Bullying and Violence on the School Bus: A Mixed-Methods Assessment of Behavioral Management Strategies, United States, 2016-2018 (ICPSR 37043)

Version Date: Nov 29, 2018

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Principal Investigator(s):
James Trudeau, RTI International

https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR37043.v1

Version V1

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Summary

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 files for a brief dscription of the files available with this collection and consult the investigator(s) if further information is needed.

The qualitative data are not available as part of the data collection at this time.

Numerous high-profile events involving student victimization on school buses have raised critical questions regarding the safety of school-based transportation for children, the efforts taken by school districts to protect students on buses, and the most effective transportation-based behavioral management strategies for reducing misconduct. To address these questions, a national web-based survey was administered to public school district-level transportation officials throughout the United States to assess the prevalence of misconduct on buses, identify strategies to address misconduct, and describe effective ways to reduce student misbehavior on buses. Telephone interviews were also conducted with a small group of transportation officials to understand the challenges of transportation-based behavioral management, to determine successful strategies to create safe and positive school bus environments, and to identify data-driven approaches for tracking and assessing disciplinary referrals.

The collection includes 10 Stata data files:

  • BVSBS_analysis file.dta (n=2,595; 1058 variables)
  • Title Crosswalk File.dta (n=2,594; 3 variables)
  • Lessons Learned and Open Dummies.dta (n=1,543; 200 variables)
  • CCD dataset.dta (n=12,494; 89 variables)
  • BVSB_REGION.dta (n=4; 3 variables)
  • BVSB_SCHOOLS.dta (n=3; 3 variables)
  • BVSB_STUDENTS.dta (n=3; 3 variables)
  • BVSB_URBAN.dta (n=8; 3 variables)
  • BVSB_WHITE.dta (n=3; 3 variables)
  • FINALRAKER.dta (n=2,595; 2 variables)

Citation

Trudeau, James. Bullying and Violence on the School Bus: A Mixed-Methods Assessment of Behavioral Management Strategies, United States, 2016-2018. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2018-11-29. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR37043.v1

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Funding

United States Department of Justice. Office of Justice Programs. National Institute of Justice (2015-CK-BX-0006)

Subject Terms

Geographic Coverage

Smallest Geographic Unit

State

Restrictions

Access to these data is restricted. Users interested in obtaining these data must complete a Restricted Data Use Agreement, specify the reason for the request, and obtain IRB approval or notice of exemption for their research.

Distributor(s)

Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research
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Time Period(s)

2016-09-01 -- 2018-03-01

Date of Collection

2016-09-01 -- 2018-03-01

Data Collection Notes

  1. 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 files for a brief dscription of the files available with this collection and consult the investigator(s) if further information is needed.

  2. The qualitative data are not available as part of the data collection at this time.

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Study Purpose

The study addressed five core research questions:

  1. What is the nature and extent of behavioral problems on school buses and what types of districts have the most problems?
  2. How do school districts attempt to reduce misconduct on buses, and what are commonly-used strategies?
  3. What strategies do transportation officials perceive to be the most effective for reducing misconduct on buses, and are these perceptions contingent on district characteristics (e.g., size, urbanicity)?
  4. What methods do districts use to assess the effectiveness of behavioral management strategies they implement on school buses?
  5. What are key challenges faced by transportation officials in establishing safe and positive school bus environments?

Study Design

The mixed-methods study was conducted in three phases:

  • In Phase I, a national web-based survey was administered to district-level public school transportation officials to gather information about the nature and extent of student misconduct on buses, uncover the variety and prevalence of transportation-based behavioral management strategies, and identify the strategies or approaches that officials perceive to be the most effective for reducing student misconduct on buses.
  • In Phase II, thirty-nine telephone interviews were conducted with district-level transportation officials to understand the challenges of behavioral management, processes by which strategies are implemented, and the conditions under which different approaches are most successful for promoting safe school bus environments. The interviews were also used to understand how districts track student disciplinary referrals and to what extent they use data-driven approaches to assess the effectiveness of their efforts.
  • In Phase III, survey and interview results were systematically analyzed to identify themes related to student misconduct and concerted efforts to regulate student behavior, and to design recommendations that school systems can use to strengthen their transportation-based behavioral management programs.

Sample

A list of 10,384 public school transportation officials and superintendents was merged with the National Center for Education Statistics' (NCES) Common Core Data (CCD) dataset, which provided information on district-level characteristics such as size, urbanicity, and racial composition. The CCD increased the sampling frame to 12,494 districts.

Time Method

Cross-sectional

Universe

Transportation officials employed by public school districts in the United States

Unit(s) of Observation

Public school district transportation officials

Data Type(s)

Mode of Data Collection

Description of Variables

BVSBS_analysis file.dta: school district demographics, use of buses, behavior management strategies for the seven types of bullying, violence, or misbehavior by students, supplementary information on student behaviors while on the bus, demographics of transportation official respondent, and sampling weight

Title Crosswalk File.dta: demographics of transportation official respondent, title used by respondent, and title2 aggregated by P.I

Lessons Learned and Open Dummies.dta: effective and ineffective strategies, challenges of student transportation, observations about student misbehavior, miscellaneous information, and inapplicable information

CCD dataset.dta: district size and number of schools and students, education offerings, district urbanicity, and district racial composition

BVSB_REGION.dta: region of United States: northeast, midwest, south, west, and weighting strategy

BVSB_SCHOOLS.dta: number of schools in the district, and weighting strategy

BVSB_STUDENTS.dta: number of students in the district, and weighting strategy

BVSB_URBAN.dta: urbanicity of district, and weighting strategy

BVSB_WHITE.dta: percentage of white students in the student body, and weighting strategy

FINALRAKER.dta: unique identifier, and sampling weight

Response Rates

21 percent

Presence of Common Scales

Likert-type scales were used.

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Original Release Date

2018-11-29

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Weight

All survey analyses should use the weighting variable provided in the BVSBS_analysis_file.

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Notes

  • 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.

  • The public-use data files in this collection are available for access by the general public. Access does not require affiliation with an ICPSR member institution.

  • One or more files in this data collection have special restrictions. Restricted data files are not available for direct download from the website; click on the Restricted Data button to learn more.