Table 18. Number of students in public middle schools involved in physical attacks or fights at school, and the number and percentage of students receiving various disciplinary actions, by selected school characteristics: School year 2003

School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS)

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Table 18. Number of students in public middle schools involved in physical attacks or fights at school, and the number and percentage of students receiving various disciplinary actions, by selected school characteristics: School year 2003–04

		Disciplinary actions taken for students involved in physical attacks or fights at school
	Total students involved in recorded offenses	Removals without continuing services		Transfers to specialized schools¹		Out-of-school suspensions lasting 5 or more days		Other disciplinary action²
School characteristic	Number	Number	Percent	Number	Percent	Number	Percent	Number	Percent
All public schools	405,241	2,739	1	17,896	5	86,046	23	266,611	71

Enrollment size
Less than 300	16,792	#	#	599	4	1,863	12	13,398	84
300–499	61,537	586	1	1,236	2	15,130	27	40,008	70
500–999	226,244	1,914	1	12,461	6	44,981	21	151,482	72
1,000 or more	100,667	240	#	3,601	4	24,072	27	61,723	69

Urbanicity
City	153,622	1,375	1	11,614	8	37,575	26	91,317	64
Urban fringe	146,790	1,085	1	3,248	2	26,772	20	101,008	76
Town	50,730	53	#	1,063	2	10,349	21	37,152	76
Rural	54,099	227	#	1,971	4	11,350	22	37,134	73

Crime level where students live³
High	64,055	1,210	2	5,844	10	20,461	34	33,320	55
Moderate	139,109	565	#	7,275	6	32,626	25	89,913	69
Low	132,267	529	#	3,441	3	20,796	18	91,610	79
Mixed	69,811	435	1	1,336	2	12,163	19	51,768	79

Percent minority enrollment⁴
Less than 5 percent	31,263	102	#	387	1	4,785	17	23,363	82
5 to 20 percent	67,398	80	#	1,577	3	8,234	14	50,753	84
20 to 50 percent	109,212	607	1	3,783	4	18,195	19	73,210	76
50 percent or more	190,100	1,927	1	11,696	6	53,250	29	114,345	63

Percent of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch
0–20 percent	47,833	114	#	958	2	7,516	17	35,408	80
21–50 percent	131,255	927	1	4,953	4	20,049	17	88,908	77
More than 50 percent	226,152	1,697	1	11,985	6	58,481	27	142,295	66

Percent of students below 15^th percentile on standardized tests
0–5 percent	51,969	274	1	1,381	3	6,224	13	39,582	83
6–15 percent	148,050	493	#	5,283	4	28,200	21	98,651	74
More than 15 percent	205,223	1,972	1	11,232	6	51,622	27	128,378	66

Percent of students likely to attend college
0–35 percent	184,952	1,621	1	9,671	6	43,006	25	120,379	69
36–60 percent	134,571	794	1	4,942	4	28,641	24	84,808	71
More than 60 percent	85,718	324	#	3,283	4	14,399	18	61,424	77

Percent of students who consider academic achievement important
0–25 percent	73,343	480	1	5,562	8	19,803	29	41,990	62
26–50 percent	109,839	1,447	1	4,356	4	24,550	23	74,207	71
51–75 percent	132,580	634	1	4,647	4	29,720	24	88,496	72
More than 75 percent	89,478	177	#	3,332	4	11,973	15	61,919	80

Percent male enrollment
0–44 percent	28,991	859	3	4,735	19	5,090	20	14,322	57
45–55 percent	349,469	1,794	1	11,869	4	74,014	23	236,247	73
More than 55 percent	26,781	86	#	1,292	5	6,942	28	16,042	66

Student-to-teacher ratio⁵
Less than 12 students	145,072	1,121	1	7,485	6	26,752	20	99,628	74
12–16 students	160,387	1,390	1	7,132	5	39,303	26	100,587	68
More than 16 students	99,782	228	#	3,279	4	19,991	22	66,397	74

Number of classroom changes⁶
0–3 changes	10,104	34	#	121	1	2,585	27	6,776	71
4–6 changes	159,257	1,624	1	8,689	6	36,072	24	101,276	69
More than 6 changes	235,880	1,081	1	9,086	4	47,388	22	158,559	73

Regular use of law enforcement⁷
Regular use	309,542	1,978	1	15,422	5	68,049	24	202,129	70
No regular use	95,699	760	1	2,474	3	17,997	21	64,482	75

Number of serious discipline problems⁸
No problems	108,202	409	#	4,255	4	20,819	21	73,433	74
1 problem	76,542	665	1	2,230	3	15,276	22	52,230	74
2 problems	91,073	1,298	2	2,590	3	19,296	22	62,793	73
3 or more problems	129,424	367	#	8,821	7	30,656	26	78,156	66

Transfers as a percentage of enrollment⁹
0 to 6 percent	42,369	292	1	1,233	3	9,190	24	27,618	72
6 to 11 percent	67,362	1,076	2	1,442	2	15,025	24	44,908	72
11 to 21 percent	118,051	725	1	3,684	3	25,900	23	81,837	73
21 percent or more	177,458	645	#	11,538	7	35,931	22	112,248	70

Prevalence of schoolwide disruptions¹⁰
No disruptions	347,594	2,338	1	15,911	5	65,732	21	234,917	74
Any disruptions	57,646	400	1	1,986	4	20,313	37	31,694	58

Percent of students absent on a daily basis
0–2 percent	18,004	17	#	753	5	3,404	21	12,303	75
3–5 percent	169,493	1,633	1	5,983	4	24,741	16	120,917	79
6–10 percent	191,243	992	1	10,175	6	52,592	29	116,675	65
More than 10 percent	26,501	97	#	986	4	5,308	23	16,715	72
# Rounds to zero.
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 Other disciplinary actions include suspension less than 5 days, detention, etc.
³ 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."
⁴ These estimates exclude data from Tennessee because schools in this state did not report estimates of student race.
⁵ 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.
⁶ Respondents were asked, "How many classroom changes do most students make in a typical day?" Responses exclude morning arrival and afternoon departure.
⁷ 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?"
⁸ 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.
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 death threats, bomb threats, and chemical, biological, or radiological threats. Respondents were instructed to exclude all fire alarms, including false alarms.
NOTE: The numbers of students involved in offenses were provided by the principal or the person most knowledgeable about discipline issues at the school. Detail may not sum to totals because of rounding. 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.

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