Analysis of the effect of school violent crime on academic achievement in Chicago
Introduction
A survey was conducted by the Consortium on Chicago School Research (CCSR) which explores students’ feelings of safety, discipline, and trust at school. This study uses eight years of individual student data from the entire Chicago Public School district between 2002 and 2010. The crime data have been taken from the Chicago Police Department and the complete administrative records from the Chicago Public Schools. Some questions were asked in this survey—how safe do students feel. The survey also finds out the students’ emotional connection with their teachers(DeVoe et al, 2010) . Eventually they were asked how often during the school they have been in trouble or had their parents contacted when they were in trouble. This measure provides at least a rough picture of the relative frequency of low-level discipline problems at the school. The data have been created for two different samples for analysis, one at the individual and the other at the school level.
Results and Findings
This study explores variation in violent crime rates within schools over time to estimate its effect on academic achievement. The crime has been measured when spring tests are administered in Chicago public high schools. The reports also show variation in violent crime over time for individual schools which is unclear. The study also reveals that students in higher violent crime school-years are poor or minority. Around a hundred high schools in Chicago, two-thirds called the police to intervene in at least one violent incident on school grounds during the first seven months of the 2009-2010 school year, and one-quarter of the school called the police more than 17 times during that period. Five percent of schools reported at least 51 violent crimes in one year (DeVoe et al, 2010). This means that police are involved in violent conflicts in these schools on average close to twice a week. It was also found out that the negative effect of school violent crimes appears due to the violent nature of incidents rather than the level of police intervention.
Conclusion
It is possible to derive from this study that crime rates at individual schools vary year to year. Though the reason of crime rate variation is not clear but some have pointed out that due to the closure of neighborhood schools, the students of different schools have been mixed up which has created conflict among the students. Particularly, this analysis shows that school violent crime has a negative effect on both reading and standardized test scores (DeVoe et al, 2010). Interestingly, at the individual level, crime rates have a negative effect on test scores, but not on grades.
This Study also reveals that the grades given by teacher reflect assessment of students than test scores. However every research study has its limitation so this study is also a rough sketch of the definite level of conflict at school. Many acts of violence are not reported on a regular basis.
However, after analyzing this report it is reasonable to figure out that this whole scenario not only affects a single student but the whole class. This study also shows that these violent crimes can be reduced only if teachers make a cordial relationship with students and their parents.
References
DeVoe, J. F., Peter, K., Kaufman, P.,Miller, A., Noonan, M., Snyder, T. D.,& Baum, K. (20q0). Indicators of school crime and safety. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
Osher, D., Dwyer, K. & Jackson, S.. 2003. Safe, Supportive, and Effective Schools: Step by Step. Longmont Co: Sopris West