Allison Ann Payne

School Climate Predictors of School Disorder: Results from a National Study of Delinquency Prevention in Schools

Hypotheses about the association of school organizational characteristics with school crime and disorder were tested in a nationally representative sample of 254 secondary schools. Relatively small intra-class correlations suggest that most of the variance in the individual measures of school disorder result from within-school rather than between-school variation. Therefore only a small portion of this variation is potentially explainable by between-school influences. Nevertheless, school climate explained a substantial percentage of the variance in all measures of school disorder, controlling for the effects of community characteristics and school student composition. Schools in which students perceived greater fairness and clarity of rules had less delinquent behavior and less student victimization. Rule fairness and clarity did not influence teacher victimization. Schools with more positive psychosocial climates had less teacher victimization, but climate did not influence student victimization or delinquent behavior.

School predictors of the intensity of implementation of school-based prevention programs: results from a national study.

Research has indicated that the effectiveness of school-based prevention programs is affected by the implementation quality of these programs. As the importance of implementation has become clearer, researchers have begun to examine factors that appear to be related to implementation quality. Data from a nationally representative sample of 544 schools were used to examine structural equation models representing hypothesized relationships among school and program factors and implementation intensity, controlling for exogenous community factors. Significant relationships were found between implementation intensity and several school and program factors, including local program development process, integration into school operations, organizational capacity, principal support, and standardization. Implications of these findings are discussed.

A Multilevel Analysis of the Relationships among Communal School Organization, Student Bonding, and Delinquency

Research has identified school-related factors that are predictive of a students involvement in delinquency: specifically, school-level communal school organization and individual-level student bonding. Hierarchical linear modeling was used to examine the multilevel relationships among these concepts in a nationally representative sample of 13,597 students in 253 schools. Hypotheses stating that students who attend more communally organized schools are more likely to be bonded to school and less likely to engage in delinquency were upheld, as was the hypothesis that students who are more attached to their school are less likely to engage in delinquency. The final hypothesis, which examined a multilevel interaction between communal school organization and student bonding, was upheld in that student bonding had less of an effect on delinquency in schools that were more communally organized. Implications for delinquency prevention are discussed.

The Relative Importance of Provider, Program, School, and Community Predictors of the Implementation Quality of School-Based Prevention Programs

Previous research has demonstrated the importance of a variety of factors on the implementation of school-based prevention programs, specifically characteristics of program providers, program structure, school climate, and school and community structure. The current study expands this research by examining the potential relationships between all of these factors and implementation quality in a series of multilevel models. Using data from a nationally representative sample of 3,730 program providers surveyed in 544 schools, it was found that program structure characteristics were of greater importance in the prediction of high quality implementation than were characteristics of the program providers, school climate, and school and community structure. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Exclusionary School Punishment The Effect of Racial Threat on Expulsion and Suspension

Schools today frequently resort to punishments that exclude students from the classroom, such as expulsion, suspension, and in-school suspension, much like the criminal justice system excludes criminals from greater society. Although prior research testing the racial threat hypothesis has found that racial composition is associated with the use of more punitive criminal punishment and harsher student discipline, no threat research to date has assessed the possibility that school-level racial composition affects the likelihood that specific exclusionary student punishments will be implemented. Using a national random sample of schools, this study is the first to test and support the racial threat perspective in relation to the use of expulsion and suspension, finding that zero tolerance policies often contribute to this effect.

The impact of bullying victimization on school avoidance

An increasing body of research is examining the effects of bullying among adolescents in elementary, middle, and high school settings. Using data from the National Crime Victimization Survey: School Crime Supplement 2007, this study explores the impact of bullying victimization on school avoidance for 11,161 students between the ages of 12 and 18. More specifically, the authors investigate the likelihood of students avoiding locations in or around schools due to perceived or actual incidents of victimization. Results highlight the pervasiveness of peer aggression in schools and provide further encouragement for the development of prevention and intervention tactics to effectively mediate bully/victim issues.

Do Predictors of the Implementation Quality of School-Based Prevention Programs Differ by Program Type?

Research has indicated that the effectiveness of school-based prevention programs is affected by the implementation quality of these programs. As the importance of implementation has become clear, researchers have identified factors that appear to be related to implementation quality, including local program selection and training, integration into school operations, organizational capacity, principal support, and program standardization; however, it is unknown whether the impact of these factors differs by program type. Data from a nationally representative sample of 544 schools are used to create structural equation models representing hypothesized relationships among school and program factors and implementation quality, controlling for exogenous community factors. The relative importance of these factors for individual-level programs, such as behavior modification and counseling programs, versus environmental-level programs, such as improvements to classroom management or school planning and climate change programs, is the focus of this study. Implications for the implementation of school-based prevention program are discussed.

Restorative Justice in Schools The Influence of Race on Restorative Discipline

Schools today are more frequently using punitive discipline practices to control student behavior, despite the greater effectiveness of community-building techniques on compliance that are based on restorative justice principles found in the criminal justice system. Prior research testing the racial threat hypothesis has found that the racial composition of schools is associated with the use of more punitive and less reparative approaches to discipline, just as it has been associated with criminal justice harshness. However, no research to date has assessed the possibility that school-level racial composition may affect the likelihood that specific restorative justice techniques, which are the most commonly used alternative, will be implemented. This study is the first to test the racial threat perspective in relation to use of the restorative practices student conferences, peer mediation, restitution, and community service. Using a national random sample in logistic regression analyses, we find that schools with proportionally more Black students are less likely to use such techniques when responding to student behavior. This finding has several troubling implications for minority students in particular and for education as a whole.

A Comparative Analysis of Social Learning and Social Control Theories in the Prediction of College Crime

This research examines the comparative ability of social control and social learning theories to predict crime on a college campus. Data were obtained from self-report surveys from the first wave of a longitudinal study at a liberal arts college in the Mid-Atlantic region. Results from correlation and regression analyses indicate that both social control and social learning components are related to crime and drug use, with the greatest amount of variance explained by models that include elements of both theories. Issues such as the temporal ordering of peer and individual delinquency and the similarity between belief and definitions are discussed.

Communal School Organization Effects on School Disorder: Interactions with School Structure

Previous research has demonstrated multiple beneficial outcomes of communal school organization for teachers and students alike. The current research uses data from a nationally representative sample of 253 public, non-alternative, secondary schools to examine how a communal school organization interacts with school contextual factors, such as school size and racial diversity, to affect school disorder. It was found that more diverse schools are less likely to be communally organized and that communal school organization had a stronger negative effect on school disorder in these more diverse schools. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.