Examining the School and Community Contexts that Contribute to the Root Causes and Prevention of School Violence in Rural, Urban, and Large County School Districts in California. - Category 4

Statement of the Problem: American Institutes for Research (AIR), in partnership with Virginia Polytechnic Institute (Virginia Tech), Public Counsel, an interdisciplinary Council of Advisors (COA) and leading implementation science consultants proposes to examine the association of school safety and student outcomes with school-based risk and protective factors and readiness for school safety reforms among students, parents, schools and communities in three rural, urban, and large county school districts in California. Consistent with NIJ's mandate, our study aims to inform research policy and practice on improving school safety in communities where crime and violence is greatest. Our project goals are to (1) examine how student safety and educational outcomes change as the ecology of risk and protective factors in the school and community context change and (2) determine the extent to which school, staff, and community readiness to mitigate these risk and protective factors is associated with improved school safety and student outcomes. The research team will use a cross-sectional longitudinal survey design to collect school safety risk and readiness data from students, parents, and staff in three public school districts serving high-risk, high-need communities in California. Survey data from student, staff, and parent cohorts in each district will be tracked across four years to measure individual, school, and community-level risk and protective factors for school violence as well as readiness to use a comprehensive school safety approach. An additional three years of pre-study school-level, crime, and community data will also be collected from each study site. Administrative sources will provide educational and school safety outcome data for each cohort of students in the study as well as concentrated disadvantage and crime rates in the broader community. We will use time series analysis and multi-level modeling to examine differences in school safety and student outcomes. We will also collect qualitative data from public deliberation convening of youth, families, and community stakeholders to contextualize quantitative results, share study data, and engage the community as a key stakeholder in school violence prevention. ca/ncf