Workshop Proceedings

(2014)

School violence and bullying are both public health concerns that have serious short- and long-term negative outcomes for youth, families, students, and community members. In this report, several pressing research issues related to definitional issues, etiological underpinnings, and school violence and bully ing prevention efforts are reviewed with a focus on whether the National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES) longitudinal and cross-sectional datasets could be used to address these issues. Two longitudinal high school studies, the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS:2002) and the High School Longi tudinal Study of 2009 (HSLS:2009), were reviewed and the ELS:2002 dataset includes an assessment of bully victimization (one item) and school violence (scale) at baseline. Papers have appeared in peer-reviewed outlets examining victimization experiences among children of immigrant parents and victimization experiences in after-school programs. Much more work could be conducted with this dataset, but the single bully victimization item is a major limitation. The HSLS:2009 only includes one item related to school violence— students were asked how safe they felt at school. Three longitudinal studies within the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (ECLS; http://nces.ed.gov/ ecls) program examine home, school, and community influences on children’s academic and social development. NCES is encouraged to continue to follow the kindergarten class of 2010–2011 (ECLS-K:2011), currently in the third grade, into late adolescence. NCES cross-sectional datasets are limited in several respects. They are cross-sectional, have limited measurement of indicators of school violence and bullying, and do not allow for contextual analyses because student responses cannot be linked to classroom-, school-, neighborhood-, and community-level data. Thus, a longitudinal, multisite, multi-informant study is needed to address definitional and etiological issues related to school violence and bullying so that prevention efforts can be developed, implemented, and evaluated that incorporate multiple levels of the ecology, including peers, schools, communities, and neighborhoods.

Espelage, D. L. (2014). National Academy of Education Workshop to Examine Current and Potential Uses of NCES Longitudinal Surveys by the Education Research Community. National Academy of Education.