Crime, Violence, Discipline, and Safety in U.S. Public Schools: Findings from the School Survey on Crime and Safety: 2015-16. First Look. NCES 2017-122
Author: Diliberti, Melissa
Date: 2017-07-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Crime,Violence,Discipline,School Safety,Public Schools,School Surveys,National Surveys,Educational Trends,Incidence,School Security,Security Personnel,Mental Health Programs,Crime Prevention,Data Collection,Elementary Secondary Education,Questionnaires,Response Rates (Questionnaires),Statistical Bias,Tables (Data),Statistical Analysis,Sample Size,Statistical Significance,Substance Abuse,Bullying,Suspension,Drills (Practice),Emergency Programs,Weapons

This report presents findings on crime and violence in U.S. public schools, using data from the 2015-16 School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS:2016). First administered in school year 1999-2000 and repeated in school years 2003-04, 2005-06, 2007-08, 2009-10, and 2015-16, SSOCS provides information on school crime-related topics from the perspective of schools. Developed and managed by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) within the Institute of Education Sciences of the U.S. Department of Education and supported by the National Institute of Justice of the U.S. Department of Justice, SSOCS asks public school principals about the prevalence of violent and serious violent crimes in their schools. Portions of this survey also focus on school security measures, disciplinary problems and actions, school security staff, the availability of mental health services in schools, and the programs and policies implemented to prevent and reduce crime in schools. SSOCS:2016 is based on a nationally representative stratified random sample of 3,553 U.S. public schools. Data collection began on February 22, 2016, when questionnaires were mailed to principals, and continued through July 5, 2016. A total of 2,092 public primary, middle, high, and combined schools provided complete questionnaires, yielding a response rate of approximately 63 percent once the responding schools were weighted to account for their original sampling probabilities. Per NCES Statistical Standards, a unit nonresponse bias analysis was performed due to the weighted response rate being less than 85 percent. The results suggest the characteristics of nonresponding schools differed significantly from those of responding schools. However, the unit nonresponse bias analysis also provided evidence that the nonresponse weighting adjustments used for SSOCS:2016 removed the observed nonresponse bias in characteristics known for both respondents and nonrespondents. This suggests that the weighting adjustments likely mitigated nonresponse bias in the SSOCS:2016 survey estimates, although some bias may remain after adjustment. Because the purpose of this report is to introduce new NCES data through the presentation of tables containing descriptive information, only selected findings are presented. These findings have been chosen to demonstrate the range of information available when using SSOCS:2016 data rather than to discuss all of the observed differences. The tables in this report contain totals and percentages generated from bivariate cross-tabulation procedures. All of the results are weighted to represent the population of U.S. public schools. Many of the variables examined are related to one another, and complex interactions and relationships have not been explored. Due to the large sample size, many differences (no matter how substantively minor) are statistically significant; thus, only differences of 5 percentage points or more between groups are mentioned in the findings. The following are appended: (1) Standard Error Tables; (2) Methodology and Technical Notes; (3) Description of Variables; and (4) School Survey on Crime and Safety Questionnaire.