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Table 27.  Percentage of public secondary schools that monitored access to their campus in specified ways and the mean number of policies per school reported, by selected school characteristics: 1999–2000


School characteristic Percentage Mean number of these policies3
Require visitors to sign or check in Control access to school buildings during school hours1 Control access to school grounds during school hours2 Require students to pass through metal detectors each day Require visitors to pass through metal detectors Perform one or more random metal detector checks on students Close the campus for most students during lunch
All public secondary schools 96 71 35 3 3 15 72 3.0
                 
Enrollment size                
Less than 300 91 51 18 ‡ ‡ ‡ 67 2.3
300–499 95 73 25 # ‡ 8 65 2.7
500–999 98 78 31 3 3 15 75 3.0
1,000 or more97 73 49 5 5 21 76 3.3
                 
Urbanicity                
City 98 76 59 11 12 34 75 3.6
Urban fringe 96 79 39 ‡ ‡ 9 78 3.0
Town 99 68 29 3 2 12 66 2.8
Rural 93 61 20 ‡ ‡ 9 69 2.5
                 
Crime level where students live4                
High 100 77 74 18 18 33 80 4.0
Moderate 99 76 46 7 7 25 78 3.4
Low 95 68 28 1 1 8 70 2.7
Mixed 97 74 44 6 5 29 78 3.3
                 
Percent minority enrollment4                
0–5 percent 93 74 18 # ‡ 4 77 2.7
6–20 percent 98 75 30 ‡ ‡ 7 66 2.8
21–50 percent 95 63 42 ‡ ‡ 16 69 2.9
More than 50 percent 99 74 62 12 12 37 77 3.7
                 
Percent of students eligible for free/reduced-price lunch                
0–20 percent 97 74 35 # # 4 72 2.8
21–50 percent 93 66 26 3 4 18 71 2.8
More than 50 percent 99 72 56 10 9 31 78 3.6
                 
Percent of students below 15th percentile on standardized tests                
0–5 percent 95 69 28 2 2 10 70 2.8
6–15 percent 96 72 31 1 2 12 72 2.9
More than 15 percent 96 70 52 8 9 26 76 3.4
                 
Percent of students likely to attend college                
0–35 percent 99 67 40 7 7 22 73 3.2
36–60 percent 96 72 30 2 2 15 71 2.9
More than 60 percent 95 71 37 2 2 11 73 2.9
                 
Percent of students who consider academic achievement important                
0–25 percent 93 62 41 ‡ 5 19 70 2.9
26–50 percent 97 65 39 3 3 16 77 3.0
51–75 percent 94 69 31 5 5 17 73 2.9
More than 75 percent 98 77 36 2 2 11 70 3.0
                 
Percent male enrollment                
0–44 percent 99 82 51 9 11 30 73 3.6
45–55 percent 95 70 35 3 2 13 74 2.9
More than 55 percent 97 65 22 ‡ 5 16 60 2.7
                 
Student/teacher ratio4,5                
Less than 12 93 68 24 2 2 9 76 2.7
12–16 98 74 35 4 4 17 77 3.1
More than 16 97 68 48 4 4 19 66 3.1
                 
Number of classroom changes4                
0–3 changes 97 66 44 # # 7 77 2.9
4–6 changes 96 69 41 5 5 20 72 3.1
More than 6 changes 96 73 30 2 2 10 72 2.8
                 
Use of paid law enforcement6                
Regular use 98 73 38 4 4 16 74 3.1
No regular use 81 48 14 # # # 59 2.0
                 
Number of serious discipline problems7                
No problems 95 68 30 3 3 10 70 2.8
1 problem 97 70 37 5 4 16 70 3.0
2 problems 97 71 33 3 4 20 72 3.0
3 or more problems 97 76 47 3 3 19 81 3.3
                 
Transfers as percentage of enrollment4,8                
0 to 6 percent 94 74 36 3 3 12 67 2.9
6 to 11 percent 95 69 28 3 3 11 67 2.8
11 to 21 percent 95 67 36 ‡ ‡ 14 78 2.9
21 percent or more 100 72 40 5 6 22 79 3.2
                 
Prevalence of schoolwide disruptions4,9                
No disruptions 95 68 32 3 3 12 70 2.8
Any disruptions 98 76 44 3 3 21 78 3.2
                 
Percent of students absent without excuses                
None 86 53 10 ‡ ‡ 5 67 2.2
1–2 percent 95 73 30 ‡ ‡ 8 69 2.8
3–5 percent 98 70 41 ‡ 1 13 77 3.0
6–10 percent 99 71 39 6 4 24 74 3.1
More than 10 percent 100 82 57 18 21 38 75 3.9
                 
Prevalence of violent incidents4,10                
No violent incidents 95 72 35 # # 5 63 2.7
Any violent incidents 96 70 35 4 4 16 73 3.0
# Rounds to zero.
‡ Reporting standards not met.
1 For example, locked or monitored doors.
2 For example, locked or monitored gates.
3 Data represents the mean number of "yes" responses to the policies listed.
4 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.
5 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.
6 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.
7 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.
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 bomb threats or anthrax threats. Respondents were instructed to exclude all fire alarms, including false alarms.
10 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." Secondary schools are defined as schools in which the lowest grade is not lower than grade 9 and the highest grade is not higher than grade 12.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS), 2000.

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