| R. Sam Michalowski
City University of New York
The organizational context of school violence and disruption: A national perspective
FINAL REPORT:
Concerns about school safety and disorder have expanded the use of school security measures and personnel, zero tolerance policies and violence prevention programs (Devine 1996; Gottfredson et al. 2000; Garcia 2003). These concerns have also renewed interest in school authority relations and discipline practices (Ingersoll 2003; Pace 2003; Arum 2004) as well as the organizationally mediated nature of social disadvantage on misconduct and violent behavior in schools (Welsch et al. 1999, 2000; Ainsworth 2002). Using a sample of public schools from the nationally representative 1999-2000 Schools and Staffing Survey (U.S. Department of Education, 2004), this study examines the relative effects of school security measures, violence prevention programs, parental involvement and a measure of teachers' school-wide discipline authority on student misconduct and violent behavior in public junior and senior high school. Controlling for relevant demographic and school organization variables, this research finds that a) the benefits of an increase in teachers' school-wide authority over discipline far outweighs the benefits of school security efforts; b) school size rivals student demographics in its positive effect on student misconduct and violent behavior; c) a portion of the increase in school disorder associated with aggregate poverty and minority concentration is an indirect result of their effects on teachers' school-wide discipline authority and school size; and, d) a substantial portion of the effect of parental involvement on student problem behaviors is indirect vis-ˆ-vis its increase in the degree of teachers' authority over discipline. Policy implications regarding the findings are presented as well as study limitations and suggestions for further research.
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