'Meaningless' study says 27 city schools unsafe

A controversial list of America's "persistently dangerous" schools recently compiled by the federal government includes only 52 of the nation's 91,000 educational institutions -- 27 of which are located in the Philadelphia School District.

Though this data seems alarming, critics say the study was not a fair and accurate representation of schools across the country. Each state was permitted to set its own definition of persistently dangerous and classify schools according to its own criteria.

Pennsylvania reported 28 such schools, only one of which is located outside Philadelphia, in Chester County. The other five states reporting dangerous schools were Nevada, which identified eight; New Jersey, which reported seven; and Texas, New York and Oregon, which identified six, two and one school, respectively.

Forty-four states and the District of Columbia reported that none of their public schools were unsafe.

"States have given parents a false sense of security with this government Grade A stamp of approval, saying most schools are perfectly safe," said Kenneth Trump, a national school safety consultant.

With no federal guidelines set to determine what constitutes a dangerous school, the persistently dangerous list is "completely meaningless," according to Trump.

"Most states have set the bar too high for any schools to reach it, and the reporting is flawed overall."

Penn Urban Studies Professor Dennis Culhane agreed that the persistently dangerous list should be viewed skeptically.

"Reliability and validity from a social science perspective would have to be assessed before this data is used, otherwise it is not meaningful," he said.

This nationwide identification of unsafe schools fulfills a mandate of President George W. Bush's No Child Left Behind Act, intending to give students attending dangerous schools the choice to transfer to another school not on the list.

Pennsylvania used a definition based on enrollment and the number of dangerous incidents to classify schools. A dangerous incident was defined as weapons possession resulting in arrest and violent incidents resulting in arrest, including homicide, kidnapping, robbery, sexual offenses and assaults.

"Presently, this report captures those districts that have set the bar high and reported against tough safety standards and leaves off schools that may be grappling with safety challenges but reported those incidents differently," Pennsylvania Secretary of Education Vicki Phillips said in a news release.

"We will continue to report every incident so that we get a true and accurate account of what is going on in our schools," said Vincent Thompson, a spokesman for the Philadelphia School District. "This is the only way we can put procedures into place that will make schools safer, and we are committed to this."

"We're not going to comment on what other cities have done," Thompson added.

He explained that as one of America's biggest cities, it is not surprising that dangerous schools exist in Philadelphia. Before the list came out, the district announced its initiatives to make schools safer. In addition to allocating extra resources to the 27 schools on the list, the district identified 23 additional schools requiring more resources.

"The district is committed to safety, and the way to get off this list is to lessen incidents," he said. "We are confident that our work will get many of our schools off, and with our initiatives, one day we will have no schools on the list."

According to Trump, the threat of placement on the persistently dangerous list will encourage the underreporting of school crime. He deemed this designation as "the scarlet letter of education."

"No one wants that label," Trump said. "Principals are going to be pressured to underreport crime to stay off the list."

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