School Uniforms

Reports from The Journal of Educational Research reflect the belief that school uniforms have no direct effect on substance use, behavioral problems or attendance issues after analyzing data from the National Educational Longitudinal study of 1988. (Brunsma & Rockquemore, 2001, p 92) The authors of the article go on to make a bold claim that contrary to current discourse there may be a negative effect of school uniforms on student academic achievement. This research revelation was considered breaking news in its day of discovery.

The debate about public school uniforms in America is an issue that has been around for a very long time. This issue was even mentioned by President Bill Clinton in a previous State of the Union address in 1996. In his 1996 State of the Union Address, President Clinton decreed,” I challenge all of our schools to teach character education, to teach good values and good citizenship and if it means that teenagers will stop killing each other over designer jackets, then our public schools should be able to require their students to wear school uniforms” (Clinton 1996). Public schools requiring mandatory uniforms for their students are a major topic as it deals with moral and economic concerns about how America’s public schools are operated.

For quite some time now there has been an ongoing discussion about students wearing school uniforms in public schools. Is students in the public-school system play a major role on them academically? Is making the students wear uniforms unfair or does it show equality? What image does it set for the schools that do have a uniform policy? Over the last few decades, the schools, parents, and students have had a debatable issue over the uniform matter.

There are many perks that come with having a uniform. One important reason is that schools with uniforms are shown to have better scores on test. This was discovered in a recent study. Many think this is due to the fact that when a school allows pupils to wear what they want, it can distract them from their lessons and tasks. This abstraction is eliminated with the introduction of uniforms.

Catholic schools which make up which make up sixty-five percent of all uniformed school in America, were eager to put themselves on the line as guinea pigs.(Brunsma & Rockquemore, 1998) In relation to dress codes, students who wore uniforms showed no significant advantage against those who wore regular clothes.(Brunsma & Rockquemore, 1998) In fact according to David Brunsma's study student who wore uniforms were often absent more than those who did not and on average scored three points lower on standardized test than those who did not wear uniforms.(Brunsma & Rockquemore, 1998) This finding completely changed the viewpoint that uniforms were directly related to the detering of absenteeism and the improving of standardized test scores.(Brunsma & Rockquemore, 1998) A second study was implemented to see if uniforms had affected schools were academic preparedness, proschool attitudes, and peer structures were the normal thing that occurred.(Brunsma & Rockquemore, 1998)

This paper will explore research in order to examine if there are any direct benefits or advantages for students who attend schools that have developed and initiated a mandatory dress code policy, mainly in wearing school uniforms. My school, St. Mary’s Central High School, has recently adopted a uniform policy. It is ever changing as we are meeting the needs of our students.

Everybody wearing the same thing to school will make focusing easier. A student sitting in a classroom filled with different colors and clothes may be attracted to those colors and be distracted. "Researcher Virginia Draa found that over all, graduation rates rose 110%" "Do School Uniforms Affect Academic Performance?'

This would most likely help students achieve better grades and be more successful in school. Several schools in the United States have turned to uniforms to, “help students get better grades”. But his will not be as effective as the new and improved resources. As teachers are often too worried about enforcing dress codes and uniform policies, crucial learning time is taken away from other students. Kathleen Modenbach, a teacher at a school with uniforms, believes that when schools try to enforce uniforms, it is a, “...waste of time. The staff should focus their energy on teaching students.” (Hamilton, 24) Also, it was be nearly impossible to make every single kid focus, because they are human. As humans, we may be easily distracted. Sybil Renick, a high school student comments, “Do not think that by forcing students to wear uniforms, that you are going to get the to concentrate more on their studies.” (Cruz, 42) Most people can relate to being distracted and unfortunately, there is not really a way to stop it from happening. Another argument that experts fight, concerning academics and uniforms, is that uniforms improve test scores. David L. Brunsma, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Missouri-Columbia, recently began a study regarding this matter. Brunsma found that uniforms did not improve the student’s test scores, attendance,

However, most of these beliefs originate from an experiment done 20 years ago in Long Beach California. The school was struggling with high student criminal rates and then started to require their students to wear uniforms, which, in that particular situation, succeeded in lowering the rates. Yet a lot of studies have been done since then with extremely contradicting results (Do School Uniforms…). A much more accurate study by The National Center for Education Statistics contains results from different students from various schools and locations from eighth grade to college. This study showed that there was no change in issues such as substance abuse, behavioral problems, and bullying. In fact, many schools in England are neglecting uniforms because teachers claim that they are spending too much time arguing with their students over small things like un-tucked shirts, and that it is distracting them from actually educating their students (Do School Uniforms…). This shows that the leaders of a school should not assume that the common beliefs of uniforms are facts, and instead pay more attention to what the students feel; considering they are the ones actually having to wear them. A survey was conducted of 100 students at the East Wake Academy High School in Zebulon North Carolina, freshman through senior classes,

This shows that expression can help form a person’s psychological composure among other things. Another common argument for school uniforms is the topic of bullying. It is said that school uniforms reduce the acts of bullying; that is simply not true. "School uniforms increased the average number of assaults by about 14 [per year] in the most violent schools." and "Overall, there is no evidence in bullying literature that supports a reduction in violence due to school uniforms" (Shawn Jeffords). Though bullying only really increased in violent neighborhoods, it is still said and constantly shown, with statistics, that uniforms do not decrease the act of bullying. It is a concept of uniforms that seems like it may work but has not. Most just go by what seems right rather than looking at hard facts.

This study would explore how dressing professionally would affect the test scores of females in STEM classes in college. STEM classes are traditionally male-dominated

The supporting evidence indicates there may be a direct impact on students wearing uniforms and

When students wear uniforms, students do not improve in any way. Student’s academic scores do not go higher when they wear a uniform. Researcher Virginia Draa found that “implementing a uniform policy in schools did not have any impact on academic performance”. If schools are hoping for their student’s academic scores to go higher by implementing uniforms, they would be better off without uniforms. Wearing uniforms don’t help a student’s attitude. A 2010 study in a large urban school district in the Southwest found that asking students to wear uniforms did not result in any change in the number of suspensions for elementary school students. Student’s behavior won’t change, if schools wanted to implement uniform. Uniforms don’t have any positive impact on students,

The participants for this study will consist of two groups of one hundred high school juniors. Both groups will attend two different public high schools in Illinois. One group will attend a high school where they wear uniforms and the other group will attend a high school in which they do not. Both high schools will have the same rating on greatschools.org as well as have the same free-reduced lunch percentage. This will help to mitigate any disparities between general academic achievement and socioeconomic status. Students are only eligible if they are enrolled in college prep courses. Students will not be considered if they are currently taking honors or advanced placement courses. This is to ensure that the data is not skewed in one direction based on the level of rigor a student has received. This is also an attempt to have the students as similar as possible to determine the relationship uniforms have on performance.

Jessica Portner, a writer for Education Week, agreed with President Clinton in her February 14, 1996 article entitled “Uniforms Get Credit for Decrease in Discipline Problems.” Using statistical evidence from the aforementioned Long Beach school system