Table 31. Percentage of public schools reporting their efforts to reduce or prevent crime were limited by specified school-level characteristics, by selected school characteristics: 1999

Crime and Safety Surveys

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Table 31. Percentage of public schools reporting their efforts to reduce or prevent crime were limited by specified school-level characteristics, by selected school characteristics: 1999–2000

School characteristic	Lack of or inadequate teacher training in classroom management	Lack of or inadequate alternative placements for disruptive students	Likelihood of complaints from parents	Lack of teacher support for school policies	Lack of parental support for school policies	Teachers' fear of student reprisal	Fear of litigation	Inconsistent application of school policies
All public schools	50	67	35	19	42	22	39	32

Level
Elementary	47	68	36	17	40	19	39	32
Middle	52	69	31	22	42	23	41	30
Secondary	53	61	35	24	48	30	37	35
Combined	55	65	31	24	42	24	40	34

Enrollment size
Less than 300	48	65	32	17	40	20	39	29
300–499	48	69	34	18	41	22	40	31
500–999	50	69	38	20	43	21	38	34
1,000 or more	57	62	33	28	45	25	39	36

Urbanicity
City	59	72	39	28	52	26	40	40
Urban fringe	44	63	34	15	37	18	38	28
Town	49	71	28	17	41	25	42	35
Rural	49	67	35	18	40	21	38	30

Crime level where students live ¹
High	79	85	47	32	70	37	53	56
Moderate	56	73	37	28	55	21	43	37
Low	45	63	32	16	35	20	36	29
Mixed	48	69	38	18	43	20	37	30

Percent minority enrollment¹
0–5 percent	45	66	32	16	38	25	38	31
6–20 percent	44	65	33	16	38	19	41	31
21–50 percent	46	65	29	20	42	18	35	25
More than 50 percent	61	72	43	26	51	24	42	40

Percent of students eligible for free/reduced-price lunch
0–20 percent	39	59	30	14	31	18	38	26
21–50 percent	51	70	35	18	42	22	39	31
More than 50 percent	56	71	37	25	50	24	39	38

Percent of students below 15th percentile on standardized tests
0–5 percent	41	58	32	15	36	18	38	27
6–15 percent	48	69	32	19	40	21	38	30
More than 15 percent	61	75	41	25	51	26	42	41

Percent of students likely to attend college
0–35 percent	55	71	39	23	51	23	43	37
36–60 percent	50	69	35	21	43	25	40	31
More than 60 percent	44	61	31	14	32	17	35	28

Percent of students who consider academic achievement important
0–25 percent	56	77	46	29	54	25	47	36
26–50 percent	58	74	42	24	54	28	44	43
51–75 percent	50	69	36	21	45	25	38	33
More than 75 percent	42	60	27	13	29	14	35	24

Percent male enrollment
0–44 percent	60	69	40	29	47	27	42	42
45–55 percent	48	67	34	18	41	21	38	31
More than 55 percent	51	64	34	20	44	23	40	32

Student/teacher ratio¹,²
Less than 12	47	65	32	21	42	25	38	32
12–16	54	68	35	18	45	19	41	32
More than 16	49	69	38	20	41	20	38	34

Number of classroom changes¹
0–3 changes	47	70	37	18	41	18	37	32
4–6 changes	47	63	33	20	43	21	40	31
More than 6 changes	55	70	36	19	43	25	39	34

Use of paid law enforcement ³
Regular use	57	68	39	25	47	26	41	36
No regular use	41	67	30	13	36	17	36	27

Number of serious discipline problems ⁴
No problems	41	60	28	12	31	15	32	25
1 problem	49	71	41	25	48	27	43	36
2 problems	66	75	45	27	57	25	46	40
3 or more problems	72	83	47	35	65	39	56	50

Transfers as percentage of enrollment¹,⁵
0 to 6 percent	47	61	36	15	38	23	42	32
6 to 11 percent	41	66	31	18	42	18	33	31
11 to 21 percent	50	69	36	23	43	25	44	34
21 percent or more	57	72	37	21	44	20	38	31

Prevalence of schoolwide disruptions¹,⁶
No disruptions	48	66	34	18	41	20	38	31
Any disruptions	59	71	35	26	46	29	42	38

Percent of students absent without excuses
None	36	55	26	7	25	15	32	22
1–2 percent	49	69	35	20	41	20	38	32
3–5 percent	55	69	40	23	51	25	42	34
6–10 percent	56	72	33	26	48	26	43	42
More than 10 percent	67	76	43	30	50	31	48	40

Prevalence of violent incidents¹,⁷
No violent incidents	41	60	33	15	30	16	33	24
Any violent incidents	53	70	35	21	46	24	41	35
¹ Some schools are omitted from these categories because of missing data on their school characteristics. For this reason, the detailed results do not sum to the totals. See appendix J of 2000 School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS) Detailed Data Documentation (NCES 2004-307) for further information.
² Student/teacher ratio was calculated by dividing the total number of students enrolled in the school by the total number of full-time equivalent teachers. The total number of full-time equivalent teachers is a combination of the full-time and part-time teachers, including special education teachers, with an adjustment to compensate for the part-time status.
³ Schools were included as regularly using paid law enforcement if they reported the use of paid law enforcement during any of the following times: at any time during school hours, while students were arriving or leaving, at selected school activities, (e.g., athletic and social events, open houses, science fairs), or at any other time that the respondent specified.
⁴ Serious discipline problems is a count of discipline problems reported by principals. These discipline problems include student racial tensions, student bullying, student verbal abuse of teachers, widespread disorder in classrooms, and student acts of disrespect for teachers. If a principal reported that any of these problems occurred daily or weekly in their school, each was counted once in the total number of serious discipline problems. Undesirable gang activities and undesirable cult or extremist group activities were also counted once as a problem if the principal reported that these events occurred at all in their school.
⁵ Transfers as a percentage of enrollment combines the number of students who were transferred to a school and the number of students who were transferred from a school, divided by the total number of students enrolled in the school.
⁶ Schoolwide disruptions include actions that disrupted school activities such as bomb threats or anthrax threats. Respondents were instructed to exclude all fire alarms, including false alarms.
⁷ Violent incidents include rape, sexual battery other than rape, physical attack or fight with or without a weapon, threat of physical attack with or without a weapon, and robbery with or without a weapon.
NOTE: Detail may not sum to totals because of rounding. "At school/at your school" was defined for respondents as including activities happening in school buildings, on school grounds, on school buses, and at places that are holding school-sponsored events or activities. Respondents were instructed to, unless the survey specified otherwise, only respond for those times that were during normal school hours or when school activities/events were in session. A gang was defined for respondents as, "an ongoing loosely organized association of three or more persons, whether formal or informal, that has a common name, signs, symbols or colors, whose members engage, either individually or collectively, in violent or other forms of illegal behavior." Elementary schools are defined as schools in which the lowest grade is not higher than grade 3 and the highest grade is not higher than grade 8. Middle schools are defined as schools in which the lowest grade is not lower than grade 4 and the highest grade is not higher than grade 9. Secondary schools are defined as schools in which the lowest grade is not lower than grade 9 and the highest grade is not higher than grade 12. Combined schools include all other combinations of grades, including K–12 schools.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS), 2000.

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