School Safety, Security, and Educational Progress

Virginia Polytechnic Institute And State University, Blacksburg VA

Investigators

Abstract

SES-1625703 Anthony A. Peguero Virginia Tech As the United States continues to be increasingly immersed in a global competitive market, ensuring the educational progress of all youth, as well as competitive and innovative workforce, contributes to the nation's economic growth and sustainability. Moreover, adult socioeconomic disadvantages and advantages faced can be often traced to youth differential educational experiences, achievement, attainment, and progress. It has become clear that school safety is fundamental for facilitating learning and positive educational outcomes for youth and increasing school security measures as well as stringent control practices have become a common as an approach towards school safety. But, there is growing scrutiny that school surveillance and security practices may be conditioning youth to interpret surveillance, law enforcement presence, and juvenile and criminal justice system interventions as a "normal" part of the school learning environment or experience for all youth. Some researchers denote that harsh or stringent school safety or social control policies are having detrimental educational consequences for marginalized youth, such as racial and ethnic minority youth and the children of immigrants. Considering that it is projected that the youth population will become mostly compromised of racial and ethnic minorities as well as one in three youth will have at least one immigrant parent, understanding the relationship between school safety, security, and educational progress for the fastest growing segments of the United States youth population is imperative. Of course, safety is paramount for learning and educational outcomes for all youth. There is some disagreement, however, if this current approach of increased social control within schools is ensuring educational progress or success, especially for marginalized and vulnerable youth. Thus, this research will draw from three nationally representative data (School Survey on Crime, Safety and Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002, and Common Core Data) as well as incorporate multilevel statistical analyses in order to further our knowledge about the relationship between school safety and educational progress by exploring two broad research questions. First, how are school safety and security policies influencing school-level educational progress as well as the implications for racial, ethnic, and immigration educational inequalities? Second, how are school safety and security policies influencing student-level educational progress, especially for racial and ethnic minority youth and the children of immigrants? Although security measures and control practices have become ubiquitous within schools, there is limited knowledge about how securing schools is contributing to educational progress and success, in particular for racial and ethnic minority youth and the children of immigrants. This proposed research seeks to contribute to developing knowledge about safety, security, and educational progress within the United States school system.