School Security and Achievement: Racial and Ethnic Pathways

• In Event: Structural Racism and School Discipline: Replicating the Racialized Hierarchy Through Coercion and Control

Abstract

Although school security measures – like metal detectors, drug-sniffing dogs, and security cameras – have become increasingly common in the hallways of schools across the United States, there is evidence that not all security environments are equal. Reflecting a legacy of racism and social control, studies have shown that school security measures are more prevalent in schools with greater proportions of Black and Hispanic students, and are used more frequently against non-White students more generally. The use of school security measures “against” Black and Hispanic students may have spillover effects into the academic realm including reducing academic performance and inhibiting graduation. Given that high school graduation and college enrollment are defining characteristics of interrupting the “school-to-prison pipeline” the use of school security measures may be a significant racialized barrier within this process. Using nationally-representative data from the Educational Longitudinal Survey (ELS: 2002), we use a series of mixed-effects models to examine the extent to which school security environments shape racial and ethnic pathways into, and through, high school graduation and college enrollment.

Explicit links to the general focus of the session and 2023 theme: School security measures and school hardening often occur in response to school shootings, which have occurred primarily in suburban, predominantly White schools and school districts. Yet the implementation of those measures, and more importantly the harms that result, fall equally or more frequently on schools and communities of color. This presentation makes a contribution to the focus of the session and the conference theme by explicitly exploring the relationship between school security and academic outcomes for students of color.

Authors

• Thomas Mowen, Bowling Green State University
  Presenting Author

• Benjamin W. Fisher, University of Wisconsin - Madison
  Presenting Author

• Samantha Viano, George Mason University
  Presenting Author

• Aishia Brown, University of Louisville
  Presenting Author

• Alex Widdowson, University of Louisville
  Presenting Author

• John H Boman, Bowling Green State University
  Presenting Author