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Table 3.  Number and percentage of public elementary schools reporting physical assaults with the number of incidents reported, by selected school characteristics: 1999–2000


School characteristic Rape or attempted rape1   Sexual battery other than rape2   Physical attack or fight3 with a weapon4   Physical attack or fight3 without a weapon4
Num-
ber of schools
Per-
cent of schools
Num-
ber of incidents
  Num-
ber of schools
Per-
cent of schools
Num-
ber of incidents
  Num-
ber of schools
Per-
cent of schools
Num-
ber of incidents
  Num-
ber of schools
Per-
cent of schools
Num-
ber of incidents
All public elementary schools# # #   520 1 650   1,846 4 5,666   26,299 53 390,620
                               
Enrollment size                               
Less than 300  # # #   # # #     5,936 46 36,540
300–499  # # #     687 4 1,170   8,826 54 111,205
500–999  # # #   297 2 428   1,000 5 4,060   10,729 57 223,700
1,000 or more  # # #   # # #     809 50 19,176
                               
Urbanicity                               
City  # # #   358 3 417   718 5 1,550   8,185 62 150,892
Urban fringe  # # #   162 1 233   669 4 1,592   7,297 44 77,570
Town  # # #   # # #   251 5 2,315   3,035 54 74,943
Rural  # # #   # # #   209 1 209   7,782 54 87,215
                               
Crime level where students live5                               
High  # # #   221 5 280   325 8 325   2,825 67 123,852
Moderate  # # #   # # #   533 6 1,334   5,175 55 109,823
Low  # # #   299 1 370   813 3 3,161   15,997 50 133,755
Mixed  # # #   # # #   175 4 845   2,228 55 21,357
                               
Percent minority enrollment5                               
0–5 percent  # # #   # # #   223 2 579   7,271 52 75,326
6–20 percent  # # #     298 3 983   5,447 51 64,213
21–50 percent  # # #     562 6 2,374   4,692 48 67,572
More than 50 percent  # # #   358 2 417   763 5 1,730   8,353 57 178,814
                               
Percent of students eligible for free/reduced-price lunch                               
0–20 percent  # # #     290 2 290   5,230 42 51,697
21–50 percent  # # #     571 4 1,716   8,205 52 91,931
More than 50 percent  # # #   428 2 488   985 5 3,660   12,864 59 246,992
                               
Percent of students below 15th percentile on standardized tests                               
0–5 percent  # # #   # # #   285 2 389   6,976 45 70,412
6–15 percent  # # #   # # #   627 3 3,457   10,449 55 108,074
More than 15 percent  # # #   520 3 650   934 6 1,819   8,873 58 212,134
                               
Percent of students likely to attend college                               
0–35 percent  # # #   291 2 351   636 4 964   10,125 62 195,066
36–60 percent  # # #   228 1 299   852 5 4,239   10,189 56 140,919
More than 60 percent  # # #   # # #   359 2 463   5,985 39 54,635
                               
Percent of students who consider academic achievement important                              
0–25 percent  # # #   # # #     2,538 72 41,488
26–50 percent  # # #   449 4 508   469 4 714   7,436 67 89,706
51–75 percent  # # #   # # #   571 4 1,611   7,731 51 149,956
More than 75 percent  # # #     660 3 3,194   8,594 43 109,470
                               
Percent male enrollment                               
0–44 percent  # # #       3,720 60 64,904
45–55 percent  # # #   312 1 371   1,426 4 5,173   19,682 53 290,518
More than 55 percent  # # #   # # #   366 6 439   2,897 44 35,199
                               
Student/teacher ratio5,6                               
Less than 12  # # #   293 2 364   503 3 1,343   7,994 49 115,650
12–16  # # #     624 4 2,971   8,107 50 114,819
More than 16  # # #     719 5 1,352   9,306 62 151,046
                               
Number of classroom changes5                               
                             
0–3 changes  # # #     668 3 3,816   9,975 49 139,048
4–6 changes  # # #   207 1 337   823 4 1,379   12,282 54 196,581
More than 6 changes  # # #   176 3 176   356 6 470   3,658 61 51,760
                               
Use of paid law enforcement7                               
Regular use  # # #   293 2 352   580 3 1,050   10,425 57 229,813
No regular use  # # #   227 1 298   1,267 4 4,616   15,874 50 160,807
                               
Number of serious discipline problems8                               
No problems  # # #   284 1 284   803 2 1,518   15,386 47 134,022
1 problem  # # #     269 3 1,109   5,093 58 90,331
2 problems  # # #     305 7 2,086   2,740 64 71,592
3 or more problems  # # #     469 11 953   3,080 74 94,675
                               
Transfers as percentage of enrollment5,9                               
0 to 6 percent  # # #     445 4 2,912   4,141 41 35,065
6 to 11 percent  # # #     373 3 456   5,052 47 41,319
11 to 21 percent  # # #   284 2 355   285 2 285   6,671 58 58,304
21 percent or more  # # #     608 4 1,877   9,355 60 233,358
                               
Prevalence of schoolwide disruptions5,10                               
No disruptions  # # #   449 1 579     23,099 52 348,090
Any disruptions  # # #   # # #   1,704 4 5,040   1,674 74 19,571
                               
Percent of students absent without excuses                               
None  # # #   # # #   353 3 782   4,011 39 46,137
1–2 percent  # # #     793 4 4,069   11,731 55 140,123
3–5 percent  # # #     499 4 614   7,674 59 134,631
6–10 percent  # # #   182 6 182   200 6 200   1,982 60 55,560
More than 10 percent  # # #   # # #   # # #   902 45 14,169
# Rounds to zero.
‡ Reporting standards not met.
1 Rape was defined for respondents as, "forced sexual intercourse (vaginal, anal, or oral penetration). This includes penetration from a foreign object."
2 Sexual battery was defined for respondents as an, "incident that includes threatened rape, fondling, indecent liberties, child molestation, or sodomy. Classification of these incidents should take into consideration the age and developmentally appropriate behavior of the offender(s)."
3 Physical attack or fight was defined for respondents as an, "actual and intentional touching or striking of another person against his or her will, or the intentional causing of bodily harm to an individual."
4 Weapon was defined for respondents as, "any instrument or object used with the intent to threaten, injure, or kill. Includes look-alikes if they are used to threaten others."
5 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.
6 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.
7 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.
8 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.
9 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.
10 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.
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. 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.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS), 2000.