Thread: Unified Dress Codes in Public School

Dear Alipacers:

Help me here to view the process slanted to the pro-side being represented and the negative side not being as a fair and open process.

Second there is already a Dress Code.

Third, are civil rights being violated.

Fourth, I have brought up the issue concerning health for the bigger children who have to sit in a Public School Seat for at least five hours a day. Circulation, and the build up of fluid due to restrictive clothing is one of my concerns. And what are they going to do for the full figured young women in the 6th, 7th, and 8th grades being required to display instead of camouflaging their body parts.

Fifth, the School Board will not state who started the action. But they are noting everyone who is stating or questioning this action upon the student, parents, and local citizens. And the use of paper, ink and time of teachers and staff during school time amazes me. Isn't this taxpayer money being used for the pro-side - stacking and building their deck in favor of the issue. Currently in the local newspaper 75% favor and 25% don't favor implementing Unified Dress Codes in the local Middle School.

Sixth, it is spilling over into the class room of my child in which a teacher has said to the class that they have "no say".

What remedy can someone offer me to the process and the health concerns of all students? Remember there is already a "Dress Code" and we, parents, sign a statement annually recognizing this code.

All knowledge pro- or con- is appreciated.

Who is the School Board trying to control or testing their powers on?

Thank you,
vmonkey56

Animal Farm
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

George Orwell wrote the book following his experiences during the Spanish Civil War, which are described in another of his books, Homage to Catalonia. He intended it to be a strong condemnation of what he saw as the Stalinist corruption of the original socialist ideals. For the preface of a Ukrainian edition he prepared in 1947, Orwell described what gave him the idea of setting the book on a farm:[7]

...I saw a little boy, perhaps ten years old, driving a huge carthorse along a narrow path, whipping it whenever it tried to turn. It struck me that if only such animals became aware of their strength we should have no power over them, and that men exploit animals in much the same way as the rich exploit the proletariat.

Another Link
1984
By George Orwell, 1949
http://summarycentral.tripod.com/1984.htm

“You must love Big Brother. It is not enough to obey him; you must love him.â€

Can you be a little more specific about what you mean?

Are you talking about a Dress Code in your school district that others are trying to overturn?

School Board to Implement

No, the School Board says there is an interest from some group of parents and staff at the schools to implement "Unified Dress Code" onto the Middle School Students.

And away the spending goes for a project to have no blue jeans, required belts if there are loops in slacks, and on and on. The well oil machine with attorney has within the current month now to the point of collecting guidelines for the "Unified Dress Code".

It does not matter what anyone says, in the local newspaper one of the staff in the superintendant's office said, "We are not trying to ramrod anything down someone's throat."

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This study was first published in the:
The Journal of Education Research
(Volume 92, Number 1, Sept./Oct. 1998, pp. 53-62)
by David L. Brunsma, University of Alabama
and Kerry A. Rockquemore, Notre Dame.

http://www.geocities.com/school_uniform ... act98.html

under the title:
Effects of Student Uniforms on Attendance, Behavior Problems, Substance Abuse, and Academic Achievement.

In one sentence, this study showed that uniforms did NOT lead to an improvement in attendance, behavior, drug use, or academic achievement.


Abstract


Mandatory uniform policies have been the focus of recent discourse on public school reform. Proponents of such reform measures emphasize the benefits of student uniforms on specific behavioral and academic outcomes. Tenth grade data from The National Educational Longitudinal Study of 1988 was used to test empirically the claims made by uniform advocates. The findings indicate that student uniforms have no direct effect on substance use, behavioral problems, or attendance. Contrary to current discourse, the authors found a negative effect of uniforms on student academic achievement. Uniform policies may indirectly affect school environments and student outcomes by providing a visible and public symbol of commitment to school improvement and reform.

Brunsma and Rockquemore wanted to investigate the extraordinary claims being made about how wonderful school uniforms are, particularly from the Long Beach California. It was being claimed that mandatory uniform policies were resulting in massive decreases (50 to 100 percent) in crime and disciplinary problems.

It is typically assumed, as exemplified in Long Beach, that uniforms are the sole factor causing direct change in numerous behavioral and academic outcomes. Those pronouncements by uniform proponents have raised strident objections and created a political climate in which public school uniform policies have become highly contested. The ongoing public discourse is not only entrenched in controversy but also largely fueled by conjecture and anecdotal evidence. Hence, it now seems critical that empirical analysis should be conducted to inform the school uniform debate. In this study, we investigated the relationship between uniforms and several outcomes that represent the core elements of uniform proponent's claims. Specifically, we examined how a uniform affects attendance, behavior problems, substance abuse, and academic achievement. We believe that a thorough analysis of the arguments proposed by uniform advocates will add critical insight to the ongoing debate on the effects of school uniform policies. (Brunsma and Rockquemore, 1998, pg. 54)

The authors point out that if uniforms work, they should see some of the following trends in schools with uniforms:

1. Student uniforms decrease substance use (drugs).
2. Student uniforms decrease behavioral problems.
3. Student uniforms increase attendance.
4. Student uniforms increase academic achievement.

They suspected that when other variables affecting these four items were accounted for, it would be shown that uniforms were not the cause for improvement.

How They Did Their Study

They used data from the National Educational Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS:8, and three follow-up studies. These studies tracked a national sample of eighth graders (in 198 from a wide variety of public and private schools and followed their academic careers through college. Some of the data collected in the studies included uniform policies, student background (economic and minority status), peer group (attitudes towards school and drug use), school achievement, and behavioral characteristics (how often did each student get into trouble, fights , suspensions, etc.). The authors concentrated on data from the students 10th grade year.

Some of the independent variables they considered were sex, race, economic status, public or private school, academic or vocational "tracking", rural or urban district, peer proschool attitudes, academic preparedness, the student's own proschool attitudes, and most importantly, whether or not the students wore uniforms. The researchers wanted to determine if there was a tie between these variables and desirable behavior by the students. The areas that they were looking for improvement as a result of the previous variables included reduced absenteeism, fewer behavioral problems, reduced illegal drug use, and improved standardized test scores. The researchers considered this second group of variables to be the dependent variables. The goal of their study was to determine if there was any relationship between the independent variables (particularly uniforms) and the dependent variables.

The authors took all of the data for these variables from the NELS:88 study and performed a regression analysis to see if any of the independent variables were predictors of any of the dependent variables. If there was a strong tie in the data between any two variables ( uniforms and absenteeism, for example), it would show up in the study as a correlation coefficient close to 1 or -1. A correlation coefficient near 0 indicates no relationship between the two variables. So, if wearing uniforms had a large effect on behavior, we would expect to see a correlation coefficient of say 0.5 between uniforms and measures of good behavior. If we see a very low correlation coefficient between these two, then we know that wearing uniforms has no real effect on behavior.

Results

The only positive result for uniforms that the study showed was a very slight relationship between uniforms and standardized achievement scores. The correlation coefficient was 0.05, indicating a very slight possible relationship between the two variables, but showing that uniforms are a very poor predictor of standardized test scores and that the relationship is much weaker than has been indicated in the uniform debate. Notice that 0,05 is much closer to 0 than to 1. Other than this one weak, possible relationship, uniforms struck out. In the authors own words:

Student uniform use was not significantly correlated with any of the school commitment variables such as absenteeism, behavior, or substance use (drugs). In addition, students wearing uniforms did not appear to have any significantly different academic preparedness, proschool attitudes, or peer group structures with proschool attitudes than other students. Moreover, the negative correlations between the attitudinal variables and the various outcomes of interest are significant; hence, the predictive analysis provides more substantive results.

In other words, the authors saw no relationship between wearing uniforms and the desirable behavior (reduced absenteeism, reduced drug usage, improved behavior). They did, however, see a strong relationship between academic preparedness, proschool attitudes, and peers having proschool attitudes and the desirable behaviors. Furthermore, they saw no relationship between wearing uniforms and the variables that do predict good behavior (academic preparedness, proschool attitudes, and peers having proschool attitudes).

Conclusion

Based upon this analysis, the authors were forced to reject the ideas that uniforms improved attendance rates, decreased behavioral problems, decreased drug use, or improved academic achievement. The authors did find that proschool attitudes from students and their peers and good academic preparedness did predict the desired behavior. They saw that wearing uniforms did not lead to improvements in proschool attitudes or increased academic preparation.


References

David L. Brunsma, D.L. and Rockquemore, K.A. (199 Effects of Student Uniforms on Attendance, Behavior Problems, Substance Abuse, and Academic Achievement, The Journal of Education Research Volume 92, Number 1, Sept./Oct. 1998, pp. 53-62

(I THINK I AM GOING TO BE SICKER THAN SICK.)

We had a similar situation a couple yrs back (Hazleton area school district).

Some clown thought it would be 'cheaper' to force parents into buying two wardrobes for each child. (Yes, I know the logic is astounding!)

The former dress codesaid no camouflage, no bare-midriffs, no open-toed shoes, etc. Common sense items.

Now the children have to wear dress pants, as in khakis or suit pants. They also have to wear polo shirts, either a solid color or striped (but stripes in one direction at a time only - cannot wear say, a plaid polo style shirt).

In addition to this stupidity, the kids have to use clear backpacks, which I must say, with 5 kids in the district, and the clear bags last only 2 months or so, I've already shelled out $150 for these useless backpacks THIS SCHOOL YEAR.

Fight this code, if not for medical or health reasons, then fight it for the moral ones. The government has NO right to tell families what they can or cannot afford to purchase.

Refuse to abide by the code. Research the many lawsuits over school dress codes and try to find an atty who will help.

Hazleton, PA ? Isn't this odd everyone?

I'm not one that goes for dress codes....meaning uniforms. Our elementary school made it optional and my kids did it for awhile but were bored wearing the same thing everyday. It didn't stop fights and they still would find some other way to out-do or compete with things. I mean right down to being tormented about socks or what kind barrette they had in their hair. All I could think was drone creation.....reminded me of that movie with all the blonde kids walking in a row side by side......

My understanding is they cannot mandate it and the best they can do is encourage it and hope everyone follows, unless it's a private school....they can have uniforms and mandate it.

In addition to this stupidity, the kids have to use clear backpacks, which I must say, with 5 kids in the district, and the clear bags last only 2 months or so, I've already shelled out $150 for these useless backpacks THIS SCHOOL YEAR.

They tried that too and clear purses, but they just aren't designed for any real use and for Jr. High and up....there are just some private things not ment for the world to see.....if your a girl.

Having taught briefly in S. America, I will tell you that all students there wear school uniforms, and that the purpose behind this was to try to de-emphasize the economic gulf dividing students in societies where people are usually either wealthy or very poor. The class system in South America then was so binding that one's lot in life depended almost entirely on the economic situation into which you were born. And, of course, students who attend Roman Catholic (and perhaps other religious) parochial schools wear school uniforms.

I have read that there are many U.S. school districts where the parents themselves are requesting that school uniforms be required to cut down on the cost of keeping up with the "fashion race" and on daily arguements with their children about what they can and cannot wear to school.

As someone who grew up wearing school uniform it did me no harm whatsoever. It made getting dressed each morning very much less complicated and kept good clothes for out of school.

Having raised a child who has attended school under both systems it is much easier if a uniform is set in place. In the long run it did not cost any more having a uniform since it was bought at the beginning of the year and pretty much lasted until the next year. With changing fashions and trends at least I did not have to buy multiple outfits for school to make sure that peers did not ridicule my child for what they are wearing.

Just my opinion having actually lived in both systems.

I'm of two minds on this issue. As a student I HATED uniforms, as a parent I loved them. That being said, snobbishness and economic disparities are not eliminated by having uniforms anymore. Not in this age of facebook and myspace. Everyone knows who the rich kids and who the poor kids are anyway.

In Argentina, the school uniforms were akin to lab coats that we wore over our street clothes. They were color-coded by grade. Kindergarten was white at my school.

The kids should definitely have a say in the matter, forcing the issue will not foster good relations between the administration and kids/parents.