Community Safety and Policing Research Program, Global Justice Lab,
          Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, University of Toronto

external partners only · what was measured

What predicts a school's ties to outside organizations

A project of the Community Safety and Policing Research Program, Global Justice Lab, Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, University of Toronto. Findings are associational and self-reported.

Data and measures

The School Survey on Crime and Safety is run by the National Center for Education Statistics. It went to a fresh national sample of public school principals six times between 2005-06 and 2021-22, and 2021-22 was the last collection.

The seven organizations come from one question. Principals are asked whether each was involved in the school's efforts to promote safe, disciplined and drug-free schools: civic organizations, businesses, religious organizations, social services, mental health agencies, juvenile justice and law enforcement. The survey lists an eighth, parent groups, which this version leaves out.

Every figure is weighted with the survey's own weights, because unweighted percentages of this survey do not describe US schools. Standard errors are clustered on the sampling stratum crossed with the survey year, which gives 365 clusters rather than 64.

What these numbers cannot show

Findings here are associational. The crime level is the principal's description of the area, not a recorded statistic. Each survey is a fresh sample of schools rather than the same schools followed over time, so nothing here shows what causes what, and no school is observed changing its partners.