Predicting school weapon possession: A secondary analysis of the youth risk behavior surveillance survey

As school psychologists are asked to help schools evaluate the level of violence risk posed by specific students, they need to fully consider the technical adequacy of any test or procedure that is proposed to “predict” future violent behavior or conditions. In this article, we contribute to this discussion by examining responses of 40,435 students from the 1993, 1995, and 1997 administrations of the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Survey. Student self‐reported school risk behaviors and experiences are used to “predict” recent weapon possession on school campuses and to illustrate the use of receiver operating characteristic curves to evaluate the performance of a test for prediction purposes. An index of nine school risk behaviors was moderately correlated (r = .36) with school weapon possession. However, when the accuracy of using this school risk index to predict weapon possession is evaluated, it is found that the area under the ROC curve was approximately .75, a moderate‐to‐large effect size but still demonstrating inadequate prediction at the individual student level. Further, there were twice as many frequent weapon carriers with zero school risks than with 7–9 risks, suggesting that attention directed toward violence risk profiles may promote inattention to another group of students who engage in potentially high‐risk behaviors at school. It is argued that school psychologists should consider school violence appraisals within a developmental, long‐term model. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Relevance of student and contextual school variables in explaining a student’s severity of violence experienced

Teachers conceptualise and interpret violent behaviour of secondary students in different ways. They also differ in their estimates of the relevance of student and contextual school variables when explaining the severity of violence experienced by students. Research can assist here by explicating the role of different types of contextual school variables. The research question is twofold: (1) Do contextual school variables, in addition to a student’s personal, family and educational variables, explain a student’s violent behaviour? (2) If so, what is the role of student composition variables compared with variables indicating the social cohesion of the school? A hypothetical model was developed in which personal, family, educational and school variables of different types simultaneously explain the severity of violence experienced by a student. The method used to test the model empirically is secondary analysis of data collected in a Dutch national survey on school safety in secondary education (N students = 78,840; N schools = 219). Severity of violence experienced is assessed by the Mokken Scale on Severity of Violence Experienced (MSSVE). Multiple regression analyses reveal that a student who is older, a young male, born in the country of residence, feels at home in another country, does not have an intact family, is not religious, is enrolled in the highest educational track and is achieving lower marks in the school subjects of language and mathematics, experiences more severe violence than other students (explained variance 3.4%). Simultaneously, different types of contextual school variables are differently relevant. Mean severity of violence experienced by students at school indicates clearly more variance (2.3%) than the combination of student composition variables (.4%). The conclusion is that the theoretical model is empirically supported, which also underlines the validity of the MSSVE. The discussion focuses on a comprehensive multilevel approach to stimulate and check improvement of social cohesion at school.     

Academic differentiation,school achievement and school violence in the USA and South Korea

Whilst school violence is a major public concern and a focus of educational reforms both in the USA and South Korea, few studies have comparatively examined the rates of school violence and school factors associated with them. Analysing nationally‐representative data from eighth graders, their mathematics teachers and principals in 150 South Korean schools and in 216 US schools, the authors found that: 1) the rates of school violence are higher in the US than South Korea, 2) student‐reported violence rates are not associated with school‐reported violence rates in both nations and 3) South Korean schools with academic tracking and low‐achieving US schools are more likely to have higher rates of school violence. Policy and practical implications of these findings are discussed.     

Surveillance of school violence,injury, and disciplinary actions

The safety of America's schools is a major issue. Yet, the magnitude of the problem cannot be accurately assessed because some of the data concerning incidents and disciplinary actions come from reporting systems that are seriously flawed. In this article we examine how data from student self‐report surveys and other sources can be used to assess the weaknesses in current school incident‐reporting systems and improve the validity of surveillance data on school violence. Particular attention is paid to assessing the validity of data from Gun‐Free Schools Act (GFSA) reports on the number of guns in schools in light of nationally representative student survey data. We also discuss the difficulties of obtaining accurate surveillance data and suggest changes in surveillance systems that could produce more valid estimates of violence and injury in our nation's schools. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Excluded girls: interpersonal,institutional and structural violence in schooling

School exclusion and violence are defined with boys as the reference point and relatively little attention is given to the various forms of exclusion—disciplinary exclusion, self‐exclusion and withdrawal from learning—to which girls are subject. Girls in difficulty at school receive less attention than their male peers from policy‐makers, teachers and researchers. They find it more difficult to access resources. The concept of exclusion needs to be expanded to encompass girls’ experiences. This paper explores the policy context in which girls’ exclusion occurs and examines contributory factors, arguing that together they constitute systemic violence. Forms of violence include verbal abuse, psychological violence and the everyday “incivilities” which often go unchallenged in school cultures. The paper draws on research which privileged student voices and considered them alongside those of service providers, to analyse girls’ school experiences, examining violence and exclusion at interpersonal, institutional and structural levels. Issues such as bullying, self‐exclusion, learning difficulties, peer relationships, teacher–student relationships and student pregnancies are considered.     

Cross‐survey analysis of school violence and disorder

School psychologists and administrators are often asked to respond to student violence and disorder based on incomplete or inaccurate information about the nature and scope of these problems in their schools. Records of disciplinary actions and incidents may reflect only the tip of the proverbial iceberg. In national surveys, school administrators report rates of violence and disorder that are only a small fraction of the rates reported by students in national self‐report surveys. Student self‐report surveys on school violence and disorder may offer school officials a means of more accurately appraising the prevention needs of their students. This article compares the methods and findings of three national surveys of students in an effort to understand what methodological characteristics have the most salient impact on their findings. The article examines measures of school‐related weapon carrying and fear from all three national surveys contrasting their modes of administration and question phrasing. Estimates from even the most expertly designed and administered survey will include some error. However, the stability and comparability of the national surveys across time and across surveys suggest that student self‐report surveys are valuable tools for school‐level needs assessment. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Prevention of Targeted School Violence by Responding to Students' Psychosocial Crises: The NETWASS Program

The standardized, indicated school‐based prevention program “Networks Against School Shootings” combines a threat assessment approach with a general model of prevention of emergency situations in schools through early intervention in student psychosocial crises and training teachers to recognize warning signs of targeted school violence. An evaluation study in 98 German schools with 3,473 school staff participants (M_age = 46.2 years) used a quasi‐experimental comparison group design with three measurement points (pre, post, and 7 months followup) with schools randomly allocated to implementation conditions. The study found increases in teachers' expertise and evaluation skills, enhanced abilities to identify students experiencing a psychosocial crisis, and positive secondary effects (e.g., teacher–student interaction, feelings of safety).     

The Assessment of Student Teachers’ Academic and Professional Knowledge in School‐Based Teacher Education

The aim of this study was to scrutinize the assessment of teacher knowledge in a school‐based course at one Swedish pre‐service teacher education program. In a general education school‐based course, teacher educators visited the student teachers at their school placements and met them and their school mentors in student‐teaching conferences to assess their teacher knowledge. The findings primarily show that the assessment procedures are influenced by teacher educators’ organization of the school visits and conferences. Secondly, the organization of the school visits and conferences influences who the potential and actual assessors at the conferences can be and are. Thirdly, the assessed student teacher knowledge at the conferences is described as procedural knowledge in a knowledge‐in‐practice perspective, almost exclusively in the area of relational, emotional, and caring learning objectives and aspects of teaching activities. Fourthly, the findings show that propositional knowledge in a knowledge‐for‐practice perspective is hardly mentioned or assessed.     

Potential school violence: Relationship between teacher anxiety and warning‐sign identification

This study examined the relationship between teacher anxiety and their identification of warning signs of student violence. Fifty‐six public school teachers, 22 male and 34 female, between the ages of 23 and 60 participated. Participants identified warning signs in five fictional student case files created for this study and completed the State‐Trait Anxiety Inventory and a demographic survey. The case files included positive and negative information, and high‐ and low‐severity warning signs. Neither state (r = .02) nor trait (r = .04) anxiety was significantly correlated with high‐severity warning‐signs identification. Low‐severity warning‐signs identification was positively correlated with state anxiety (r = .28, p < .05) but not trait anxiety (r = .18, p > .05). False positive identification was not significantly related to state anxiety (r = .07) or trait anxiety (r = .06). The findings indicate that teachers who experience higher levels of state anxiety when confronted with warning signs of potential violence are better able to identify low‐severity warning signs than do their less anxious counterparts, without over‐identifying nonthreatening information as potential warning signs. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 42: 623–635, 2005.     

Community violence,school‐related protective factors,and psychosocial outcomes in urban youth

This study examined the relationship of two putative school‐based protective factors—student identification with school and perceived teacher support—to psychosocial outcomes in a sample of urban youth exposed to community violence. Participants were 175 high school students ages 14–19 in grades 9–12 from a large urban school district. Results indicated that exposure to violence was positively associated with internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Additionally, identification with school and teacher support were related to higher hope and lower psychosocial distress. Adolescents who reported higher identification with school and higher teacher support reported higher hope, regardless of the level of violence exposure. Results emphasize the importance of school factors, particularly feeling connected to and supported in school, in promoting hope and minimizing psychosocial distress for youth exposed to community violence. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

From Noncompliance to Columbine: Capturing Student Perspectives to Understand Noncompliance and Violence in Public Schools

The paper reviews a number of ethnographic studies of students in U.S. secondary schools to help understand the causes of a range of student behaviors from minor non-compliance to lethal violence. Based on these studies, as well personal experience, the authors suggest that educators and educational researchers approach and understand student perspectives on school life. Such perspectives often reveal the logic of non-compliance, and show that aspects of school structure and practice can exacerbate or contribute to violence. Student non-compliance and alienation can escalate into violence if the student view is not regularly consulted in schools.     

Teacher and principal perceptions of student victimization and the schools’ response to violence: The contributions of context on staff congruence

Consistency in staff awareness and response is a key programmatic centerpiece in most school violence prevention and intervention programs. Staff consensus on the definition of violence, the behaviors that constitute violence, the extent of the problem, and how to deal with violent situations are often the cornerstone of evidence-based programs. Nevertheless, little is known theoretically or empirically about the staff and school variables that shape principal and teacher consensus in recognition of the problem or the response to violence. To explore these issues, this study drew on a nested national sample of Israeli schools (1352 teachers; 186 principals and schools) to explore staff and school correlates of the extent of congruence in staff reports of awareness of and response to school violence and victimization. We drew on Rasch analytic techniques to measure the extent of staff congruence about frequency of student victimization, risky behaviors and school response. Overall, student-reported risky behavior accounted for congruence in staff reports of student victimization and risky behavior and was consistent across Jewish and Arab school systems. Staff reports of student victimization and risk shaped the school's response violent events, but important differences were observed across Jewish and Arab school systems. For example, the findings suggest that above and beyond all the school contextual factors, staff in religious Jewish and Arab schools reported less student victimization and less school response to violent situations. Implications for practice, theory, and future research in the school violence literature are discussed.     

The challenge to make schools safe: Preparing education personnel to curb student aggression and violence

Abstract

The incidence of aggression and violence in schools is approaching epidemic proportions. Unfortunately, few teacher education programs offer coursework designed to prepare school personnel to face the mounting challenge of student aggression. Drawing upon the accumulated literature, changes are discussed in the content of teacher education programs that would prepare teachers to effectively address student violence. Assertions are made that colleges of education must assume leadership roles in redefining professional boundaries to prepare all school personnel to combat student aggression. Lastly, arguments are presented for strengthening university and public school collaboration to promote programs designed to curb the rising tide of student aggression and violence.     

Teacher Practices and Middle‐school Science Achievements

We report on the construction and application on an instrument entitled the “Science Achievement Influences Survey” to assess combined effects of student attitudes about science, peer interaction, and home support, and the frequency of student‐centred and teacher‐centred instructional practices on student achievement. Controlling for pre‐test content knowledge, results indicated that student‐centred teaching practices have a positive association with student achievement (p < .01; i.e., group experiments) and a negative association with teacher‐centred teaching practices (p < .01; i.e., copying notes). Additionally, student attitudes about science were positively associated with student‐centred teaching practices (p < .01) and negatively associated with teacher‐centred teaching practices (p < .01). Most significantly, this study documents the predicted gains in science achievement associated with frequency of specific instructional practices used by middle‐school science teachers. Especially noteworthy and significant is the finding that near‐daily implementation of group experiments and reduction of extensive note‐copying during class yield the greatest positive impact on student achievement. Outside of school, peer interaction and home support were not significantly associated (p > .05) with student achievement. The student sample included 611 middle‐school science students with a wide range of socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds.     

Expression of self-concept and adjustment against repeated aggressions: the case of a longitudinal study on school bullying

Bullying between students in the school setting is an increasing problem. Bullying can be defined as any form of repeated mental or physical violence carried out by one or several individuals on a person who is not capable of defending himself (Roland and Idsoe, Aggress Behav 27:446–462, 2001). The aim of this paper is to observe the expression of self-concept and adjustment strategies developed by children subject to this kind of violence. Five hundred twenty-four students between the ages of 8 and 12 (m = 9.44) participated in the longitudinal study. Two measurements were made during the same school year at an interval of 6 months. The results show that the student victims of bullying present weaker self-conceptions than the control group. Recourse to avoidance strategies would be dominant among student victims of bullying. Moreover, recourse to “avoidance” type strategies would lead to an increase in the frequency of bullying while recourse to “approach”-type strategies would lead to a reduction in it. Furthermore, it would seem that recourse to avoidance strategies at T1 lowers the student’s self-concepts at T2. The opposite effect is observed with the approach strategies. These different results emphasize the necessity to establish prevention programs which allow an intervention simultaneously on the level of the school, the family, and the student.     

校园暴力的成因分析及教育对策

校园暴力又称反学校文化，指的是与学校主流文化相对立的一种文化，它所倡导的价值标准与行为规范与学校的主导价值规范相悖。校园暴力具有显性化、多样化、强烈化、长期化、低龄化特征。其教育方面的原因有学校文化形式与实质的背离，家庭教育的缺失，教师权威地位颠覆，学生群体文化的兴盛等方面。笔者认为消除校园暴力的对策有：倾力打造书香校园，激活学校德育，优化家庭教育以及调控学生群体文化。     

Predicting violence from school misbehavior: Promises and perils

This article considers the issue of predicting violence committed by students on school campuses through the use of school discipline indices such as office referrals, suspensions, and expulsions. The existing research on incidents of school discipline markers is reviewed as well as sources of variation due to student characteristics and classroom or school‐wide practices. Challenges in making accurate predictions about future behavior at school are outlined. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

VIOLENT AND PROSOCIAL BEHAVIOR BY ADOLESCENTS TOWARD PARENTS AND TEACHERS IN A COMMUNITY SAMPLE

This study focused on violent and prosocial behaviors by adolescents toward parents and teachers, and the relation between such behaviors and adolescents’ perceptions about the family and school environment. Gender differences in child‐to‐parent violence and student‐to‐teacher violence were also studied. The sample comprised 687 adolescents from secondary schools in the province of Gipuzkoa, Spain, aged between 12 and 16 years. Participants responded to the relationship domains of the Family Environment Scale and the Classroom Environment Scale, among other instruments. A positive family relationship was related to less violent and more prosocial behavior toward parents. However, a positive classroom relationship was associated only with more prosocial behavior toward teachers. The results show that criminal and antisocial behaviors had a mediating influence on the relation between family and school relationships and violence against authority. The implications for intervention and prevention programs are discussed.     

Assessing the effects of school‐wide Second Step implementation in a predominately English language learner,low SES,Latino sample

Because school violence is widespread, social and emotional competence must be targeted. Second Step is a social and emotional violence‐prevention curriculum that teaches prosocial skills and reduces aggressive behavior. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of Second Step implementation on students (N = 403) in preschool through fourth grade who were predominately Latino, English language learners, and from families with low socioeconomic status. The data of 165 out of the 403 students were included in the present study. Analyses consisted of paired‐samples t‐tests to identify changes in social and emotional knowledge and behavioral and emotional risk. Results showed that there was a significant increase in both social and emotional knowledge and behavioral and emotional risk following the implementation of Second Step. These results are discussed with regard to previous and future research, limitations, and implications for school practice.     

Teachers' conceptions of assessment: implications for policy and professional development

Teachers' conceptions of assessment can be understood in terms of their agreement or disagreement with four purposes to which assessment may be put, specifically, (a) improvement of teaching and learning, (b) school accountability, (c) student accountability, or (d) treating assessment as irrelevant. A 50‐item Teachers' Conceptions of Assessment (COA‐III) questionnaire was completed by New Zealand primary school teachers and managers (n=525). The COA‐III, based on the four main purpose‐defined conceptions of assessment, was analysed with structural equation modelling and showed a close fit of the data to a hierarchical, multi‐dimensional model (χ²=3217.68; df=1162; RMSEA=.058; TLI=.967). On average, participants agreed with the improvement conceptions and the school accountability conception, while rejecting the view that assessment was irrelevant. However, respondents disagreed that assessment was for student accountability. Improvement, school, and student accountability conceptions were positively correlated. The irrelevance conception was inversely related to the improvement conception and not related to the system accountability conception. Surprisingly, no statistically significant differences were found in mean scale scores for each conception regardless of teacher (age, gender, role, assessment training, or assessment practices) or school (size, location, or socio‐economic status) variables. Implications for the use of the COA‐III for policy implementation and teacher professional development are discussed.