page_title: School uniform
section_title: Effects of uniforms on students
hierarchical_section_title: School uniform / Contemporary / Effects of uniforms on students
caption_attribution_description: Português: Alunos Escola Criação
context_page_description: A school uniform is a uniform worn by students primarily for a school or otherwise educational institution. They are common in primary and secondary schools in various countries.
  Although often used interchangeably, there is an important distinction between dress codes and school uniforms: according to scholars such as Nathan Joseph, clothing can only be considered a uniform when it " serves as a group emblem, certifies an institution's legitimacy by revealing individual's relative positions and suppresses individuality."
  An example of a uniform would be requiring button-down shirts, long pants for boys and blouses, pleated skirts for girls, with both wearing blazers. A uniform can even be as simple as requiring collared shirts, or restricting colour choices and limiting items students are allowed to wear.
  A dress code, on the other hand, is much less restrictive, and focuses "on promoting modesty and discouraging anti-social fashion statements", according to Marian Wilde. Examples of a dress code would be not allowing ripped clothing, no logos or limiting the amount of skin that can be shown.
context_section_description: The case study of the Long Beach Unified School District was the study of the first large, urban school in the United States to implement a uniform policy. In 1994, mandatory school uniforms were implemented for the districts elementary and middle schools as a strategy to address the students' behaviour issues. The district simultaneously implemented a longitudinal study to research the effects of the uniforms on student behavior. The study attributed favourable student behavioral changes and a significant drop in school discipline issues to the mandatory uniform policy. This case study attributed the following noticeable outcomes to the use of uniforms throughout the district:
  Fewer absences and truancies;
  Fewer referrals to the office for behavior problems;
  Fewer suspensions and expulsions;
  Reduced by 28% (elementary) and 36% (middle school);
  Decreased crime and vandalism;
  Reduced by 74% (elementary) and 18% (middle school);
  Other research found that uniforms were not an effective deterrent to decrease truancy, did not decrease behavior problems, decrease substance use, and in fact may be associated with poorer student achievement relative to students not required to wear school uniforms.
  A study suggested that "instead of directly affecting specific outcomes, uniforms act as a catalyst for change and provide a highly visible opportunity for additional programs" within schools. In fact, Brunsma et al., 1998 considered that this was the case with the Long Beach Unified School District case study as several additional reform efforts were implemented simultaneously with the mandatory uniform policy.
  Brunsma stated that despite the inconclusiveness of the effects of uniforms, they became more common because "this is an issue of children's rights, of social control, and one related to increasing racial, class and gender inequalities in our schools."
caption: Colombian primary school students with their teacher
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