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NPR: The School Shootings That Weren't

crimsonaudio

crimsonaudio

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Seems like we would have accurate data on this, and running with obviously incorrect data would be a bad move. But it's the federal government, so expecting accuracy is akin to asking for unicorns for Christmas...

We should know. But we don't.

This spring the U.S. Education Department reported that in the 2015-2016 school year, "nearly 240 schools ... reported at least 1 incident involving a school-related shooting." The number is far higher than most other estimates.

But NPR reached out to every one of those schools repeatedly over the course of three months and found that more than two-thirds of these reported incidents never happened. Child Trends, a nonpartisan nonprofit research organization, assisted NPR in analyzing data from the government's Civil Rights Data Collection.

We were able to confirm just 11 reported incidents, either directly with schools or through media reports.
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https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2018/08/27/640323347/the-school-shootings-that-werent
 
AlexanderFan

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What are you trying to say? What could possibly be gained by inflating these numbers? [emoji848]


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RTR91

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The Education Department's Office for Civil Rights received complaints about the wording and administration of this survey even before it went out.

A June 2014 research report commissioned to improve the CRDC as a whole noted that in previous data collections, districts had experienced "unacceptable levels of reporting burden." They complained that the CRDC asks them to report information that is similar to what states already collect, but in a different format, or at a level of specificity that they don't currently track.

Also at issue, the internal report says, was a "lack of clarity in the definitions of key terms." When it came to "Offenses," the group of questions including firearm use, districts "indicated dissatisfaction with the categories provided, specifically that the CRDC categories did not align with the categories used in state reporting, other federal reporting, and/or their own district databases."
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Seriously, it shouldn't be this hard. If the state and/or district is taking the stats, make the questions uniform and the CRDC can get the results from that organization. Why make a school provide what appears to be the same information multiple times?
 
AlexanderFan

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RTR91 said:
Seriously, it shouldn't be this hard. If the state and/or district is taking the stats, make the questions uniform and the CRDC can get the results from that organization. Why make a school provide what appears to be the same information multiple times?
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It is the way of a bloated Government. How many categories could you possibly need?

Firearm seized before discharge
Firearm seized after discharge, no injuries
Firearm seized after discharge, injuries

I would imagine if you were truly looking at illegal firearm presence in schools that would be about all you would need? I mean you could detail it to death with firearm type, number of discharges, injuries, etc., but you're right there's no reason to keep submitting the same information on different forms with different criteria.


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uafan4life

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Expecting the Federal Government to be effective and efficient at anything is the ultimate fool's delusion, followed closely by "winning the lottery" as one's only retirement plan.
 
MattinBama

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Do schools receive any extra funding for security or anything if they report a shooting incident? Just curious if there's other reasons for the extra reporting of incidents.

Doesn't seem like it should be all that difficult to collect this kind of data.
 
RTR91

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AlexanderFan said:
It is the way of a bloated Government. How many categories could you possibly need?

Firearm seized before discharge
Firearm seized after discharge, no injuries
Firearm seized after discharge, injuries

I would imagine if you were truly looking at illegal firearm presence in schools that would be about all you would need? I mean you could detail it to death with firearm type, number of discharges, injuries, etc., but you're right there's no reason to keep submitting the same information on different forms with different criteria.


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Correct. The questions don't have to be complicated. Simple questions like you listed with a blank for explanation if needed.

Also, I should have included the graph that follows what I quoted earlier.

As an example of this lack of alignment, the federal Gun-Free Schools Act requires schools in states that receive federal funds to expel students who bring a gun to school and requires districts in those states to report the circumstances of such expulsions to the state — regardless of whether a gun goes off.
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Seems like it would be extremely easy to know if a student was expelled for having a gun on campus.
 
Crimson1967

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Privacy laws might restrict you from finding out why a student was expelled.


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Toddrn

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The problem with all of the info available today is people on both sides of the issue skew numbers or news to make their point. No matter which side of political aisle you are on you need to look at multi sources to get your news and not just rely on the one that leans your way. Everyone needs to think for themselves and not let someone with an agenda do their thinking for them.
 
RTR91

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Crimson1967 said:
Privacy laws might restrict you from finding out why a student was expelled.


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Either the school or district would have a record of why the student was expelled. Not sure how a privacy law would be broken if the person with said information uses it for the survey.

Not like a media outlet would be asking for each student that was expelled and why.
Toddrn said:
The problem with all of the info available today is people on both sides of the issue skew numbers or news to make their point. No matter which side of political aisle you are on you need to look at multi sources to get your news and not just rely on the one that leans your way. Everyone needs to think for themselves and not let someone with an agenda do their thinking for them.
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This isn't about where one gets his/her news. This is about schools and districts properly reporting violence to government organization.
 
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