The Alignment Between Community Policing and the Work of School Resource Officers

Despite a growing literature showing the ineffectiveness of school resource officers (SROs) for reducing school crime, their use is widespread. Some of this ineffectiveness may arise from SROs’ experiences of role conflict due to their multi-faceted roles and conflicting expectations associated with following two authority structures. Community policing (CP) may offer a unifying perspective that can address some of these barriers. The current study uses data from 119 qualitative interviews with SROs from three U.S. states to examine the extent to which SROs’ activities align with three dimensions of CP: community partnerships, problem-solving, and organizational adaptation. This study finds that SROs’ described activities align well with these dimensions, suggesting that a CP framework may be a strong model for organizing and describing the work of SROs. This framework can be viewed as an initial proof of concept, and research may elaborate on the framework and assess its utility.

School Resource (Police) Officers in Schools

Having police officers in schools (school resource officers – SROs) is controversial with a growing debate as their presence has proliferated nationally over the past 20 years. A majority of high schools and middle schools today have police on campus providing a variety of services, though primarily law enforcement. While the intent is to provide improved school safety and protection to students, unexpectedly this has not been the outcome for many school campuses when reviewing most criminal activity and school shootings. While the presence of SROs is complicated, the unintended impact has harmed more students than anticipated by criminalizing misbehaviors and disorderly conduct, making the learning environment less conducive by negatively changing school climates and disproportionately impacting many already at-risk young people.

Identifying and intervening to stop school bullying: the role of school resource officers

Purpose The purpose of this study is to explore school resource officers (SROs) and their role in preventing, detecting and intervening in bullying incidents. Design/methodology/approach Using data from 214 survey respondents, the present study attempted to identify the personal and situational characteristics that help to understand when SROs are likely to identify and intervene in bullying incidents. Findings Taking a multivariate logistic regression approach, the results show that SROs – regardless of race, age, gender and education – who can identify instances of bullying are more likely to intervene to stop it. Research limitations/implications The implications of improved training for SROs are discussed, as are ways to enhance the integration of SROs into schools’ overall anti-bullying efforts. Originality/value Bullying and violence in schools have been a growing concern for school districts and SROs are being increasingly seen as critical components of anti-bullying programs.

Equality of Opportunity in Learning Outcomes Attainment through Financing Public Day Secondary Schools’ Resources in Kenya

Although students’ learning outcomes are not expected to be equal, the differences should not be accounted for by the differences in school resources. Equality of opportunity in financing schools’ resources is evidenced by the lack of a relationship between the availability of school resources and differences in students’ learning outcomes. Tharaka Nithi County, one of the 47 Counties in Kenya, has consistently had a high difference in students’ learning outcomes in different public day secondary schools. This study sought to establish if differences in students’ learning outcomes in Tharaka Nithi County evidence equality of opportunity. The study employed a convergent parallel mixed-method research design. A stratified random sampling technique was used to select 738 (368 male and 370 female) Form 3 students and 738 (368 male and 370 female) parents of the Form 3 students. Quantitative data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics, while qualitative data was thematically analysed. The study findings revealed that there was a strong statistically positive significant relationship, r = 0.674 at p < .01 between school resource characteristics and differences in student’s examination scores. The study also established that differences in public day secondary school resource characteristics accounted for a 6.1% difference in students’ learning outcomes after controlling for all the predictor variables which included student’s household characteristics, student’s parental/guardian characteristics, and student’s conduct characteristics. The study thus recommends that financing of public day secondary school resources should focus on equity given the inequality of opportunity in secondary education attainment.