Table 20. Number and percentage distribution of serious disciplinary actions taken by public middle schools, by selected school characteristics: 1999

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Table 20. Number and percentage distribution of serious disciplinary actions taken by public middle schools, by selected school characteristics: 1999–2000

School characteristic	Removals with no services		Transfers to specialized schools¹		Out-of-school suspensions		Total removals and transfers
School characteristic	Number	Percent	Number	Percent	Number	Percent	Number	Percent
All public middle schools	32,146	8	26,804	7	323,122	85	58,950	15

Enrollment size
Less than 300	2,531	13	1,560	8	15,989	80	4,091	20
300–499	4,549	9	3,984	8	40,203	82	8,534	18
500–999	20,268	9	12,827	5	202,082	86	33,095	14
1,000 or more	4,798	6	8,432	11	64,848	83	13,230	17

Urbanicity
City	18,369	11	10,459	6	140,005	83	28,829	17
Urban fringe	5,806	4	10,325	8	116,949	88	16,131	12
Town	4,241	13	2,362	7	25,053	79	6,603	21
Rural	3,731	8	3,657	8	41,115	85	7,388	15

Crime level where students live²
High	1,835	4	5,143	10	45,272	87	6,978	13
Moderate	9,749	9	7,126	7	90,187	84	16,876	16
Low	15,551	13	9,585	8	95,733	79	25,137	21
Mixed	3,297	3	4,949	5	90,032	92	8,246	8

Percent minority enrollment²
0–5 percent	3,021	7	3,134	7	40,168	87	6,155	13
6–20 percent	9,421	12	5,013	7	61,327	81	14,434	19
21–50 percent	9,936	9	7,143	6	96,027	85	17,079	15
More than 50 percent	9,073	6	11,462	8	123,969	86	20,535	14

Percent of students eligible for free/reduced-price lunch
0–20 percent	6,378	11	5,516	10	44,620	79	11,894	21
21–50 percent	16,158	10	8,892	5	137,337	85	25,050	15
More than 50 percent	9,610	6	12,396	8	141,164	87	22,006	13

Percent of students below 15^th percentile on standardized tests
0–5 percent	5,190	8	4,238	6	57,395	86	9,473	14
6–15 percent	12,279	9	10,444	8	114,366	83	22,723	17
More than 15 percent	14,678	8	12,076	7	151,362	85	26,754	15

Percent of students likely to attend college
0–35 percent	13,417	8	11,710	7	139,844	85	25,127	15
36–60 percent	9,350	9	8,380	8	85,518	83	17,731	17
More than 60 percent	9,379	8	6,713	6	97,759	86	16,092	14

Percent of students who consider academic achievement important
0–25 percent	2,912	6	4,545	9	42,949	85	7,457	15
26–50 percent	4,831	4	7,175	6	105,129	90	12,007	10
51–75 percent	16,324	13	7,935	7	97,653	80	24,259	20
More than 75 percent	8,079	9	7,148	8	77,391	84	15,227	16

Percent male enrollment
0–44 percent	1,299	3	5,184	12	36,084	85	6,483	15
45–55 percent	29,901	9	19,245	6	269,418	85	49,146	15
More than 55 percent	946	5	2,374	11	17,619	84	3,320	16

Student/teacher ratio²,³
Less than 12	3,612	4	7,102	9	71,419	87	10,715	13
12–16	13,256	8	9,674	6	135,306	86	22,930	14
More than 16	12,374	12	8,561	8	84,849	80	20,936	20

Number of classroom changes²
0–3 changes	427	5	586	7	7,637	88	1,013	12
4–6 changes	10,408	8	12,149	9	107,380	83	22,557	17
More than 6 changes	18,014	9	11,459	6	176,624	86	29,472	14

Use of paid law enforcement⁴
Regular use	23,331	7	23,278	7	280,188	86	46,609	14
No regular use	8,815	16	3,525	6	42,934	78	12,340	22

Number of serious discipline problems⁵
No problems	6,583	13	3,675	7	39,679	79	10,258	21
1 problem	11,428	15	4,728	6	60,565	79	16,156	21
2 problems	9,585	13	5,846	8	60,461	80	15,431	20
3 or more problems	4,550	3	12,555	7	162,416	90	17,105	10

Transfers as percentage of enrollment²,⁶
0 to 6 percent	7,004	9	5,232	7	65,987	84	12,235	16
6 to 11 percent	4,514	7	3,332	5	58,663	88	7,846	12
11 to 21 percent	8,132	9	6,535	7	73,643	83	14,667	17
21 percent or more	11,381	8	10,809	8	114,991	84	22,190	16

Prevalence of schoolwide disruptions²,⁷
No disruptions	22,468	9	18,158	7	217,091	84	40,627	16
Any disruptions	6,199	6	7,237	7	94,771	88	13,436	12

Percent of students absent without excuses
None	1,909	5	2,738	8	30,635	87	4,647	13
1–2 percent	14,029	11	7,968	6	102,209	82	21,997	18
3–5 percent	6,683	5	8,127	7	108,749	88	14,810	12
6–10 percent	5,697	8	6,169	9	57,201	83	11,866	17
More than 10 percent	3,828	13	1,802	6	24,327	81	5,630	19

Prevalence of violent incidents²,⁸
No violent incidents	959	8	377	3	11,288	89	1,336	11
Any violent incidents	30,321	8	26,294	7	310,742	85	56,616	15
¹ Specialized school was defined for respondents as, "a school that is specifically for students who were referred for disciplinary reasons. The school may also have students who were referred for other reasons. The school may be at the same location as your school."
² 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.
³ 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.
⁴ 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.
⁵ 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.
⁶ 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.
⁷ 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.
⁸ 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." 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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