Table 11. Percentage of public middle schools reporting selected types of disciplinary problems happening daily, at least once a week, or at all, by selected school characteristics: 1999

Crime and Safety Surveys

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Table 11. Percentage of public middle schools reporting selected types of disciplinary problems happening daily, at least once a week, or at all, by selected school characteristics: 1999–2000

School characteristic	Happens daily or at least once a week					Happens at all
School characteristic	Student racial tensions	Student bullying	Student verbal abuse of teachers	Widespread disorder in classrooms	Student acts of disrespect for teachers	Undesirable gang¹ activities	Undesirable cult or extremist group² activities
All public middle schools	6	43	22	5	30	31	13

Enrollment size
Less than 300	‡	29	11	‡	16	12	5
300–499	3	41	17	6	27	20	10
500–999	8	47	24	6	33	37	14
1,000 or more	10	52	37	7	43	54	26

Urbanicity
City	7	46	31	7	35	50	16
Urban fringe	8	44	25	5	33	34	16
Town	4	44	16	6	29	25	14
Rural	4	40	13	4	23	14	6

Crime level where students live³
High	16	65	64	17	55	69	28
Moderate	8	50	36	11	44	47	19
Low	4	39	13	3	23	21	10
Mixed	9	50	29	7	38	42	17

Percent minority enrollment³
0–5 percent	2	38	13	2	20	10	9
6–20 percent	9	49	20	3	32	23	12
21–50 percent	7	47	28	6	37	41	16
More than 50 percent	7	41	30	11	33	55	17

Percent of students eligible for free/reduced-price lunch
0–20 percent	3	35	13	1	19	18	11
21–50 percent	6	51	23	5	34	29	12
More than 50 percent	9	40	30	10	35	48	16

Percent of students below 15^th percentile on standardized tests
0–5 percent	2	37	17	4	22	20	13
6–15 percent	7	44	18	3	31	28	12
More than 15 percent	9	48	32	10	36	45	15

Percent of students likely to attend college
0–35 percent	10	43	31	12	39	41	13
36–60 percent	6	47	17	3	26	31	15
More than 60 percent	2	40	19	3	27	23	11

Percent of students who consider academic achievement important
0–25 percent	14	45	40	14	34	36	19
26–50 percent	8	46	25	7	42	40	14
51–75 percent	5	47	20	3	29	31	14
More than 75 percent	3	37	16	4	23	23	10

Percent male enrollment
0–44 percent	7	37	29	9	30	27	11
45–55 percent	6	45	21	5	31	33	14
More than 55 percent	‡	34	18	#	22	18	11

Student/teacher ratio³,⁴
Less than 12	6	43	20	4	31	22	11
12–16	4	42	23	5	31	32	15
More than 16	7	46	23	7	28	37	12

Number of classroom changes³
0–3 changes	9	26	19	7	23	21	11
4–6 changes	5	41	18	6	28	33	12
More than 6 changes	6	44	24	5	31	32	14

Use of paid law enforcement⁵
Regular use	7	47	26	7	34	39	16
No regular use	4	36	12	2	21	14	7

Number of serious discipline problems⁶
No problems	#	#	#	#	#	#	#
1 problem	‡	49	2	#	18	26	4
2 problems	5	62	20	3	44	44	21
3 or more problems	20	89	74	20	77	72	36

Transfers as percentage of enrollment³,⁷
0 to 6 percent	3	37	16	5	23	21	8
6 to 11 percent	6	44	22	6	26	30	15
11 to 21 percent	8	49	21	4	33	29	13
21 percent or more	7	45	28	6	37	42	16

Prevalence of schoolwide disruptions³,⁸
No disruptions	5	41	18	4	27	28	12
Any disruptions	8	54	37	12	44	47	19

Percent of students absent without excuses
None	4	32	7	‡	14	21	12
1–2 percent	6	44	19	4	28	30	13
3–5 percent	5	44	25	6	33	30	11
6–10 percent	9	49	39	8	42	37	18
More than 10 percent	8	61	51	19	64	74	19

Prevalence of violent incidents³,⁹
No violent incidents	‡	14	6	‡	11	14	9
Any violent incidents	7	48	24	6	32	33	14
# Rounds to zero.
‡ Reporting standards not met.
¹ 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."
² Cult or extremist group was defined for respondents as, "a group that espouses radical beliefs and practices, which may include a religious component, that are widely seen as threatening the basic values and cultural norms of society at large."
³ 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.
⁴ 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.
⁵ 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.
⁶ 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.
⁷ 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.
⁸ 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.
⁹ 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. 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.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS), 2000.

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