By Adam Pagnucco.
Part One introduced the topic of whether MCPS students and staff feel safe at school. Part Two looked at racial data of students and staff. Part Three examined individual middle and high schools from the perspective of students. Part Four examined individual middle and high schools from the perspective of staff. Part Five found correlations between economics and some racial data and student responses on safety in middle and high schools. Part Six found similar correlations in staff responses.
What have we learned in this series?
1. A majority of students and staff feel safe at school. However, elementary schools fare far better than middle schools and high schools.
2. Black and Latino students are less likely to feel safe in both middle schools and high schools than White and Asian students.
3. There is substantial variation in feelings of safety between schools. MCPS has five middle schools in which at least 45% of students feel unsafe and in one of them – Benjamin Banneker MS in Burtonsville – a majority of students feel unsafe. MCPS has twelve middle schools in which a majority of staff feel not at all safe or somewhat safe. MCPS also has nine high schools in which a majority of staff feel not at all or somewhat safe.
In Parts Five and Six, I used scatter charts and correlation coefficients to show a sample of demographic variables that had correlations with safety responses. Let’s delve into that topic further. A correlation coefficient measures the correlation between two variables. A correlation of +1.0 is a perfect positive relationship between the two while a correlation of -1.0 is a perfect negative relationship.
In middle schools, these variables had moderate to strong positive correlations with the percentage of students feeling unsafe.
% of students receiving free and reduced price meals (FARMs): +0.80
% of students ever receiving free and reduced price meals (Ever FARMs): +0.80
Mobility rate (turnover): +0.68
% emergent multilingual learner: +0.67
% Latino: +0.66
In middle schools, this variable had a strong negative correlation with the percentage of students feeling unsafe.
% White: -0.70
In high schools, these variables had moderate to strong positive correlations with the percentage of students feeling unsafe.
% of students ever receiving free and reduced price meals (Ever FARMs): +0.75
% of students receiving free and reduced price meals (FARMs): +0.75
% Black: +0.70
In high schools, this variable had a strong negative correlation with the percentage of students feeling unsafe.
% White: -0.75
In middle schools, this variable had a moderate positive correlation with the percentage of staff feeling somewhat or not at all safe.
Mobility rate (turnover): +0.61
In high schools, these variables had moderate to strong positive correlations with the percentage of staff feeling somewhat or not at all safe.
% Black: +0.73
% of students ever receiving free and reduced price meals (Ever FARMs): +0.66
% of students receiving free and reduced price meals (FARMs): +0.66
In high schools, this variable had a strong negative correlation with the percentage of staff feeling somewhat or not at all safe.
% White: -0.70
I am going to summarize all of this in one sentence:
School safety is an equity issue.
Among both students and staff, feelings of not being safe at school are correlated with poverty and racial data. In schools with high usage of free and reduced price meals (FARMs) and/or high Black percentages, students and staff tend to feel less safe. In schools with high White percentages, students and staff tend to feel more safe. It’s no accident that FARMs rates track racial data. They are related.
Four years ago, racial equity advocates persuaded County Executive Marc Elrich to remove police officers from schools. Council Members Will Jawando, Hans Riemer and Tom Hucker also introduced legislation to remove them. With juvenile crime on the rise along with growing concerns over safety in MCPS, such proposals now seem tragically misguided.
Security is about more than cops on the ground to be sure. But if equity advocates truly want to help Black and Brown students as well as low-income students, they should put their efforts into helping MCPS and law enforcement improve school safety. If they don’t, good luck in making progress on the achievement gap. Because when students and staff do not feel safe, it’s hard for genuine learning to take place.