Table 31. Percentage of public middle schools reporting that their efforts to reduce or prevent crime at school were limited due to specified non-school-level factors, by selected school characteristics: School year 2003

Crime and Safety Surveys

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Table 31. Percentage of public middle schools reporting that their efforts to reduce or prevent crime at school were limited due to specified non-school-level factors, by selected school characteristics: School year 2003–04

School characteristic	Inadequate funds	Fear of district or state reprisal	Federal, state, or district policies on disciplining special education students¹	Other federal policies on discipline and safety	Other state or district policies on discipline and safety
All public schools	64	17	70	32	32

Enrollment size
Less than 300	61	12	53	20	18
300–499	67	20	73	36	35
500–999	64	17	72	34	33
1,000 or more	62	21	72	33	35

Urbanicity
City	68	24	76	35	38
Urban fringe	56	14	64	28	27
Town	70	18	77	37	36
Rural	67	15	68	33	30

Crime level where students live²
High	70	35	78	40	42
Moderate	71	27	77	43	46
Low	61	12	66	28	26
Mixed	62	14	69	29	26

Percent minority enrollment³
Less than 5 percent	61	10	61	30	25
5 to 20 percent	60	10	66	24	25
20 to 50 percent	64	20	77	35	33
50 percent or more	68	26	71	36	39

Percent of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch
0–20 percent	50	10	61	21	20
21–50 percent	67	12	70	29	29
More than 50 percent	69	28	75	42	41

Percent of students below 15^th percentile on standardized tests
0–5 percent	48	10	60	25	22
6–15 percent	67	16	70	31	33
More than 15 percent	71	24	76	39	37

Percent of students likely to attend college
0–35 percent	69	26	75	40	39
36–60 percent	68	17	73	32	32
More than 60 percent	56	10	62	25	25

Percent of students who consider academic achievement important
0–25 percent	72	24	76	45	48
26–50 percent	71	25	78	41	38
51–75 percent	68	17	71	33	32
More than 75 percent	51	10	60	21	21

Percent male enrollment
0–44 percent	62	28	64	38	39
45–55 percent	63	17	71	32	32
More than 55 percent	69	19	64	32	27

Student-to-teacher ratio⁴
Less than 12 students	62	17	67	29	28
12–16 students	67	20	73	36	36
More than 16 students	62	14	68	31	31

Number of classroom changes⁵
0–3 changes	63	14	59	37	35
4–6 changes	63	19	68	36	36
More than 6 changes	64	17	72	29	28

Regular use of law enforcement⁶
Regular use	65	18	72	34	34
No regular use	62	16	66	30	28

Number of serious discipline problems⁷
No problems	54	12	61	25	23
1 problem	66	12	70	28	27
2 problems	77	28	81	46	47
3 or more problems	75	29	82	44	49

Transfers as a percentage of enrollment⁸
0 to 6 percent	62	17	62	31	31
6 to 11 percent	59	14	66	31	26
11 to 21 percent	68	20	70	34	33
21 percent or more	64	18	78	32	35

Prevalence of schoolwide disruptions⁹
No disruptions	64	17	69	30	29
Any disruptions	66	22	78	50	54

Percent of students absent on a daily basis
0–2 percent	60	10	72	28	26
3–5 percent	61	17	65	28	27
6–10 percent	69	19	77	38	38
More than 10 percent	63	23	75	48	47

Prevalence of violent incidents¹⁰
No violent incidents	58	20	56	24	21
Any violent incidents	64	17	71	33	32
¹ A special education student was defined for respondents as "a child with a disability, defined as mental retardation, hearing impairments (including deafness), speech or language impairments, visual impairments (including blindness), serious emotional disturbance, orthopedic impairments, autism, traumatic brain injury, other health impairments, or specific learning disabilities, and who needs special education and related services and receives these under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)."
² 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."
³ These estimates exclude data from Tennessee because schools in this state did not report estimates of student race.
⁴Student-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.
⁵ Respondents were asked, "How many classroom changes do most students make in a typical day?" Responses exclude morning arrival and afternoon departure.
⁶ 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?"
⁷ 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.
⁸ 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.
⁹ 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. 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.

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