| R. Sam Michalowski
City University of New York
The organizational context of school violence and disruption: A national perspective
Developing pubiic policy initiatives to curb the marked increase in school disruption and violence has become an urgent national priority. Lacking are national, exploratory, and contemporary studies on school disruption and violence to guide these policy initiatives. This is partially due to the limitations of existing national level data sets. My dissertation research uses NCES' nationally representative Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS) - typically overlooked by school violence researchers - to further an organizational understanding of school violence and disruption. While community context and demographics of a school population are theorized to be present as effects, these are ultimately moderated by schools' organizational structures and processes. Using the multi-level 1999-2000 SASS data I will test the following hypothesis using Hierarchical Linear Modeling: A school's disruption level is negatively correlated with two crucial organizational elements - the decision making control of its teachers and the power of its clientele.
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