School disorder: The influence of individual, institutional, and communityfactors

Drawing upon control theory, school climate theory, and social disorganizat ion theory, this study examined the relative influence of individual, insti tutional, and community factors on misconduct in Philadelphia middle school s. Using U.S. census data, school district data, police department data, an d school climate survey data obtained from the administration of the Effect ive School Battery to 7,583 students in II middle schools, we examined the following predictors of student misconduct: community poverty and residenti al stability; community crime; school size; student perceptions of school c limate (school attachment); and individual student characteristics (e.g, ag e, race, sex, school involvement and effort, belief in rules, positive peer associations). "Community" was conceptualized in two ways: "local" (the ce nsus tract around the school), and "imported" (aggregated measures from the census tracts where students actually lived). We used hierarchical linear modeling techniques (HLM) to examine between- and within-school factors. In dividual-level factors accounted for 16% of the explained variance; school and community-level factors (both local and imported) added only small incr ements (an additional 4.1-4.5%). We conclude that simplistic assumptions th at "bad" communities typically produce "bad" children or "bad" schools are unwarranted.