School-level Data Research Articles

Do more eyes on the street reduce Crime? Evidence from Chicago's safe passage program

Chicago's Safe Passage program attempts to ensure the safety of student traveling to and from schools by placing civilian guards along specified routes. The program was launched during the 2009-2010 school year and was expanded to 140 schools by 2015-16. We use data from more than 10 years of geocoded Chicago police reports and school level data to analyze the Safe Passage program's effects on crime rates and the rate of absenteeism from schools. Our findings suggest that the program is an efficient and cost effective alternative way of policing with direct effects on crime and student's outcomes. Exploiting both spatial and temporal variation in the implementation of the program, we find that the presence of guards results in lower levels of crime, with violent crime declining by 14% on average. The rate of absenteeism is estimated to decline by 2.5 percentage points. We find no evidence of spillovers of crime to areas that are not along the Safe Passage routes.

School effectiveness and students' future orientation: A multilevel analysis of upper secondary schools in Stockholm, Sweden

IntroductionFuture orientation (FO) refers to individuals' beliefs and feelings about their future. Earlier research has primarily investigated correlates of FO at the individual and family level, but it seems likely that FO is also shaped by other central agents or institutions, such as the school. Earlier studies have found positive associations between “school effectiveness” and student performance, and negative associations in relation to e.g., bullying, delinquency, and health risk behaviors. The current study investigated three teacher-reported features of school effectiveness - school leadership, teacher cooperation and consensus, and school ethos - and their links with student-reported FO. MethodsSurvey data were collected in 2016 among 5131 students (aged 17–18 years) and 1061 teachers in 46 upper secondary schools in Stockholm, Sweden, and merged with school-level register data. Two-level binary logistic regression analyses were performed. ResultsThe analyses showed that higher teacher ratings of school leadership and school ethos were associated with a greater likelihood of reporting an optimistic FO among students. Teacher cooperation and consensus was however not associated with students' FO. ConclusionThe findings indicate that the school environment contributes to shaping students' beliefs about their future. Thus, enhancing features of school effectiveness may be a way of promoting a positive development and brighter objective future prospects for the young, via pathways such as good student-teacher relations and academic motivation and achievement.

School-Based Health Centers and School Connectedness.

Improvements in health behaviors and academic outcomes have been associated with school-based health centers (SBHCs). However, underlying mechanisms for these associations have been largely unexamined, particularly among lower-income youth. The current study examines the relationship between SBHCs and school connectedness and whether this relationship differs by youths' socioeconomic status (SES). Student-level cross-sectional data from 503 traditional high schools in California were analyzed using multilevel regression models. California Healthy Kids Survey 2013-2014 data included information on 3 dimensions of school connectedness and demographic characteristics including SES as measured by parental education. School-level demographic data was gathered from publicly available sources. Although no significant relationship between SBHCs and any of the school connectedness dimensions emerged, there were significant cross-level interactions between SBHCs and parent education. SBHCs were more positively associated with school connectedness (adult caring, adult expectations, and meaningful participation) among lower SES students compared to students with higher SES. SBHCs may be particularly effective in affecting school connectedness among lower income youth populations. This has wide ranging implications with regards to planning (eg, careful selection of where SBHCs can be most effective), and future research (eg, examining the effectiveness of specific SBHC strategies that support connectedness).

School-level changes in factors related to oral health inequalities after national recommendation on sweet selling.

Aims: In 2007, Finnish authorities gave a national recommendation that schools should not sell sweet products. This study aimed to determine the effects of the national recommendation on school-level intermediary determinants (factors related to oral health inequalities) and if the changes were different according to school-level socio-economic position (SEP). Methods: This ecological and longitudinal study combined school-level data from two independent studies from Finnish upper comprehensive schools (N = 970): the School Health Promotion study (SHPS) and the School Sweet Selling survey (SSSS). The baseline data (SHPS from 2006-2007 and SSSS from 2007) and the post-intervention data (SHPS and SSSS from 2008-2009) were combined into a longitudinal school-level data set (n = 360 and response rate = 37%). The intermediary determinants were: attitudes and access to intoxicants, school health services, school environment, home environment, schools' health-promoting actions (including sweet product selling) and pupils' eating habits. Three equal-sized school-level SEP group - slow, middle and high - were formed. The changes in the intermediary determinants were analysed using Wilcoxon Signed Ranks test. Differences between school SEP groups were analysed the using Kruskal-Wallis test. Longitudinal linear mixed modelling was used to determine the contribution of intermediary determinants to the changes in pupils' eating habits. Results: The national recommendation was effective in decreasing sweet product selling at schools and the effect was equal in each school-level SEP group. Intermediary determinants contributed differently to eating habits in the three SEP groups. Conclusions: A national recommendation seems to be an effective tool in making the school environment healthier without increasing inequalities.

Structural limitations and functional alternatives reducing suspensions and preserving racial suspension gaps

ABSTRACT Although studies on school suspensions focus on the disproportionate number of Black students receiving them, policy changes reducing suspensions offer new insights into the racial gap. Using annual school-level data from the Chicago Public Schools (2012–2016), I evaluate how a suspension reduction policy affected the number of students receiving suspensions, and the suspension gaps between majority Black schools and other schools. I find that the policy reduced overall suspensions but still preserved racial suspension gaps. I argue how structural limitations and functional alternatives played important roles in these consequences, and how this suggests the importance of contextual factors in assisting structural changes.

Examining the roles of parents and community involvement and prevention programs in reducing school violence

ABSTRACTThis study aimed to understand the extent to which parent involvement, community involvement, and schoolwide violence-prevention initiatives reduced school violence, considering school racial/ethnic compositions and crime levels of school locations. We used school-level data collected during the 2009–2010 school year, covering elementary schools (n = 684), middle schools (n = 909), and high schools (n = 948). Results revealed that higher levels of parent involvement in school activities were associated with fewer incidents of school violence for elementary and middle schools, whereas more community involvement in school efforts predicted more school violence. Staff training and student-oriented prevention programs did not relate with school violence in primary and secondary schools. Additionally, parent involvement served as a protective factor for schools with high levels of racial/ethnic minority composition and/or located in neighborhoods with high crime levels. Differences across school levels were taken into consideration when drawing conclusions.

School location and socioeconomic status and patterns of participation and achievement in senior secondary mathematics

In many countries, there is pressure for schools to increase student engagement and skills in mathematics, in particular for disadvantaged students. This is certainly true in Australia. This study repurposes school level data to examine patterns of participation and achievement in senior secondary school mathematics in Victoria, Australia. It confirms that school socioeconomic status (SES) is strongly tied to participation and achievement in these subjects, and that nonmetropolitan schools tend to perform more poorly than metropolitan schools in these areas. It shows that nonmetropolitan schools are less likely to offer advanced mathematics subjects than metropolitan schools, and where they do, their students are less likely to choose those options. This study also reveals that correlations between mathematics performance and SES are far weaker in the nonmetropolitan school population than the metropolitan school population. This suggests that a nonmetropolitan location has a moderating effect on the impact of SES, pointing the way for potentially fruitful lines of future inquiry.

Flexible Bayesian Models for Inferences From Coarsened, Group-Level Achievement Data

This article proposes a flexible extension of the Fay–Herriot model for making inferences from coarsened, group-level achievement data, for example, school-level data consisting of numbers of students falling into various ordinal performance categories. The model builds on the heteroskedastic ordered probit (HETOP) framework advocated by Reardon, Shear, Castellano, and Ho by allowing group parameters to be modeled with regressions on group-level covariates, and residuals modeled using the flexible exponential family of distributions recommended by Efron. We demonstrate that the alternative modeling framework, termed the “Fay–Herriot heteroskedastic ordered probit” (FH-HETOP) model, is useful for mitigating some of the challenges with direct maximum likelihood estimators from the HETOP model. We conduct a simulation study to compare the costs and benefits of several methods for using the FH-HETOP model to estimate group parameters and functions of them, including posterior means, constrained Bayes estimators, and the “triple goal” estimators of Shen and Louis. We also provide an application of the FH-HETOP model to math proficiency data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study. Code for estimating the FH-HETOP model and conducting supporting calculations is provided in a new package for the R environment.

An evaluation of school-based e-cigarette control policies' impact on the use of vaping products.

INTRODUCTIONElectronic cigarette (e-cigarette) use among youth is common, and so efforts to regulate its use and availability are continually being made. The school environment represents an important domain for advancing health policy among youth populations. This study examines the impact of school-based e-cigarette control policies on student e-cigarette use in the context of a natural experiment.METHODSUsing three years of longitudinal student and school level data (2013/2014 to 2015/2016), from a sample of 69 secondary schools in Ontario, Canada, a generalized estimating equation approach examined the impact of school-based e-cigarette control policy changes on the prevalence of youth e-cigarette use. The main outcome of interest was current e-cigarette use, while covariates included age, gender, ethnicity, and amount of spending money in dollars per week the student has. Tests of proportion (t-tests) were used to examine whether there were any significant differences in the changes for each intervention school relative to the sample of schools that report no changes in school-level e-cigarette control policies.RESULTSEstimates from the generalized estimating equation approach suggest that students had lower odds of using e-cigarettes in schools where an e-cigarette control policy was implemented. That is, the e-cigarette control policy decreased the adjusted odds of being an e-cigarette user (OR=0.68; 95% CI: 0.48–0.97). Examining school-specific impact, at four of six schools that had an e-cigarette control policy, the ban on the use of e-cigarettes may have lowered the prevalence of e-cigarette use.CONCLUSIONSThis is the first study to use longitudinal data to study school-level e-cigarette use and the impact of e-cigarette control policy. These results provide new evidence that school-level policies banning the use of e-cigarettes on school property may be effective in reducing e-cigarette use (or preventing it) in their current form, as seen in this natural experiment.

School Discipline Policies, Perceptions of Justice, and In-School Delinquency

School crime has been a national issue for nearly 40 years and remains a concern for students, administrators, parents, and the public. Schools engage in numerous strategies aimed at curbing crime, ranging from harsh disciplinary practices to proactive strategies focused on gaining student compliance. This study examines the impact of disciplinary practices on in-school delinquency, while also considering the influence of students’ perceptions of injustice. Using student- and school-level data from the Rural Substance Abuse and Violence Project and hierarchical Poisson regression analyses, findings reveal that students’ perceptions of injustice were significantly related to in-school delinquency, while proactive and reactive discipline practices, spanning the punitiveness continuum, were not. The findings provide tentative guidance for school-based discipline management policies and practices.

Teachers, Electoral Cycles, and Learning in India

Teachers are central for learning, but their hiring and management can be influenced by political factors, especially when they are civil servants. Using an administrative school-level panel data set for India, we find significant increases in teacher transfers and moderate increases in hiring after state elections. The timing of these elections is pre-determined and staggered across states. The reorganization of teachers is partly related to political turnover. Pupils’ test scores are also up to 0.15 standard deviations lower in the post-election phase. Following a range of estimations for alternative explanations, we conclude that the reorganization of teachers can disrupt learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Pursuit of the Common Good: The Spillover Effects of Charter Schools on Public School Students in New York City

A particularly controversial topic in current education policy is the expansion of the charter school sector. This paper analyzes the spillover effects of charter schools on traditional public school (TPS) students in New York City. I exploit variation in both the timing of charter school entry and distance to the nearest charter school to obtain credibly causal estimates of the impacts of charter schools on TPS student performance, and I am among the first to estimate the impacts of charter school co-location. I further add to the literature by exploring potential mechanisms for these findings with school-level data on per pupil expenditures (PPE), and parent and teacher perceptions of schools. Briefly, I find charter schools significantly increase TPS student performance in both English Language Arts and math, and decrease the probability of grade retention. Effects increase with charter school proximity and are largest in TPSs co-located with charter schools. Potential explanations for improved performance include increased PPE, academic expectations, student engagement, and a more respectful and safe school environment after charter entry. The findings suggest that more charter schools in New York City may be beneficial at the margin, and co-location may be mutually beneficial for charter and traditional public schools.

Short Comparative Interrupted Time Series Using Aggregate School-Level Data in Education Research

Short comparative interrupted times series (CITS) designs are increasingly being used in education research to assess the effectiveness of school-level interventions. These designs can be implemented relatively inexpensively, often drawing on publicly available data on aggregate school performance. However, the validity of this approach hinges on a variety of assumptions and design decisions that are not clearly outlined in the literature. This article aims to serve as a practice guide for applied researchers when deciding how and whether to use this approach. We begin by providing an overview of the assumptions needed to estimate causal effects using school-level data, common threats to validity faced in practice and what effects can and cannot be estimated using school-level data. We then examine two analytic decisions researchers face in practice when implementing the design: correctly modeling the pretreatment functional form, which is modeling the preintervention trend, and selecting comparison cases. We then illustrate the use of this design in practice drawing on data from the implementation of the school improvement grant (SIG) program in Ohio. We conclude with advice for applied researchers implementing this design.

The Role of Neighborhood Context and School Climate in School-Level Academic Achievement.

In recent years, the quality of education available to children has become increasingly dependent on the social and economic demographics of neighborhoods in which the children live. This study assesses the role of community violence in explaining the relation between socio-economic status (SES) and academic outcomes and the potential of positive school climate to promote academic achievement. With a sample of 297 Chicago public elementary schools, we examine community-level and school-level data and use Geographic Information Systems (GIS) mapping to illustrate how school academic achievement coincides with neighborhood economics and crime statistics. Results support the hypothesized mediation, such that lower SES was associated with lower academic achievement, and violent crime partially mediated this relation. School climate was positively associated with academic achievement, and student safety significantly moderated the relation between SES and academic achievement. Implications for theory, research, and intervention are discussed.

Health Improvement and Educational Attainment in Secondary Schools: Complementary or Competing Priorities? Exploratory Analyses From the School Health Research Network in Wales.

Background. Implementing health improvement is often perceived as diverting resource away from schools’ core business, reflecting an assumption of a “zero-sum game” between health and education. There is some evidence that health behaviors may affect young people’s educational outcomes. However, associations between implementation of school health improvement and educational outcomes remains underinvestigated. Methods. The study linked school-level data on free school meal (FSM) entitlement, educational outcomes, and school attendance, obtained from government websites, with data from the School Environment Questionnaire (SEQ) on health improvement activity collected in Wales (2015/2016). Spearman’s rank correlation coefficients and linear regression models tested the extent of association between health improvement activity and attendance and educational outcomes. Results. SEQ data were provided by 100/115 network schools (87%), of whom data on educational performance were obtained from 97. The percentage of pupils entitled to FSM predicted most of the between-school variance in achievement and attendance. Linear regression models demonstrated significant positive associations of all measures of health improvement activity with attainment at Key Stage (KS) 3, apart from mental health education in the curriculum and organizational commitment to health. Student and parent involvement in planning health activities were associated with improved school attendance. There were no significant associations between health improvement and KS4 attainment. Conclusion. Implementing health improvement activity does not have a detrimental effect on schools’ educational performance. There is tentative evidence of the reverse, with better educational outcomes in schools with more extensive health improvement policies and practices. Further research should investigate processes by which this occurs and variations by socioeconomic status.

Mobilizing Resources for Education: The 2012 ‘Great Leap’ in a Province in Western China

The tension between mobilizing resources to meet education-related growth targets and regularizing educational funding for a more stable and sustainable growth is structurally rooted in China’s educational system, which features growth-oriented, centralized mandates and county-based, decentralized financing. It was manifested in 2012, when China experienced a ‘great leap’ in educational expenditure. Based on interviews and school-level data from a province in western China, this article suggests that the ‘great leap’ was real rather than fabricated. Local governments have demonstrated remarkable capacity in resource mobilization involving both formal and informal strategies. It also shows the scarring effects of too much mobilization. The ‘great leap’ has clearly stressed and strained local governments to the extent that there is clear evidence of policy non-compliance and greater irregularity in government funding for education in the aftermath.

Do School Discipline Policies Treat Students Fairly? A Second Look At School Discipline Rate Disparities

According to a 2014 report from the US Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, Black students represent only 15% of students across the nation, but 35% of students suspended once are Black, 44% of students suspended more than once are Black, and 36% of expelled students are Black. While these disparate disciplinary outcomes at the aggregate level are troubling, more information is needed if we are to develop a full understanding of the problem of disproportionate discipline. In particular, consequences should be attached to specific infractions and school level data are necessary to help us decipher the extent to which students in the same schools are being treated differently for the same ostensible infractions. In this study, we exploit three years of student-level discipline data from Arkansas and find that Black students received more severe punishments than White students for the same infractions across the state. These differences were due, in large part, to school-level differences in disciplinary patterns. However, even after controlling for infraction and school-fixed effects, Black students received slightly longer punishments than their White peers in the same schools.

School practices important for students' sexual health: analysis of the school health research network survey in Wales.

This study investigates how the sexual health outcomes of a representative sample of students aged 15-16 in Wales vary according to the person delivering Sex and Relationships Education (SRE) in schools, students' access to on-site sexual health services and access to free condoms. Cross-sectional, self-report survey data were collected from students who participated in the 2015/16 School Health Research Network questionnaire in Wales. Data were analyzed from 59 schools, totalling 3781 students aged 15-16 (M = 15.7; SD = 0.3) who responded to questions about ever having had sex; age of sexual initiation and condom use at last intercourse. School level data were also collected, examining who delivers school SRE, provision of on-site, school 'drop-in' sexual health services and provision of free condoms for students. Binary and linear multi-level analyses explored the relationship between school level predictors and sexual health outcomes. Compared to teachers, other modes of SRE delivery were associated with better sexual health outcomes, including remaining sexually inactive, later age of first intercourse and condom use. Providing on-site sexual health services did not significantly reduce the odds of having ever had sex or delaying first intercourse; but was associated with increased condom use. On-site condom provision was associated with lower condom use. SRE delivery by educators other than teachers is optimum to young people's sexual health outcomes. Further funding and coordination of on-site sexual health advice services are required. Longitudinal research is needed to identify the temporal sequence of sexual health practices and outcomes.

The effects of school choice on achievement gaps between private and public high schools: Evidence from the Seoul high school choice program

In 2010, Seoul began a universal school choice program for high schools. The implementation of school choice introduced autonomy, competition, and sorting, barely existent when public and private schools were under strong governmental control. Using school-level panel data, this study investigated how a newly introduced school choice policy affected achievement gaps between private and public high schools. We found evidence that competition and autonomy have minimal impacts on the achievement of private and public high schools. However, we found that student sorting did significantly increase the achievements of private high schools, widening existing gaps between public high schools.

Testing the zero-sum game hypothesis: an examination of school health policy and practice and inequalities in educational outcomes

BackgroundThere is recognition that health and education are intrinsically linked through, for example, WHO's Health Promoting Schools (HPS) framework. Nevertheless, promoting health via schools is seen by some as a zero-sum game—ie, schools have nothing to gain, and may experience detriments to the core business of academic attainment because of focusing resources on health. Crucially, there is a paucity of evidence around the impacts of health and wellbeing policy and practice on attainment, with recent Cochrane reviews highlighting this gap. This study explored the zero-sum game hypothesis among schools with varying levels of deprivation—ie, the role of health and wellbeing interventions in schools in reducing or widening socioeconomic inequality in educational attainment. MethodsWales-wide, school-level survey data on health policies and practices, reflective of the HPS framework, were captured in 2016 using the School Environment Questionnaire. Questionnaire data were linked with routinely collected data on academic attainment. Primary outcomes included attendance and attainment at Key stages 3 (children aged 12–14 years) and 4 (15–16). Interaction terms were fitted to test whether there was an interaction between free school meals, overall HPS activity, and outcomes. Linear regression models were constructed separately for schools with high uptake of free school meals (>15% of pupils) and low uptake (<15%), adjusting for confounders. FindingsThe final analyses included 48 schools with low uptake of free school meals and 49 with high uptake. Significant interactions were observed between free school meals and overall HPS activity for Key stage 3 attainment (β=0·28, 95% CI 0·09–0·47) and attendance (0·05, 0·02–0·09), reflecting an association between health improvement activities and education outcomes among high, but not low, free school meal schools. There was no significant interaction for Key stage 4 attainment (0·18, −0·22 to 0·57). InterpretationOur findings did not support the zero-sum game hypothesis; in fact, among more deprived schools, there was a tendency for better attendance and attainment at Key stage 3. Schools must equip students with the skills required for good physical and mental health and wellbeing in addition to academic and cognitive skills. The study included a large, nationally representative sample of secondary schools; however, the cross-sectional nature has implications for causality. FundingSupported by the Centre for the Development and Evaluation of Complex Interventions for Public Health Improvement (DECIPHer). Jointly funded (MR/KO232331/1) by the British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research UK, Economic and Social Research Council, Medical Research Council (MRC), the Welsh Government, and the Wellcome Trust, under the auspices of the UK Clinical Research Collaboration. GFM's time for analysis and abstract preparation was funded by an MRC population health scientist fellowship (MR/K021400/1).