An Investigation of Safety in Detroit's Charter and Public Schools

• In Event: Roundtable Session 36
  In Roundtable Session: Markets and Educational Policy: Potential and Pitfalls

Abstract

An urgent need to improve school safety has contributed to the growth of the charter school movement in the city of Detroit. However, knowledge of how safety may vary between charter and public schools is lacking. This study seeks to address this gap by evaluating school-level (N = 176) student reported survey data across Detroit’s public and charter schools. The results suggest that charter schools exhibit significantly higher levels of perceived school safety, net of neighborhood crime levels and demographic factors. However, irrespective of school type, the findings also demonstrate that school safety is associated with average commute distance. The implications of these results are discussed.

Author

• Daniel Hamlin, University of Toronto - OISE