The Owl Newsletter

ISSUE 39 | SEPTEMBER 26, 2001

When parents are asked what they want to know about their children's schools, the first item on their list is safety. The research I've seen, conducted in five cities a couple of years ago (see below), returns this answer consistently. It's as true for parents of high school students as it is for parents of elementary age students. This safety concern can only be reinforced by the disastrous events of September 11.

Why, then, have educators hesitated to answer this safety question clearly?

That hesitance shows up in school accountability report cards, where safety is given short shrift, and relegated to the end of the document. When a parent discovers it, she usually finds nothing more than a principal's declaration that there is, indeed, a school safety plan, and that it is up-to-date. This is not the reassurance parents are looking for. But this is all the Education Code requires.

WHY REPORT ONLY WHAT'S REQUIRED BY LAW?

But why not go farther, and report the wealth of facts gathered over four years from the California Safe School Assessment? This census, taken twice a year, is gathered site by site, of course, but is then reported to Sacramento at the district level. The law, unfortunately, states that school level reporting is at the discretion of the district.

No surprise, few districts choose to disclose the results at the school site level. This leaves parents in the dark unnecessarily.

There are some exemplary districts, however, which have the courage to shed light on their schools' safety factors. One of them, District B of Los Angeles USD, headed by Supt. Judy Burton, reported its crime statistics for middle and high schools in its school accountability report cards. Download a PDF sample.

(Look at the bottom of page two, column one, of this SARC for the crime section.) Or pick another SARC of your own choosing.

There's more to safety than crime statistics, to be sure. But certainly including the crime statistics you already have is a necessary beginning. The attributes of the neighborhood where the school is located could also be included. You can get those crime statistics from your city's police department. And principals can explain what they're doing to make their schools the safest places possible. Common sense would guide you to move this information toward the top of your SARCs.

FURTHER INFORMATION

If you want to look at the research yourself, you can review a summary of the ten recommendations as they appeared in Education Week in their 1999 edition of "Quality Counts."

Or you can review the report in full, "Reporting Results," written by A-Plus Communications. Highly recommended.

To examine more broadly the range of issues that make up school safety, you are welcome to read about it in the Virtual Library of the School Wise Press website.

And you can review the topic in Education Week's archives.

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