Authors: Jessie Kim, Takaaki Miyamoto, Yoko Nakashima-Myers, Maisa Youssef
Date: June 1, 2006
Project: Evaluation of the Safety Collaborative Human Relations Subcommittee in LAUSD District 7 High Schools
In the past several decades, schools have become increasingly dangerous. LAUSD District 7 chose to address the growing issue of school safety by creating a Safety Collaborative, involving the schools, local law enforcement, the LA County Commissions for Human Relations, the LA City Human Relations Commissions, and nonprofit organizations.
The Safety Collaborative was established in three schools that were considered to be the most in need of safety interventions within LAUSD District 7: Fremont, Jordan, and Locke High Schools. The Human Relations Subcommittee of the Safety Collaborative coordinates services and programs that address youth behavior and attitudes. In particular, the subcommittee works to provide instruction and interactive training for the school community to promote nonviolence.
In this study, we asked the question of how effective the Safety Collaboratives, in particular, the Human Relations Subcommittees have improved student behavior since their establishment in 2004. We first took a quantitative approach to see how much impact the Human Relations Subcommittee through the Safety Collaboratives had on school safety. Secondly, we conducted qualitative analysis to see if the Human Relations Subcommittees addressed the appropriate problems. We looked at school data such as suspension and attendance over the three academic years from the 2002-2003 school year to the 2004-2005 school year. In addition, students and teachers were surveyed on their perception of school safety in schools with Safety Collaboratives. Both the objective and subjective data attempted to determine whether Safety Collaboratives were effectively functioning.
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