This qualitative study explored essential characteristics attributed to highly effective School Resource Officers (SROs) as perceived by experienced Indiana high school principals. Through semi-structured interviews with five high school principals from Indiana, the study sought to identify key responsibilities, outcomes, proactive activities, and…

Schools in the United States need to be prepared for a possible school shooting. However, the types of planning and security measures differ across states and there is not a national policy center or central authority that standardize the quality and feasibility of the safety and security plans. Little research exists on teachers' perceptions of…

School safety is an ever-present issue in the modern education system. Incidents like Sandy Hook, Parkland, and Columbine have forever changed the way school and police officials develop school safety programs. A primary component of many school safety programs is the utilization of school resource officers at various levels throughout the…

This research examines the reasons why parent(s)/guardian(s) have chosen to enroll their child in a Catholic high school in the New Orleans area. Currently enrollment in Catholic high schools in the area is down post-Hurricane Katrina. This research is a qualitative study utilizing Grounded Theory methodology. An anonymous survey was sent to…

Positive behavioral interventions and supports (PBIS) is a schoolwide approach to promote positive school safety in which student academic success can occur. However, at least one third of students in United States schools are suspended once in their K12 school career for violating a school's code of conduct. School suspensions have been linked to…

A case study was conducted to establish baseline data in determining the efficacy of the safety and security program at two rural high schools. Using a publicly available Likert scale survey provided by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), district and school leaders were surveyed to determine their perceptions of safety and security on the two…

In 2018, the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) enacted a new law called Act 44, which provided new form of funding for school safety in school districts across the State of Pennsylvania. The study focused on how school superintendents and high school principals prioritized each category in Pennsylvania Act 44 from highest to the lowest…

School safety is a wicked problem due to shifting needs and available information, the diverse actors affected and involved, fluctuating budgetary demands and ramifications, and relations to broader social and political issues. School safety challenges encompass a range of factors, including threats of violence and fears related to school…

This qualitative study explored, from a case study perspective, early college high school principals' viewpoints on leadership characteristics and best practices that influence a school culture and school climate. Through an analysis of participant interviews and data collection, themes were identified regarding best practices and characteristics…

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between the 2019 New York City school climate mean safety scores and high school students' academic achievement as measured by the New York State Regents exam mean scores for the 2019 academic school year. This study was conducted utilizing a non-experimental, cross-sectional, explanatory…

This study borrows its title from the hashtag #CopsoutCPS, which is a student-led movement in Chicago to end the School Resource Officer (SRO) Program and divest from policing in Chicago Public Schools. This case study cross-analyzes student, staff, and community narratives on the transitional developments in alternative safety and student…

Purpose: The overall purpose of this journal-ready dissertation was to determine the degree to which school level (i.e., elementary, middle, and high schools) and school urbanicity (i.e., city, suburb, town, and rural) were related to written safety plans (i.e., active shooter, hostage, bomb, and pandemic flu/disease threats) and drilled safety…

The purpose of this study was to examine how school leaders in the state of North Dakota define success in their schools or districts without using test scores as a measurement. The information shared by these school leaders will be shared with other school leaders in North Dakota with the intent that test data becomes less of a driving force in…

The purpose of this study was to investigate relationships between five school productivity measures at 248 Tennessee high schools and educators' perceptions of these institutions' climate for student discipline. Grounded in archived accountability information stored on the Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE) website, these five productivity…

High school administrators in the Carter School District (CSD) are aware of the negative impact exclusionary discipline has on students, but they exclude students anyway. This study used qualitative methods to answer the following research questions: How do high school administrators in CSD describe and explain their discipline decision-making?…