulted in the present study, a mixed method randomized controlled trial, along with other recently published or ongoing rigorous evaluations.

The restorative justice program in question aimed to improve school climate, strengthen relationships schoolwide, prevent and intervene in conflict, reduce incidents and suspensions, and enhance any existing restorative practices already in place. Restorative justice has the potential to reduce dependency on punitive measures (e.g., suspension) when an incident occurs at school. Additionally, given the priority placed on building community and providing mental health support, restorative justice may also reduce such incidents altogether, while creating a positive school climate. As such, the primary quantitative outcomes in this study were incident rates, suspension rates, and school climate. This study was a randomized control trial that included a treatment group (enrolled in RJ program), comparison group (no RJ program enrollment), and control groups (general restorative justice practices). The research team hypothesized the following:

    • Hypothesis 1: Students in the treatment group would have fewer incidents and suspensions than the control group.

    • Hypothesis 2: Students in the treatment group would have fewer incidents and suspensions than the comparison group.

    • Hypothesis 3: Students in all of District 18 would have fewer incidents and suspensions than the comparison group.

    • Hypothesis 4: The treatment group would have a more positive school climate than the control group.

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Assessing the Role of School Discipline In Disproportionate Minority Contact With the Juvenile Justice System, Texas, 1999-2008 (ICPSR 37186)

Released/updated on: 2018-12-19
Geographic coverage: United States, Texas
Time period: 1999-09-01--2008-08-31

These data are part of NACJD's Fast Track Release and are distributed as they were received from the data depositor. The files have been zipped by NACJD for release, but not checked or processed except for the removal of direct identifiers. Users should refer to the accompanying readme file for a brief description of the files available with this collection and consult the investigator(s) if further information is needed.

This project utilized data originally collected for the project Breaking Schools' Rules (Fabelo et al., 2011), a joint project of the Public Policy Research Institute at Texas A and M University and the Council of State Governments Justice Center on which the Principal Investigator, Miner Marchbanks was a lead data analyst and co-author. Research was conducted at the Education Research Centers of the University of Texas, Austin, and Texas A and M University utilizing individual-level data from the Public Education Information Management System (PEIMS), a data system of the Texas Education Agency (TEA), and CASEWORKER, a data management system of the Texas Probation Commission (now the Texas Juvenile Justice Department). The link between these records was conducted by TEA and is described in greater detail in Fabelo et al.

Through secondary analyses of these data, researchers attempted to measure the institutional and individual mechanisms that disproportionately pull and push students of color into the "school-to-prison pipeline." The project explores the predictors of school discipline contact and the resulting consequences of encountering this discipline. The project then moves to an examination of the determinants of progressing through the various decision points in a juvenile justice case. Additionally, the project explores the relationship between school strictness and various educational and juvenile justice outcomes. The "school-to-prison pipeline" (Wald and Losen, 2003) describes an "increasingly punitive and isolating" path through the education system for African American and other at-risk students.

The study collection includes 1 Stata (.do) syntax file (master_final.do) that was used by the researcher(s) in secondary analyses.

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A Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial of the Safe Public Spaces in Schools Program, New York City, 2016-2018 (ICPSR 37476)

Released/updated on: 2021-04-28
Geographic coverage: New York City, United States, New York (state)
Time period: 2016-09-01--2018-06-30

This study tests the efficacy of an intervention--Safe Public Spaces (SPS) -- focused on improving the safety of public spaces in schools, such as hallways, cafeterias, and stairwells. Twenty-four schools with middle grades in a large urban area were recruited for participation and were pair-matched and then assigned to either treatment or control. The study comprises four components: an implementation evaluation, a cost study, an impact study, and a community crime study.

Community-crime-study: The community crime study used the arrest of juveniles from the NYPD (New York Police Department) data. The data can be found at (https://data.cityofnewyork.us/Public-Safety/NYPD-Arrests-Data-Historic-/8h9b-rp9u). Data include all arrest for the juvenile crime during the life of the intervention. The 12 matched schools were identified and geo-mapped using Quantum GIS (QGIS) 3.8 software. Block groups in the 2010 US Census in which the schools reside and neighboring block groups were mapped into micro-areas. This resulted in twelve experimental school blocks and 11 control blocks which the schools reside (two of the control schools existed in the same census block group). Additionally, neighboring blocks using were geo-mapped into 70 experimental and 77 control adjacent block groups (see map). Finally, juvenile arrests were mapped into experimental and control areas. Using the ARIMA time-series method in Stata 15 statistical software package, arrest data were analyzed to compare the change in juvenile arrests in the experimental and control sites.

Cost-study: For the cost study, information from the implementing organization (Engaging Schools) was combined with data from phone conversations and follow-up communications with staff in school sites to populate a Resource Cost Model. The Resource Cost Model Excel file will be provided for archiving. This file contains details on the staff time and materials allocated to the intervention, as well as the NYC prices in 2018 US dollars associated with each element. Prices were gathered from multiple sources, including actual NYC DOE data on salaries for position types for which these data were available and district salary schedules for the other staff types. Census data were used to calculate benefits.

Impact-evaluation: The impact evaluation was conducted using data from the Research Alliance for New York City Schools. Among the core functions of the Research Alliance is maintaining a unique archive of longitudinal data on NYC schools to support ongoing research. The Research Alliance builds and maintains an archive of longitudinal data about NYC schools. Their agreement with the New York City Department of Education (NYC DOE) outlines the data they receive, the process they use to obtain it, and the security measures to keep it safe.

Implementation-study: The implementation study comprises the baseline survey and observation data. Interview transcripts are not archived.

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Comprehensive School Safety Initiative, St. Louis County, Missouri, 2016-2019 (ICPSR 37929)

Released/updated on: 2023-03-16
Geographic coverage: United States, Missouri
Time period: 2017-01-01--2019-08-31

This multi-year study investigated the causes and consequences of school victimization (e.g., property theft, minor assault, bullying, cyberbullying) as well as factors contributing to safe learning environments (e.g., school disciplinary practices, students' willingness to report dangerous behavior, availability and utilization of victim services). The project includes three annual surveys of students initially enrolled in 12 middle schools in St. Louis County; a summer component consisting of semi-structured interviews with a subsample of 197 students, including in-depth interviews with 37 students the following summer; and two surveys of school personnel. There are three areas of interest that guide this project and are associated with better understanding of the root causes and consequences (i.e., correlates) of school violence:

(1) Identification of patterns of school violence: the principal investigators surveyed two student cohorts over three years as they transitioned from middle to high school (7th/8th grades to 9th/10th grades)

(2) Identification of correlates of school violence relying on multiple sources, including: the individual (e.g., gang membership, attitudes toward violence), the school and school climate (e.g., willingness to report, awareness and utilization of victim services, views on the procedural justice of school disciplinary practices, gang presence at the school) and the situation (e.g., where, when, and with whom violence occurs)

(3) A specific examination of bullying and cyberbullying as unique forms of school violence with regard to their correlates stemming from each source identified above

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The Comprehensive School Safety Initiative: Study of Police in Schools, California and Florida, 2011-2019 (ICPSR 37591)

Released/updated on: 2022-12-13
Geographic coverage: United States, California, Florida
Time period: 2011-01-01--2019-01-01

Although the placement of school resource officers (SROs) in schools is widespread, little is known about its effectiveness in preventing school crime or the extent to which placement may harm schools and students (e.g., by facilitating the formal processing of minor offenses). The Study of Police in Schools sought to strengthen the evidence base on the effects of SROs on schools and students. Specifically, this study addressed two research questions: (1) What are the effects of SROs on school disciplinary offenses and disciplinary actions? and (2) Do the effects of SROs vary by implementation, school, and student characteristics?

The study focused on public secondary schools that increased SRO staffing through the 2013 and 2014 Department of Justice's Community Policing Services (COPS) Hiring Program (CHP) and on matched comparison schools that neither received SROs funded by CHP grants nor increased SRO staffing at the same time as treatment schools. Using longitudinal analyses of monthly school-level administrative data, the study compared the treatment and comparison schools on disciplinary incidents/offenses and actions. In addition, the study analyzed data from web surveys of school administrators and SROs at the sample schools, and from interviews with law enforcement officials at the agencies that placed the SROs in the schools. To assess the extent to which the presence of SROs affects the measurement of school crime, research staff also collected and analyzed qualitative information from interviews with school administrators in select treatment schools.

To conduct the study, the following data sources were collected or obtained:

  1. Linking and SRO program information data files (1 file for CA, 1 file for FL)
  2. California Department of Education administrative data files (5 files)
  3. SRO web survey data files (1 file for CA, 1 file for FL)
  4. School administrator web survey data files (1 file for CA, 1 file for FL)
  5. Law enforcement agency interview data files (1 file for CA, 1 file for FL)
  6. Moderator data file (1 file for CA)
  7. School administrator interview data file (1 file for CA)
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Developing Knowledge About What Works to Make Schools Safe: Implementation and Evaluation of Tools for Life to Improve School Climate and Safety in Jackson Public School District, Mississippi, 2016-2018 (ICPSR 37600)

Released/updated on: 2023-01-30
Geographic coverage: Jackson (Mississippi), Mississippi, United States
Time period: 2016-01-01--2018-01-01

Tools for Life: Relationship-Building Solutions (TFL) is a program designed to improve school climate and safety through the proactive development of elementary and middle school students' interpersonal skills (relationship-building and communication) and intrapersonal skills (self-regulation and resiliency). In the 2016-2017 and 2017-2018 school years, the Jackson (Mississippi) Public School District (JPSD) implemented TFL in grades 1 through 8. RAND researchers conducted a randomized controlled trial to determine whether TFL, integrated into existing school practices, positively affected school climate and safety in the district.

This project described the implementation of TFL in JPSD, calculated its costs, and evaluated the program's effectiveness. TFL was designed to improve whole-school change in relationships among staff and students, but the project researchers found that implementation of TFL in JPSD schools was generally shallow, and the program was rarely, if at all, implemented across a whole school as it was designed. TFL had little impact: After one year of implementation, there were no practically or statistically significant differences between schools that implemented TFL and those that did not in measures of students' social and emotional, school climate, behavioral, or achievement outcomes. In addition to the uneven implementation of the program, methodological limitations of the study and contextual factors in JPSD may have contributed to these finding.

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Discipline in Context: Suspension, Climate, and Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS) in the School District of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 2016-2017 (ICPSR 37036)

Released/updated on: 2023-07-27
Geographic coverage: United States, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Time period: 2015-09-01--2016-07-01
This study is a collaboration between Consortium for Policy Research in Education (CPRE) and the School District of Philadelphia (SDP) that examines the intersection of SDP's Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS) initiative with schools' suspension and practices. This study aims to generate new evidence about the effects of schools' disciplinary practices on patterns of student suspension in Philadelphia and inform the alignment of policies with the SDP's shift toward PBIS. This study contributes significantly to the knowledge base about implementing PBIS in fiscally challenged urban districts where exclusionary disciplinary practices have long been used.
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Effective School Staff Interactions with Students and Police: A Training Model (ESSI), Connecticut, 2013-2018 (ICPSR 37486)

Released/updated on: 2021-04-28
Geographic coverage: United States, Connecticut
Time period: 2013-01-01--2018-01-01

This project assesses the effectiveness of a one-day, 5-hour workshop (ESSI training, hereafter) designed for joint instruction by school staff and police to all school staff. The goal was to promote positive outcomes and reduce police involvement in interactions between staff and students exhibiting inappropriate behavior through increased staff awareness of youth behavior, the functions of the juvenile justice system, and disproportionate minority contact (DMC) in disciplinary action.

1,024 school staff participated in 51 ESSI training sessions throughought the 2015/16 academic year, which also serves as the training year in the longitudinal data. Schools which did not participate in the training served as controls for the participating school. Data were drawn from a panel of students enrolled in either a training or control school, with ten schools in each group. Data on this panel of students was collected for a five-year period, from the 2013/14 through the 2017/18 academic years.

School-level data serves as the unit of analysis, as the study's main goal was to test the effects of training on school-wide outcomes. The estimated coefficient indicates small attendance reductions during the post-training phase for the training group. This indicates that most of the differences between the training and control group were statistically insignificant and that there was no pattern of statistically significant positive effects across the training schools. The second set of analyses, performed on student-level data, indicates that male and minority students are more likely to be involved in disciplinary incidents and to receive suspensions or expulsions as a consequence of their behaviors than White and female students.

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Enhancing School Resource Officers Effectiveness through Online Professional and Job Embedded Coaching, Miami-Dade County, Florida, 2018-2020 (ICPSR 37946)

Released/updated on: 2021-07-27
Geographic coverage: United States, Florida
Time period: 2018-01-01--2020-12-30
This pilot project was aimed at promoting the skills of School Resource Officers, through an innovative online professional development platform. Conducted in partnership with Florida Public Schools, this project involved the development, testing, and refinement of online modules around trauma-informed care, social emotional learning, restorative problem-solving, and cultural competence. After development of the four modules, a small pilot evaluation was conducted with K-12 School Security Professionals to assess for efficacy and scalability. The survey assessed knowledge retention, and gathered demographic information including: age, gender, race/ethnicity, and education level.
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Evaluation of a Principal Training Program to Promote Safe and Civil Schools, Oklahoma, 2017-2022 (ICPSR 39076)

Released/updated on: 2026-04-29
Geographic coverage: United States, Oklahoma
Time period: 2017-01-01--2021-01-01
The Principal and School Climate project was a National Institute of Justice (NIJ) funded study in participating schools across the state of Oklahoma investigating the efficacy of Safe and Civil School Leadership (SCSL) with an additional program called START on Time (START). START was a training program for school principals teaching them skills to foster a safe and positive learning environment for students. This training program consisted of student support as well as resources for principals to use efficacious and data-driven discipline with students. Although first developed over a decade ago, there have been no evidence-based studies investigating the central role principals play within school environments.
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Evaluation of the Bully-Proofing Your School Program in Colorado, 2001-2006 (ICPSR 21840)

Released/updated on: 2009-03-31
Geographic coverage: United States, Colorado
Time period: 2001-01-01--2006-01-01
Bully-Proofing Your School (BPYS) was a school-based intervention program designed to reduce bullying and school violence. The BPYS program differed from other anti-bullying programs by providing teachers with a specific curriculum that could be implemented in the classroom. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the BPYS program at the elementary school and middle school level. The BPYS outcome evaluation consisted of school climate surveys administered to elementary school students (Part 1), middle school students (Part 2), and staff (Part 3) in both treatment and comparison schools. The design of the data collection for the study was a repeated cross-sectional design. The evaluation of BPYS took place over five years. In the spring semesters of 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, and 2006, all participating schools completed a school climate survey. The researchers collected 4,136 completed elementary school surveys (Part 1), 1,627 completed middle school surveys (Part 2), and 1,209 completed staff surveys (Part 3). For the elementary and middle school students, the mode of data collection was an in-class (group administration) anonymous self-completed survey. For the 1,209 staff surveys (Part 3), the mode of data collection was a mail questionnaire. Part 1 variables include sociodemographic and general school information items, school climate variables, school safety variables, and home and family environment variables. Also included is a filter variable which can be used to select the 3,497 cases that were used in the original analyses. Part 2 variables include sociodemographic and general school information variables, school climate variables, school safety variables, substance use variables, home and family environment variables, variables about guns, variables on activities the respondent participated in, and school attendance variables. Part 3 variables include school and staff characteristics variables, questions about general conditions in the school, questions on how the respondent felt about other people working at the school, questions concerning the resources and participation in the school and the community, and questions regarding staff perceptions of safety at the school.
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Evaluation of the Philadelphia Police School Diversion Program: Long-Term Outcomes and Sustained Impact, 2013-2020 (ICPSR 38271)

Released/updated on: 2023-02-28
Geographic coverage: United States, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Time period: 2013-09-01--2020-11-01

Schools are a primary referral source to the juvenile justice system, helping create and perpetuate the school-to-prison pipeline. Seeking to dismantle this pipeline in the city, the Philadelphia Police Department (PPD) partnered with the School District of Philadelphia (SDP) and the Philadelphia Department of Human Services (DHS) to develop and operate the Philadelphia Police School Diversion Program. Implemented in May 2014, all first-time offending youth aged 10 years or older who commit specified school-based minor misdemeanor or summary offenses on school property are diverted from arrest, referred to a Department of Human Services (DHS) social worker and community-based services, and face no consequences even if they decline services.

This evaluation examined long-term outcomes for diverted youth and sustained program impacts over five years. From a full sample of 3,616 diverted and arrested students, this study used a quasi-experimental design to compare data for diverted youth (quasi-experimental group; n = 1,281) and similar youth arrested in schools in the year before the program's implementation (quasi-control group; n = 531). PPD school police officers completed surveys regarding their knowledge and perceptions of the Diversion Program immediately before and after a training session held prior to its implementation, then on an annual basis through year five. A cost-benefit analysis of the program was conducted in partnership with the Vera Institute of Justice.

The data have been organized by analysis. Short-term analysis refers to two-year recidivism analyses and one-year child welfare involvement, and covers the full and quasi-control arrested samples and youth diverted in school years 2014-2015, 2015-2016, and 2016-2017. Long-term analyses include four-year graduation/drop-out, five-year recidivism analyses, and five-year child welfare involvement, and covers the full and quasi-control arrested samples and youth diverted in school year 2014-2015.

Short- and long-term recidivism outcome data (DS1 and DS2), police survey data before and after program implementation (DS3), and cost-benefit analysis tables (DS9) are included in this collection. Please refer to the User Guide for details on how to acquire additional data from SDP and DHS and steps to create the full analytic files for academic-related and child welfare involvement outcomes.

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The Impact of Exclusion in School: A Comprehensive Study in New York City, 2010-2015 (ICPSR 37249)

Released/updated on: 2020-12-16
Geographic coverage: New York City, United States, New York (state)
Time period: 2010-01-01--2015-01-01

This study uses quantitative and qualitative research to fill a gap in the scholarly literature on "what works" in school discipline, climate, and safety and has important implications for educators and justice policymakers nationwide. The quantitative analysis utilized data from 2010-2015 of middle and high school students (N=87,471 students nested within 804 schools and 74 neighborhoods) in New York City. Researchers applied hierarchical modeling methods to analyze effects of neighborhood, school, and student characteristics on: 1) future school disciplinary outcomes; 2) future arrest; and 3) grade advancement. Demographic variables for individual participants include race, gender, and if they are an English language learner.

Demographic variables for neighborhoods include race, median income, crime rates, and education levels.

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Improvement of School Climate Assessment in Virginia Secondary Schools, 2013-2020 (ICPSR 38022)

Released/updated on: 2023-04-27
Geographic coverage: United States, Virginia
Time period: 2013-01-01--2020-01-01

This study sought to advance understanding of how school climate is a critical factor in school safety and violence prevention. Middle school and high school students and staff were surveyed over the span of eight years from 2013-2020. Middle school students and staff were surveyed during odd years (4 waves of data collection), and high school students and staff were surveyed the other even years (again four years of data collection). All four years of data per group were combined into a single dataset. A final file was created pooling all eight years of data collection averaging student and staff responses by school.

Both the student and teacher/staff surveys covered two domains: school climate and safety conditions. The school climate domain included perceptions of the school's disciplinary practices, student support efforts, and degree of student engagement in school. The safety conditions domain covered reports of bullying, teasing, sexual harassment, and other forms of peer aggression, including threats of violence, physical assault, dating aggression, and gang activity.

Previous research conducted by the Principal Investigators showed that an authoritative school climate characterized by high structure (strict but fair discipline and high academic expectations) and high support (positive teacher-student relationships) is associated with many positive outcomes. Students who attend schools with an authoritative school climate demonstrated more engagement in school, have higher school attendance and academic achievement, and are more likely to graduate. Students who experience a structured and supportive school climate may be more willing to follow school rules, respond to their teachers, and treat one another in a respectful manner. This study continues that prior work.

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Improving School Safety in the District of Columbia: Evaluating the Safe School Certification Program, 2016-2020 (ICPSR 37892)

Released/updated on: 2022-06-29
Geographic coverage: District of Columbia, United States
Time period: 2016-01-01--2020-01-01
From 2016 through 2020, Child Trends, in partnership with the D.C. Office of Human Rights and the D.C. Office of the State Superintendent of Education, and with funding from the National Institute of Justice's Comprehensive School Safety Initiative, implemented and evaluated the Safe School Certification (SSC) Program, a three-year technical assistance model to support schools in strengthening organizational capacity across eight elements key to improving school climate: leadership, data, buy-in, policy and policy enforcement, student engagement, family and community engagement, training, and programs and practices. To help support schools' efforts, and to evaluate SSC's effectiveness, survey data were collected annually from students, parents, instructional staff, and non-instructional staff at participating schools using the U.S. Department of Education's School Climate Survey (EDSCLS), which was adapted to include measures of sexual orientation and gender identity, grit, and personal experiences of bullying and fights. Additionally, observations using the Classroom Assessment Scoring System - Secondary (CLASS-S) were conducted in a random sample of five classrooms in each participating school each year. Finally, as part of the implementation evaluation, interviews were conducted with the technical assistance providers, points of contact or leadership at participating schools, the SSC developer, and the manager of the Certification Advisory Board (CAB), which provided feedback to schools over the course of implementation through reviews of compiled workbooks.
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A Multiple Perspectives Analysis of the Influences on the School to Prison Pipeline in Virginia, 2013-2015 (ICPSR 37300)

Released/updated on: 2020-04-28
Geographic coverage: United States, Virginia
Time period: 2013-01-01--2014-01-01, 2014-01-01--2015-01-01
This study consists of both qualitative and quantitative investigation of the influences on the school to prison pipeline. The quantitative study, the one included in this release, brings together four large datasets maintained by the Virginia Department of Education (DOE; Discipline Crime and Violence [DCV]), Department of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS; School Safety Audits and School Climate Data), and Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ; Juvenile Referrals and Intakes). These datasets were used to compare what characteristics (individual or building level) either increase or decrease the odds that a student will become involved with the criminal justice system, as a result of school behaviors. The qualitative study involved in-depth individual interviews with 34 educational stakeholders across Virginia, who are involved in the discipline process in the schools (e.g. administrators, counselors, School Resource Officers). The analysis of these interviews found that the themes in how school discipline is differentiated from law enforcement in the schools, and the efforts that schools communities are making to keep children in the classroom and out of the courtroom. Individuals are the unit of analysis. The sample includes the following vulnerable populations: children, minorities, institutionalized persons, and persons with disabilities.
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National Youth Gang Intervention and Suppression Survey, 1980-1987 (ICPSR 9792)

Released/updated on: 2006-01-12
Geographic coverage: United States
Time period: 1980-01-01--1987-01-01
This survey was conducted by the National Youth Gang Intervention and Suppression Program. The primary goals of the program were to assess the national scope of the gang crime problem, to identify promising programs and approaches for dealing with the problem, to develop prototypes from the information gained about the most promising programs, and to provide technical assistance for the development of gang intervention and suppression programs nationwide. The survey was designed to encompass every agency in the country that was engaged in or had recently engaged in organized responses specifically intended to deal with gang crime problems. Cities were screened with selection criteria including the presence and recognition of a youth gang problem and the presence of a youth gang program as an organized response to the problem. Respondents were classified into several major categories and subcategories: law enforcement (mainly police, prosecutors, judges, probation, corrections, and parole), schools (subdivided into security and academic personnel), community, county, or state planners, other, and community/service (subdivided into youth service, youth and family service/treatment, comprehensive crisis intervention, and grassroots groups). These data include variables coded from respondents' definitions of the gang, gang member, and gang incident. Also included are respondents' historical accounts of the gang problems in their areas. Information on the size and scope of the gang problem and response was also solicited.
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The Nature and Extent of Gang Involvement in Sex Trafficking in San Diego County, California, 2003-2015 (ICPSR 36220)

Released/updated on: 2024-12-10
Geographic coverage: Tijuana, United States, Mexico, California, San Diego County
Time period: 2005-01-01--2015-01-01, 2013-06-01--2015-06-01, 2007-01-01--2014-06-01, 2003-01-01--2014-01-01

This three-year study used quantitative and qualitative data collected between 2003 and 2015 to assess the scale and nature of gang involvement in sex trafficking in San Diego, California. At the time of study, San Diego was ranked as one of the United States' highest areas of commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC). This mixed-methods study has generated the following datasets:

  • Survivor Services Dataset (DS1 and DS2): A composite of intake surveys conducted by the prostitution diversion program Freedom From Exploitation (FFE) (DS1) and eight organizations that provide direct services to sex trafficking victims/survivors (DS2)
  • Law Enforcement Reporting Dataset (DS3 and DS4): Booking records provided by the San Diego Sheriff's Department (DS3), and arrest records provided by the Automated Regional Justice Information System (ARJIS) (DS4)
  • Schools Dataset (DS5): Summaries of focus group interviews of staff employed by San Diego County school districts (due to disclosure concerns, full transcripts were not released)
  • Facilitator Interview Dataset (DS6): Summaries of interviews of incarcerated and community members with knowledge of trafficking (due to disclosure concerns, full transcripts were not released)
  • Social Media Analytics Dataset (DS7): Search criteria and schema of relevant data fields for social network analysis conducted using Twitter data (due to disclosure concerns and dataset size, the social media data themselves were not released)

Survivor services, law enforcement, schools, and facilitator interview data were all collected and analyzed as part of the main NIJ award. The social media analytics data were collected and analyzed under a subaward by the SecDev Cyber Group.

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Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS) in Challenging Contexts: Evaluating a Replicable Implementation Approach in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 2018-2021 (ICPSR 38572)

Released/updated on: 2024-05-15
Geographic coverage: United States, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Time period: 2018-04-01--2022-09-30

This study aimed to validate an approach to implementing Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS), a school-climate improvement program, in a partnering school district in an attempt to address pressing issues impacting students' success. The study was a collaboration between the Consortium for Policy Research in Education (CPRE), the partnering school district, and several additional partners, who collaboratively designed and supported the PBIS implementation approach funded from National Institute of Justice (NIJ) and supplemental funds from the participating school district.

The impacts of trauma training for school officers were assessed via an PBIS of all eligible district K-8 schools, including schools that did and did not use school-wide PBIS. The random controlled trial (RCT) used a blocked design to assign schools to treatment and control conditions within PBIS status (i.e., PBIS school, non-PBIS school).

Impacts of the implementation model were assessed via a cluster randomized experiment. To select schools to receive the expanded supports being provided through this project, the research team collaborated with the partnering school district's school climate administrators and project partners who had been supporting PBIS implementation in the district for several years prior to the start of the project. Criteria were established to determine eligibility for the implementation model, including that eligible schools must have: 1) strong PBIS implementation at Tier 1, 2) attempted implementing some form of Tier 2 supports, and 3) leadership buy-in. Applying these criteria, nine potential schools were identified as eligible. From this list, four schools were randomly selected to receive the implementation model and the remaining five schools served as Comparison schools and conducted business-as-usual PBIS.

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Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN): School and Day Care Screen, Wave 2, 1997-2000 (ICPSR 13653)

Released/updated on: 2006-04-24
Geographic coverage: United States, Chicago, Illinois
Time period: 1997-01-01--2000-01-01
The Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN) was a large-scale, interdisciplinary study of how families, schools, and neighborhoods affect child and adolescent development. One component of the PHDCN was the Longitudinal Cohort Study, which was a series of coordinated longitudinal studies that followed over 6,000 randomly selected children, adolescents, and young adults, and their primary caregivers over time to examine the changing circumstances of their lives, as well as the personal characteristics, that might lead them toward or away from a variety of antisocial behaviors. Numerous measures were administered to respondents to gauge various aspects of human development, including individual differences, as well as family, peer, and school influences. The School and Day Care Screen obtained information regarding the subject's current educational situation, parental involvement in school and expectations for the subject, and the characteristics of the childcare setting and provider. This Wave 2 instrument asks some of the same questions which were asked in the Wave 1 version, PROJECT ON HUMAN DEVELOPMENT IN CHICAGO NEIGHBORHOODS (PHDCN): SCHOOL SCREEN, WAVE 1, 1994-1997 (ICPSR 13600).
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Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN): School Screen, Wave 3, 2000-2002 (ICPSR 13739)

Released/updated on: 2007-02-07
Geographic coverage: United States, Chicago, Illinois
Time period: 2000-01-01--2002-01-01
The Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN) was a large-scale, interdisciplinary study of how families, schools, and neighborhoods affect child and adolescent development. One component of the PHDCN was the Longitudinal Cohort Study, which was a series of coordinated longitudinal studies that followed over 6,000 randomly selected children, adolescents, and young adults, and their primary caregivers over time to examine the changing circumstances of their lives, as well as the personal characteristics, that might lead them toward or away from a variety of antisocial behaviors. Numerous measures were administered to respondents to gauge various aspects of human development, including individual differences, as well as family, peer, and school influences. One such measure was the School Screen. This instrument was administered to subjects' primary caregivers in Cohorts 3, 6, and 9. It focused on parental involvement at school and educational expectations for the subject, history of special classifications of the subject, after-school activities of the subject, and the absence or presence of certain cognitive stimuli, including varied learning experiences and diverse educational materials. It contained some of the school-related questions from PROJECT ON HUMAN DEVELOPMENT IN CHICAGO NEIGHBORHOODS (PHDCN): HOME AND LIFE INTERVIEW, WAVE 2, 1997-2000 (ICPSR 13630). It is closely related to PROJECT ON HUMAN DEVELOPMENT IN CHICAGO NEIGHBORHOODS (PHDCN): SCHOOL SCREEN, WAVE 1, 1994-1997 (ICPSR 13600) and PROJECT ON HUMAN DEVELOPMENT IN CHICAGO NEIGHBORHOODS (PHDCN): SCHOOL AND DAY CARE SCREEN, WAVE 2, 1997-2000 (ICPSR 13653).
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Project SOARS: Student Ownership, Accountability, and Responsibility for School Safety, Illinois and Oregon, 2016-2020 (ICPSR 37896)

Released/updated on: 2024-01-16
Geographic coverage: Oregon, United States, Illinois
Time period: 2018-01-01--2019-01-01, 2019-01-01--2020-01-01

Project SOARS (Student Ownership, Accountability, and Responsibility for School Safety) utilized a mixed-methods study design to develop and test a student-centered and technology-driven school safety framework to address peer victimization, violent behavior, and student reluctance to share critical safety information within high school settings. SOARS was a project of IRIS Media, Inc. and consisted of 4 phases implemented between 2016 and 2020. Activities for each phase were carried out in Oregon and Illinois high schools in order to facilitate inter-site replication of outcomes. Phase 1 was conducted in 2016 and consisted of focus groups and key informant interviews with students, school personnel, and parents to gather perceptions of current school safety practices. Phase 2 was undertaken in 2017 and asked students, school personnel, and parents to assess the acceptability and usability of prototypes of the SOARS framework. The SOARS framework consisted of (a) the Advocatr mobile app, which allowed students to report positive and negative behaviors in their school environment; (b) a 9-week curriculum engaging students with the concepts of student ownership of school safety, advocacy/self-advocacy, physical and emotional safety, and restorative conflict resolution; (c) informational briefs for school personnel and parents about the framework components and their rationale; and (d) guidelines for a student-led school-wide safety campaign. Phase 3 was rolled out in 2018 and 2019 and consisted of feasibility testing conducted with a small subset of teachers and students in those teachers' classrooms. Participants were surveyed before and after implementation of the SOARS framework. The focus of the feasibility test was on student access and use of the Advocatr app and the accompanying curriculum. During Phase 4 implementation in 2019 and 2020, researchers conducted a pilot test with students, school personnel, and parents from 4 high schools, 2 assigned to the intervention and 2 to the control condition. The focus of the pilot was to test the effectiveness of the SOARS framework.

Demographic information was collected from all informants and includes gender (sex male or female; transgender identification), ethnicity, and race. Additional demographic information about students includes sexual orientation, approximate age (over/under 18 years), primary language, GPA, and grade. Parent demographics also include education level and student's grade, while school personnel (teachers and staff) also provided information regarding education level, school role, job title, years in current position, grades taught, and subjects taught.

Users should note that qualitative data collected during phase 1 focus groups and phase 2 user acceptance tests are not included in version 1 of the ICPSR release. Additionally, in the quantitative datasets, character variables featuring open-ended string responses have been masked by ICPSR. This study will be updated at a later date to include qualitative data files and character variables in the quantitative datasets.

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Promoting School Safety: A Comprehensive Emotional and Behavioral Health Model, Baltimore, Maryland, 2014-2017 (ICPSR 38192)

Released/updated on: 2024-02-13
Geographic coverage: Baltimore, United States, Maryland
Time period: 2014-01-01--2017-01-01

Baltimore County Public Schools (BCPS) with funding from the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, National Institute of Justice, Developing Knowledge about What Works to Make Schools Safe solicitation, partnered with The National Center for School Mental Health, University of Maryland to address the significant school safety issue of student emotional and behavioral health crises. In 2012, BCPS implemented a five-year strategic plan known as Blueprint 2.0: Our Way Forward.

One of the major goals of the plan states: "Every school and office will be safe and secure, promote individual wellbeing and provide positive, respectful and caring environments for teaching, learning and working." The plan included key actions which call for "equitable access to counseling, social work, and psychological and other support services" as well as more "internal and external partnerships to improve delivery of mental health and other supportive services."

This study employed a randomized controlled design to evaluate the impact of the emotional and behavioral health crisis response and prevention (EBH-CRP) model on school safety, emotional and behavioral health outcomes, and stakeholder knowledge and preparedness to address emotional and behavioral health concerns across the continuum. A cost-benefit analysis assessed the net benefits of the EBH-CRP intervention.

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Pursuing Equitable Restorative Communities, Pittsburgh, PA, 2015-2017 (ICPSR 37387)

Released/updated on: 2023-01-31
Geographic coverage: United States, Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh
Time period: 2015-01-01--2017-01-01
This study represents one of the first randomized controlled trials of the impacts of restorative practices on classroom and school climate and suspension rates. The research team collected extensive data about implementation to help examine how it is related to effects and to develop operational guidance for school district leaders. The studied schools, all part of the Pittsburgh Public Schools district, implemented restorative practices for two school years (2015-16 and 2016-17) under the leadership of the International Institute for Restorative Practices.
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A Randomized Controlled Trial Of A Comprehensive, Research-Based Framework for Implementing School-Based Law Enforcement Programs, Texas, 2017-2020 (ICPSR 38263)

Released/updated on: 2022-04-14
Geographic coverage: United States, Texas
Time period: 2017-09-01--2020-10-31

The purpose of this study was to evaluate a comprehensive, research-based framework of recommended practices for integrating police into the educational environment. This research tested use of a multi-faceted school-based law enforcement (SBLE) framework to determine how the framework contributes to multiple outcomes. The objectives for this study were to: (1) implement a randomized controlled trial to test a comprehensive framework for SBLE involving 25 middle and high schools; (2) assess the impacts of this framework on student victimization and delinquency, use of exclusionary discipline practices (e.g., suspension, expulsion), school climate measures, and student-officer interactions; and (3) disseminate tangible findings that can immediately be translated into practice and further research in schools nationwide.

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Role of Law Enforcement in Public School Safety in the United States, 2002 (ICPSR 4457)

Released/updated on: 2008-12-24
Geographic coverage: United States
Time period: 2002-01-01--2002-05-01
The purpose of this research was to develop an accurate description of the current involvement of law enforcement in schools. The researchers administered a school survey (Part 1) as well as a law enforcement survey (Part 2 and Part 3). The school survey was designed specifically for this research, but did incorporate items from previous surveys, particularly the School Survey on Crime and Safety and the National Assessment of School Resource Officer Programs Survey of School Principals. The school surveys were then sent out to a total of 3,156 school principals between January 2002 and May 2002. The researchers followed Dillman's mail survey design and received a total of 1,387 completed surveys. Surveys sent to the schools requested that each school identify their primary and secondary law enforcement providers. Surveys were then sent to those identified primary law enforcement agencies (Part 2) and secondary law enforcement agencies (Part 3) in August 2002. Part 2 and Part 3 each contain 3,156 cases which matches the original sample size of schools. For Part 2 and Part 3, a total of 1,508 law enforcement surveys were sent to both primary and secondary law enforcement agencies. The researchers received 1,060 completed surveys from the primary law enforcement agencies (Part 2) and 86 completed surveys from the secondary law enforcement agencies (Part 3). Part 1, School Survey Data, included a total of 309 variables pertaining to school characteristics, type of law enforcement relied on by the schools, school resource officers, frequency of public law enforcement activities, teaching activities of law enforcement officers, frequency of private security activities, safety plans and meetings with law enforcement, and crime/disorder in schools. Part 2, Primarily Relied Upon Law Enforcement Agency Survey Data, and Part 3, Secondarily Relied Upon Law Enforcement Agency Survey Data, each contain 161 variables relating to school resource officers, frequency of public law enforcement activities, teaching activities of law enforcement agencies, safety plans and meetings with schools, and crime/disorder in schools reported to police according to primary/secondary law enforcement.
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School Crime Operations Package (School COP Software) (ICPSR 23543)

Released/updated on: 2008-10-09
Geographic coverage: United States

The School Crime Operations Package (School COP) is a software application developed by Abt Associates Inc. with funding from the National Institute of Justice. School COP is a free software package that persons responsible for school safety can use to enter, analyze, and map criminal incidents and school rule violations that occur in and around K-12 schools. School COP organizes information according to the data model that the United States Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics' Crime, Violence, and Discipline Reporting Task Force recommends. The School COP database includes data related to the incident (e.g., date, time, type, location) and to persons involved in the incident (e.g., name, grade, action taken). In other words, School COP is an incident-based system, rather than a student-based system. School COP offers a variety of techniques for analyzing school incidents, including tabular reports, bar graphs, pie charts, and maps. School COP can be installed on any Windows (95 or later) PC. It requires no other software to run, and is usable without formal training.

The origin of this project is an award to Abt Associates Inc. that was funded under the National Institute of Justice's (NIJ) June 1999 "Safe Schools Technology" solicitation, which requested proposals for innovative approaches to using technology to enhance the safety of our nation's elementary and secondary schools. School COP was initially released on CD-ROM in January 2001, and made available at the School COP Web site in June 2001. This Windows version of School COP was generally designed for individuals, for a single school, or for small offices within a school district. Abt Associates Inc. was subsequently awarded another grant in 2001 to enhance the School Crime Operations Package (School COP) and to conduct an evaluation of this software, which is used to enter and analyze incidents that occur on school campuses.

Two types of enhancements were made. First, an enhanced Windows version of School COP was developed that could run on a local- or wide-area network, thus allowing multiple users within a single school or across multiple schools to share a common School COP database. The enhanced Windows version also included two utilities: a Merge application (which enables a district-level School COP database to be constructed by merging several individual databases) and a Viewer application (which enables users to view -- but not add, edit, or delete -- incident information). Second, Web School COP was developed to meet the diverse information needs of persons charged with maintaining safe schools in large school districts, including persons at the school-level (e.g., principals, assistant principals, security officers, and school resource officers), the district-level (e.g., district-level administrators and security staff), as well as possibly parent organizations and state-level administrators. Web School COP was designed to run on either an Intranet (e.g., the school district's private Internet) or a secure third-party Web server, and was built to run on the current Microsoft Web platform.

The evaluation of School COP entailed case studies of six sites to address three main issues: (1) what decision process do sites go through when deciding whether to use School COP, (2) once the site decides to use School COP, what implementation obstacles exist, including those related to installation, customization, and training, and (3) what benefits do sites realize from using School COP.

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School Culture, Climate, and Violence: Safety in Middle Schools of the Philadelphia Public School System, 1990-1994 (ICPSR 2026)

Released/updated on: 2006-03-30
Geographic coverage: United States, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Time period: 1992-01-01--1994-01-01
This study was designed to explore school culture and climate and their effects on school disorder, violence, and academic performance on two levels. At the macro level of analysis, this research examined the influences of sociocultural, crime, and school characteristics on aggregate-level school violence and academic performance measures. Here the focus was on understanding community, family, and crime compositional effects on disruption and violence in Philadelphia schools. This level included Census data and crime rates for the Census tracts where the schools were located (local data), as well as for the community of residence of the students (imported data) for all 255 schools within the Philadelphia School District. The second level of analysis, the intermediate level, included all of the variables measured at the macro level, and added school organizational structure and school climate, measured with survey data, as mediating variables. Part 1, Macro-Level Data, contains arrest and offense data and Census characteristics, such as race, poverty level, and household income, for the Census tracts where each of the 255 Philadelphia schools is located and for the Census tracts where the students who attend those schools reside. In addition, this file contains school characteristics, such as number and race of students and teachers, student attendance, average exam scores, and number of suspensions for various reasons. For Part 2, Principal Interview Data, principals from all 42 middle schools in Philadelphia were interviewed on the number of buildings and classrooms in their school, square footage and special features of the school, and security measures. For Part 3, teachers were administered the Effective School Battery survey and asked about their job satisfaction, training opportunities, relationships with principals and parents, participation in school activities, safety measures, and fear of crime at school. In Part 4, students were administered the Effective School Battery survey and asked about their attachment to school, extracurricular activities, attitudes toward teachers and school, academic achievement, and fear of crime at school. Part 5, Student Victimization Data, asked the same students from Part 4 about their victimization experiences, the availability of drugs, and discipline measures at school. It also provides self-reports of theft, assault, drug use, gang membership, and weapon possession at school.
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School Emergency Preparedness Study, United States, 2018 (ICPSR 37222)

Released/updated on: 2022-01-13
Geographic coverage: United States
Time period: 2018-01-01--2018-08-01

The School Emergency Preparedness Study, United States, 2018, was conducted to better understand the state of knowledge concerning violent emergency preparedness in schools and the interrelationship between federal, state, district, and school perspectives on safety planning. RTI International conducted a two-year study in four phases. In Phase I, the project team reviewed federal and state guidelines and mandates for school safety planning. In Phases II and III, a survey was administered to district safety and security directors and superintendents, then the team reviewed guidelines and mandates for a subset of districts. In Phase IV, interviews were conducted with administrators from 37 schools and results were analyzed from all four phases.

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Survey of Parents and Children, 1990: [United States] (ICPSR 9595)

Released/updated on: 1999-05-12
Geographic coverage: United States
This data collection was designed to assess the well-being, attitudes, and life circumstances of American families. Interviews were conducted with a sample of parents and their children between the ages of 10 and 17. Children were asked questions about their neighborhood and school, such as whether they thought their neighborhood was a good place for children to grow up, whether they liked school, and whether they experienced peer pressure to engage in various behaviors. They were also asked how they spent their time during the summer, whether they could confide in their parents, and whether they often spent time in the house alone. Children who did not reside with their biological parents were asked about frequency and nature of contact with biological parents. Additional questions concerned weekend, after-school, and family activities. Parents were asked similar questions about their children's activities and behavior, as well as questions about their own attitudes and concerns regarding parenting.
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Systematic Review of School-Based Programs to Reduce Bullying and Victimization, 1983-2009 (ICPSR 31703)

Released/updated on: 2014-01-24
Geographic coverage: United States, United Kingdom, Switzerland, Global, Spain, New Zealand, Greece, Canada, Czech Republic, Norway, Ireland, Finland, South Africa, Italy, Slovakia, Australia, Germany
Time period: 1983-01-01--2009-01-01
The purpose of this systematic review was to assess the effectiveness of school-based anti-bullying programs in reducing school bullying. The following criteria were used for the inclusion of studies in the systematic review: the study described an evaluation of a program designed specifically to reduce school (kindergarten to high school) bullying; bullying was defined as including: physical, verbal, or psychological attack or intimidation that is intended to cause fear, distress, or harm to the victim; and an imbalance of power, with the more powerful child (or children) oppressing less powerful ones; bullying (specifically) was measured using self-report questionnaires, peer ratings, teacher ratings, or observational data; the effectiveness of the program was measured by comparing students who received it (the experimental condition) with a comparison group of students who did not receive it (the control condition). There must have been some control of extraneous variables in the evaluation by (1) randomization, or (2) pre-test measures of bulling, or (3) choosing some kind of comparable control condition; published and unpublished reports of research conducted in developed countries between 1983 and 2009 were included; and it was possible to measure the effect size. Several search strategies were used to identify 89 anti-bully studies meeting the criteria for inclusion in this review: researchers searched for the names of established researchers in the area of bullying prevention; researchers conducted a keyword search of 18 electronic databases; researchers conducted a manual search of 35 journals, either online or in print, from 1983 until the end of May 2009; and researchers sought information from key researchers on bullying and from international colleagues in the Campbell Collaboration. Studies included in the review were coded for the following key features: research design, sample size, publication date, location of the study, average age of the children, and the duration and intensity of the anti-bullying program for both the children and the teachers.
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Testing Integrative Models to Improve School Safety: Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports and the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program, South Carolina, 2015-2018 (ICPSR 37397)

Released/updated on: 2020-12-17
Geographic coverage: United States, South Carolina
Time period: 2015-01-01--2018-01-01

Many schools have implemented programs to address bullying, such as the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program (OBPP), or broader school behavioral issues, such as School-wide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (SWPBIS), but there have been calls to integrate school interventions in order to address the limits of each "stand alone" program. The purpose of this project was to develop an intervention combining OBPP and SWPBIS strategies into one integrated program, evaluate its effectiveness using a randomized controlled trial (RCT), analyze the program's cost effectiveness, and examine the use of school-based mental health services in elementary, middle, and high school settings. Implications for policy and strategy are also discussed.

School-level data were presented including disciplinary incidents, student and teacher attendance, program costs, and the presence of mental health services. Students and teachers within intervention and control conditions were surveyed about their perceptions of bullying, school safety, and school climate. Teachers in intervention schools were asked about program satisfaction, self-efficacy, and fidelity. Students were asked numerous questions pertaining to physical and mental health, bullying perpetration and victimization, and substance abuse. Teachers and students were asked their grade, gender, and race.

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Understanding the Impact of School Safety on the High School Transition Experience: From Etiology to Prevention, Flint, Michigan, 2016 (ICPSR 37999)

Released/updated on: 2021-06-29
Geographic coverage: Flint, United States, Michigan

This is a multi-method study of school violence and victimization during the transition to high school. This study has two major data collection efforts. First, a full population survey of 7th through 10th grade students across 10 Flint Community Schools (fall 2016) -- which serve primarily African American and poor populations -- that will identify patterns of student victimization, including the location and seriousness of violent events, and examine the connections between school and community violence. This will be followed by a three-wave panel qualitative study of 100 students interviewed every 6 months beginning in the spring of their 8th grade year (spring 2017) and continuing through their 9th grade year.

The goal of the interviews will be to further the research from the survey and develop a deeper understanding of how school safety impacts the transition experience, school violence, including how communities conflict impacts school safety, and what youth do to protect themselves from school-related victimization.

Researchers integrated crime incident data from the Flint police department as a source for triangulation of findings. A community workgroup will provide guided translation of findings generated from mixed-methods analyses, and develop an action plan to help students successfully transition to high school. Results and policy implications will be given to practitioner, researcher, and public audiences through written, oral, and web-based forums. De-identified data will be archived at the National Archive of Criminal Justice Data.

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Violent Incidents Among Selected Public School Students in Two Large Cities of the South and the Southern Midwest, 1995: [United States] (ICPSR 2027)

Released/updated on: 2012-08-22
Geographic coverage: United States
This study of violent incidents among middle- and high-school students focused not only on the types and frequency of these incidents, but also on their dynamics -- the locations, the opening moves, the relationship between the disputants, the goals and justifications of the aggressor, the role of third parties, and other factors. For this study, violence was defined as an act carried out with the intention, or perceived intention, of physically injuring another person, and the "opening move" was defined as the action of a respondent, antagonist, or third party that was viewed as beginning the violent incident. Data were obtained from interviews with 70 boys and 40 girls who attended public schools with populations that had high rates of violence. About half of the students came from a middle school in an economically disadvantaged African-American section of a large southern city. The neighborhood the school served, which included a public housing project, had some of the country's highest rates of reported violent crime. The other half of the sample were volunteers from an alternative high school attended by students who had committed serious violations of school rules, largely involving illegal drugs, possession of handguns, or fighting. Many students in this high school, which is located in a large city in the southern part of the Midwest, came from high-crime areas, including public housing communities. The interviews were open-ended, with the students encouraged to speak at length about any violent incidents in school, at home, or in the neighborhood in which they had been involved. The 110 interviews yielded 250 incidents and are presented as text files, Parts 3 and 4. The interview transcriptions were then reduced to a quantitative database with the incident as the unit of analysis (Part 1). Incidents were diagrammed, and events in each sequence were coded and grouped to show the typical patterns and sub-patterns in the interactions. Explanations the students offered for the violent-incident behavior were grouped into two categories: (1) "justifications," in which the young people accepted responsibility for their violent actions but denied that the actions were wrong, and (2) "excuses," in which the young people admitted the act was wrong but denied responsibility. Every case in the incident database had at least one physical indicator of force or violence. The respondent-level file (Part 2) was created from the incident-level file using the AGGREGATE procedure in SPSS. Variables in Part 1 include the sex, grade, and age of the respondent, the sex and estimated age of the antagonist, the relationship between respondent and antagonist, the nature and location of the opening move, the respondent's response to the opening move, persons present during the incident, the respondent's emotions during the incident, the person who ended the fight, punishments imposed due to the incident, whether the respondent was arrested, and the duration of the incident. Additional items cover the number of times during the incident that something was thrown, the respondent was pushed, slapped, or spanked, was kicked, bit, or hit with a fist or with something else, was beaten up, cut, or bruised, was threatened with a knife or gun, or a knife or gun was used on the respondent. Variables in Part 2 include the respondent's age, gender, race, and grade at the time of the interview, the number of incidents per respondent, if the respondent was an armed robber or a victim of an armed robbery, and whether the respondent had something thrown at him/her, was pushed, slapped, or spanked, was kicked, bit, or hit with a fist or with something else, was beaten up, was threatened with a knife or gun, or had a knife or gun used on him/her.