This study investigates the apparent threat assessment priorities of potential risks to safety in the school environment in the United States and whether stakeholders in Florida private schools that serve exceptional students agree with the priority given to specific identified potential threats. Faculty and staff, high school students, and the students’ parents and guardians at four Florida private schools for exceptional students rated their perceptions of the severity and likelihood of occurrence of nine potential threats identified in a review of federal and Florida state school safety laws and national and state government surveys of incident occurrences. Results showed that although violent potential threats such as an armed intruder, students bringing weapons to school, and physical assaults received priority attention in federal and state school safety laws, stakeholders in Florida private schools for exceptional students indicated that threats of a more personal nature—such as bullying, sexual harassment, and cyberbullying—were the most significant risks to the safety of their school environment. All three respondent subgroups, however, reported high ratings of their overall feelings of safety at their schools.

Comparative analyses of district-run public schools and charter schools are limited to performance outcomes. There is a dearth of research on how the school-types vary on factors consequential to performance such as school climate. Public-private distinctions, such as in organizational autonomy, value orientations, funding structures, and management practices, could result in school climate dissimilarities between district-run public schools and charter schools. The aim of this dissertation is to assess the influence organizational factors have on school climate and determine if school-type affects school climate. Student and staff school climate survey data from the Miami-Dade school district were utilized for this dissertation. Structural equation modeling was employed to test theoretical models of students’ and staffs’ perceptions of school climate using data from 2001-2002 through 2015-2016 academic years. Within-between effects panel regression was utilized to test the effect of school-type on school climate constructs over time using data from 2005-2006 through 2015-2016 academic years. The structural equation results demonstrate that milieu, ecology, culture, and organizational structure influence students’ and staffs’ perceptions of their schools’ climates. Ecology has the strongest association with students’ perceptions of school climate. Job satisfaction, a part of milieu and culture, has the strongest association with staffs’ perceptions of school climate. The results indicate that the theoretical models of school climate employed by this study are sound. The within-between effects panel regression results demonstrate that characteristics inherent to school-type have a plausible influence on students’ perceptions of school climate, but not for staff. Charter school students rated their school climates more favorably than traditional public schools, but when other factors are controlled, traditional public schools and magnet schools had more favorable ratings. Public-sector values, collective bargaining, and school district oversight may be beneficial to schools’ climates. This dissertation underscores the impact management and funding structures have on school climate. The author recommends that the school climate concept and evaluations of schools’ organizational practices be incorporated into school improvement policies. The milieu, culture, ecology, and organizational structures of schools should be reviewed when assessing school quality.

<p>  </p> <p>A school safety team collaborates with stakeholders to promote and maintain a physically and psychologically safe school environment. Together they must identify safety deficits and prioritize initiatives and practices. This phenomenological qualitative case study examined how a school safety team makes decisions and determines safety outcomes. Individual interviews and a focus group discussion explored how they calibrate what a safety concern is to help prevent violence. Four emergent themes were identified: (1) severity and impact, (2) safety-minded culture, (3) communication and collaboration, and (4) leadership. In addition, the study explored whether one of Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems has more influence over the others when validating a concern. This study suggests that the Microsystem is most influential. From these findings, three assertions were proposed to help the school safety team, and building leaders promote safe school practices: (1) The safety team must establish collaborative relationships with stakeholders and develop convenient reporting systems to collect concerns; (2) A school safety team judges a safety concern by the severity and potential impact on the school environment; and (3) Leadership is vital for the school safety team to prepare for, respond to, and address safety concerns. These findings aim to help stakeholders promote and maintain a safe learning environment as they evaluate perceived safety concerns by highlighting areas to focus on to improve the calibration process. Though a school safety team may never know how many times they were right in calibrating a concern, a single error will be well known.</p>

Violence in schools creates a climate of insecurity and fear, which impairs and impacts on the core educational purpose of schools. Accordingly, the main purpose of installing and implementing security measures at schools is to create a safer environment wherein individuals can move freely and feel secure in going about their daily schooling activities. The nature and extent of school violence was briefly examined within this study to assess the effectiveness of security measures within the schools. It is important for any institution to first examine and identify the specific risks it is facing before those risks can be addressed successfully. Security measures are valuable and helpful resources that can assist in creating safe and secure school environments. As this study highlighted, the more security measures a school had, the safer the scholars and the educators felt and the lower their crime rates appeared to be. / Educational Studies / M. Tech. (Security Management)

This study was designed to examine the benefits of positive school climate and to measure the perceptions of school climate for intermediate grades in a Northeast Tennessee School district. An online school climate survey was used to collect responses from participants in intermediate grades and focused on the 3 major components of school climate: school engagement, school environment, and school safety. Data were collected for 2 consecutive years in 2016-2017 and 2017-2018. Response totals included 1,955 student responses, 116 teacher responses, and 210 parent responses that were analyzed and used for this study. Of the student totals, some students that were in 5th grade in 2016-2017 may have completed the survey again as 6th graders in 2017-2018. Findings indicated that there were no significant difference in the perceptions of students, parents, and teachers in school climate over a 2-year span for this district. Research indicates there are multiple benefits to a positive school climate, including higher academic achievement, lower chronic absenteeism, and a decrease in discipline referrals.

Violence in schools creates a climate of insecurity and fear, which impairs and impacts on the core educational purpose of schools. Accordingly, the main purpose of installing and implementing security measures at schools is to create a safer environment wherein individuals can move freely and feel secure in going about their daily schooling activities. The nature and extent of school violence was briefly examined within this study to assess the effectiveness of security measures within the schools. It is important for any institution to first examine and identify the specific risks it is facing before those risks can be addressed successfully. Security measures are valuable and helpful resources that can assist in creating safe and secure school environments. As this study highlighted, the more security measures a school had, the safer the scholars and the educators felt and the lower their crime rates appeared to be. / Educational Studies / M. Tech. (Security Management)