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

School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS)

Publications & Products|SSOCS & SCS Table Library|Staff

Back

Download Excel

(60 KB)

Download SE Excel

(101 KB)

Table 31. Percentage of public elementary 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	Likeli- hood 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	Incon- sistent application of school policies
All public elementary schools	47	68	36	17	40	19	39	32

Enrollment size
Less than 300	48	66	32	14	39	18	39	30
300–499	44	67	33	17	40	21	40	29
500–999	49	71	41	18	41	19	37	35
1,000 or more	53	67	39	17	43	10	42	33

Urbanicity
City	61	75	44	27	55	26	43	42
Urban fringe	38	62	34	11	32	13	36	25
Town	45	74	25	15	37	23	39	35
Rural	47	68	36	15	37	18	38	29

Crime level where students live¹
High	83	88	53	30	73	40	58	62
Moderate	53	75	38	27	54	17	42	36
Low	42	63	32	13	33	17	36	28
Mixed	41	71	43	9	31	15	32	24

Percent minority enrollment¹
0–5 percent	39	64	32	14	36	21	35	31
6–20 percent	41	67	34	13	37	16	42	30
21–50 percent	44	68	26	18	37	14	33	23
More than 50 percent	61	74	48	22	50	23	44	40

Percent of students eligible for free/reduced-price lunch
0–20 percent	33	55	28	10	27	12	38	22
21–50 percent	48	73	39	15	38	19	38	31
More than 50 percent	55	73	39	23	49	23	40	38

Percent of students below 15th percentile on standardized tests
0–5 percent	38	60	33	14	34	16	40	26
6–15 percent	43	68	32	15	37	18	35	28
More than 15 percent	62	78	44	22	51	23	41	43

Percent of students likely to attend college
0–35 percent	54	74	42	21	51	21	42	38
36–60 percent	49	71	38	21	42	24	41	32
More than 60 percent	39	59	28	8	26	11	32	24

Percent of students who consider academic achievement important
0–25 percent	53	86	58	31	53	21	47	42
26–50 percent	60	77	46	24	55	30	46	46
51–75 percent	47	71	38	18	45	21	37	32
More than 75 percent	39	59	25	9	26	10	34	21

Percent male enrollment
0–44 percent	61	76	37	30	47	26	44	47
45–55 percent	45	68	36	15	38	17	38	30
More than 55 percent	46	62	37	18	43	24	39	30

Student/teacher ratio¹,²
Less than 12	43	64	30	20	41	23	37	31
12–16	54	73	38	16	46	14	42	31
More than 16	47	71	40	15	36	18	38	34

Number of classroom changes¹
0–3 changes	47	70	37	18	40	18	37	33
4–6 changes	45	65	35	16	39	19	40	30
More than 6 changes	52	74	42	15	45	21	39	35

Use of paid law enforcement³
Regular use	59	72	46	26	50	25	44	40
No regular use	40	67	30	11	35	15	36	27

Number of serious discipline problems⁴
No problems	41	62	28	11	31	14	33	25
1 problem	48	74	45	26	49	26	45	36
2 problems	71	81	55	28	63	23	51	41
3 or more problems	73	91	59	31	72	42	59	62

Transfers as percentage of enrollment¹,⁵
0 to 6 percent	44	60	35	9	36	16	43	29
6 to 11 percent	37	67	31	17	40	16	29	32
11 to 21 percent	48	70	36	23	41	23	45	35
21 percent or more	57	74	40	19	43	19	39	31

Prevalence of schoolwide disruptions¹,⁶
No disruptions	47	67	35	16	39	18	38	32
Any disruptions	63	83	35	25	44	26	44	41

Percent of students absent without excuses
None	33	54	25	6	24	12	32	22
1–2 percent	49	72	37	20	41	18	37	32
3–5 percent	54	72	41	20	51	24	43	34
6–10 percent	48	73	37	15	46	20	42	47
More than 10 percent	71	79	53	23	39	29	54	32

Prevalence of violent incidents¹,⁷
No violent incidents	40	60	34	14	28	15	35	24
Any violent incidents	52	74	38	18	47	21	41	36
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.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS), 2000.

Back

Download Excel

(60 KB)

Download SE Excel

(101 KB)