DOI: 10.3886/icpsr02026.v1
title: School Culture, Climate, and Violence: Safety in Middle Schools of the Philadelphia Public School System, 1990-1994
title: Version 1

description: This study was designed to explore school culture and climate and their effects on school disorder, violence, and academic performance on two levels. At the macro level of analysis, this research examined the influences of sociocultural, crime, and school characteristics on aggregate-level school violence and academic performance measures. Here the focus was on understanding community, family, and crime compositional effects on disruption and violence in Philadelphia schools. This level included Census data and crime rates for the Census tracts where the schools were located (local data), as well as for the community of residence of the students (imported data) for all 255 schools within the Philadelphia School District. The second level of analysis, the intermediate level, included all of the variables measured at the macro level, and added school organizational structure and school climate, measured with survey data, as mediating variables. Part 1, Macro-Level Data, contains arrest and offense data and Census characteristics, such as race, poverty level, and household income, for the Census tracts where each of the 255 Philadelphia schools is located and for the Census tracts where the students who attend those schools reside. In addition, this file contains school characteristics, such as number and race of students and teachers, student attendance, average exam scores, and number of suspensions for various reasons. For Part 2, Principal Interview Data, principals from all 42 middle schools in Philadelphia were interviewed on the number of buildings and classrooms in their school, square footage and special features of the school, and security measures. For Part 3, teachers were administered the Effective School Battery survey and asked about their job satisfaction, training opportunities, relationships with principals and parents, participation in school activities, safety measures, and fear of crime at school. In Part 4, students were administered the Effective School Battery survey and asked about their attachment to school, extracurricular activities, attitudes toward teachers and school, academic achievement, and fear of crime at school. Part 5, Student Victimization Data, asked the same students from Part 4 about their victimization experiences, the availability of drugs, and discipline measures at school. It also provides self-reports of theft, assault, drug use, gang membership, and weapon possession at school.
description: This study was designed to explore school culture and climate and their effects on school disorder, violence, and academic performance on two levels. At the macro level of analysis, this research examined the influences of sociocultural, crime, and school characteristics on aggregate-level school violence and academic performance measures. Here the focus was on understanding community, family, and crime compositional effects on disruption and violence in Philadelphia schools. The macro-level analysis was designed to explore the relationship between the level of disorder within inner-city schools and the nature of the communities in which they are embedded. The second level of analysis, the intermediate level, included all of the variables measured at the macro level, and added school organizational structure and school climate as mediating variables. School climate, which was measured by items such as educational expectations, social integration, attachment to school, and school involvement, was hypothesized to be the primary mediating variable and the major influence of school outcomes. Organizational dimensions, such as school staffing, size, and resources, were believed to set limits on school culture.
description: At the macro level, all 255 schools within the School District of Philadelphia were examined using data from three sources: (1) Philadelphia Police Department, (2) community and social structural data contained in the 1990 Census, and (3) school characteristics provided by the Philadelphia School District. The data provide Census information and crime rates for the immediate community in which the schools are located (local data), as well as the community of residence of the students (imported data). At the intermediate level, survey data were used to measure school climate and organizational structure. Principals from all 42 Philadelphia middle schools were interviewed regarding their schools' structural composition and security measures. In addition, teachers and students from 11 of these 42 middle schools were surveyed regarding their attitudes toward their schools, school culture, school disorder, victimization incidents, and fear of crime at school.
description: Part 1, Macro-Level Data, contains arrest and offense data and Census characteristics, such as race, poverty level, and household income, for the Census tracts where each of the 255 Philadelphia schools is located and for the Census tracts where the students who attend those schools reside. In addition, this file contains school characteristics, such as number and race of students and teachers, student attendance, average exam scores, and number of suspensions for various reasons. For Part 2, Principal Interview Data, principals from all 42 middle schools in Philadelphia were interviewed on the number of buildings and classrooms in their school, square footage and special features of the school, and security measures. For Part 3, teachers were administered the Effective School Battery survey and asked about their job satisfaction, training opportunities, relationships with principals and parents, participation in school activities, safety measures, and fear of crime at school. In Part 4, students were administered the Effective School Battery survey and asked about their attachment to school, extracurricular activities, attitudes toward teachers and school, academic achievement, and fear of crime at school. Part 5, Student Victimization Data, asked the same students from Part 4 about their victimization experiences, the availability of drugs, and discipline measures at school. It also provides self-reports of theft, assault, drug use, gang membership, and weapon possession at school.
description: Response Rates: The response rates were 81 percent for Part 2, 66.44 percent for Part 3, and 65.44 percent for Parts 4 and 5.
description: Presence of Common Scales: Several Likert-type scales were used.
description: Part 1, Macro-Level Data, is a census of all schools in the Philadelphia School District. Part 2, Principal Interview Data, was conducted in all 42 middle schools in the Philadelphia School District. Eleven of these 42 middle schools were selected for Parts 3-5 based on three criteria: (1) level of disruption, (2) level of poverty, and (3) regional representation. An effort was made to include schools that covered the broadest range of each of these criteria.
description: Datasets: DS0: Study-Level Files DS1: Macro-Level Data DS2: Principal Interview Data DS3: Effective School Battery Teacher Survey DS4: Effective School Battery Student Survey DS5: Student Victimization Data
description: Part 1: All schools in the Philadelphia School District. Parts 2-5: All middle schools in the Philadelphia School District.