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Table 13.  Percentage of public middle schools reporting that specified disciplinary actions were allowable, by selected school characteristics: School year 2003–04


Percentage of schools allowing specific disciplinary action
School characteristic Referral to school counselor Assigned to program to reduce disciplinary problems during school hours Assigned toprogram to reduce disciplinary problems outside of school hours Kept offschool bus due to misbehavior Corporal punishment Put on school probation Detention and/or Saturday school Lossof student privileges Require participation in community service
All public schools 98 65 39 94 17 73 88 96 41
                   
Enrollment size                  
Less than 300 96 56 36 88 25 71 85 94 37
300–499 99 57 35 97 21 71 88 96 35
500–999 98 69 40 96 16 75 89 97 44
1,000 or more 100 73 44 93 9 74 90 94 39
                   
Urbanicity                  
City 100 76 51 91 9 75 89 95 46
Urban fringe 98 63 36 92 13 75 90 96 42
Town 100 63 38 99 27 73 84 97 30
Rural 95 60 32 98 25 70 86 98 40
                   
Crime level where students live1                   
High  100 77 46 84 9 75 94 93 55
Moderate  98 72 42 94 17 77 89 96 41
Low  98 61 36 96 19 72 87 97 37
Mixed  96 66 43 94 15 72 87 96 48
                   
Percent minority enrollment2                  
Less than 5 percent  98 61 33 97 10 65 87 98 34
5 to 20 percent  100 58 38 97 15 71 90 97 44
20 to 50 percent  97 66 38 96 21 75 90 98 37
50 percent or more  97 73 44 89 18 78 86 94 44
                   
Percent of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch                  
0–20 percent  99 58 33 95 7 69 90 97 44
21–50 percent  98 64 36 96 16 74 88 97 37
More than 50 percent  97 71 45 92 25 76 87 94 41
                   
Percent of students below 15th percentile on standardized tests                  
0–5 percent  99 64 39 96 17 74 88 99 45
6–15 percent  97 63 35 95 16 71 87 96 37
More than 15 percent  98 70 44 93 19 76 89 94 42
                   
Percent of students likely to attend college                  
0–35 percent  98 67 39 95 26 76 88 96 39
36–60 percent  98 67 41 95 19 73 86 97 41
More than 60 percent  98 62 37 94 9 72 89 96 42
                   
Percent of students who consider academic achievement important                  
0–25 percent  96 61 42 93 21 75 89 93 31
26–50 percent  98 72 45 95 25 78 90 96 48
51–75 percent  98 63 36 95 18 75 89 97 42
More than 75 percent  98 65 37 93 10 68 86 96 38
                   
Percent male enrollment                  
0–44 percent  95 57 40 94 9 79 85 97 34
45–55 percent  98 66 40 94 18 73 89 96 41
More than 55 percent  99 64 24 94 19 77 82 94 46
                   
Student-to-teacher ratio3                  
Less than 12 students  99 63 38 93 16 72 89 95 41
12–16 students  98 66 39 96 21 77 88 98 39
More than 16 students  96 68 39 93 13 69 88 95 43
                   
Number of classroom changes4                   
0–3 changes  84 57 34 87 10 53 84 95 32
4–6 changes  97 61 39 94 18 79 85 95 42
More than 6 changes  100 69 39 95 18 71 90 97 40
                   
Regular use of law enforcement5                   
Regular use  99 69 41 95 17 76 90 96 43
No regular use  97 58 34 94 18 68 85 96 37
                   
Number of serious discipline problems6                  
No problems  97 60 35 93 16 71 83 95 38
1 problem  99 68 39 97 23 75 89 99 40
2 problems  100 68 42 96 21 78 95 95 43
3 or more problems  99 73 46 93 9 74 94 96 46
                   
Transfers as a percentage of enrollment7                  
0 to 6 percent 100 61 37 94 8 70 87 97 41
6 to 11 percent 97 64 39 93 15 73 88 98 43
11 to 21 percent 98 66 38 96 22 74 87 97 40
21 percent or more 97 68 42 94 21 76 89 93 39
                   
Prevalence of schoolwide disruptions8                   
No disruptions 98 65 38 94 18 74 87 96 40
Any disruptions 99 71 47 96 13 72 93 97 44
                   
Percent of students absent on a daily basis                   
0–2 percent  99 54 20 91 19 63 83 94 32
3–5 percent  97 63 38 96 19 74 88 97 39
6–10 percent  99 70 46 93 15 76 90 97 44
More than 10 percent  95 72 36 92 13 70 84 90 43
                   
Prevalence of violent incidents9                  
No violent incidents 100 57 31 87 23 54 67 92 34
Any violent incidents 98 66 39 95 17 75 89 96 41
1 Respondents were asked, "How would you describe the crime level in the area(s) in which your students live?" Response options included "high level of crime," "moderate level of crime," "low level of crime," and "students come from areas with very different levels of crime."
2 These estimates exclude data from Tennessee because schools in this state did not report estimates of student race.
3 Student-to-teacher ratio was calculated by dividing the total number of students enrolled in the school by the total number of full-time-equivalent teachers and aides. The total number of full-time-equivalent teachers and aides is a combination of the full-time and part-time teachers and aides, including special education teachers and aides, with an adjustment to compensate for the part-time status.
4 Respondents were asked, "How many classroom changes do most students make in a typical day?" Responses exclude morning arrival and afternoon departure.
5 Respondents were asked, "During the 2003–2004 school year, did you have any sworn law enforcement officers, security guards, or security personnel present at your school on a regular basis?"
6 Serious discipline problems include student racial tensions, student bullying, student sexual harassment of other students, student verbal abuse of teachers, widespread disorder in classrooms, student acts of disrespect for teachers, gang activities, and cult or extremist group activities. If a respondent 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.
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 death threats, bomb threats, and chemical, biological, or radiological 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: Responses were provided by the principal or the person most knowledgeable about crime and safety issues at school.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS), 2004.