Data-Driven Response to School Violence in Chicago
Posted by Mark on Oct 6, 2009
Reporting in today’s New York Times discusses one possible approach to reducing violence among the school-age population: a family-centered program of interventions. Similar programs, like the Street Outreach Workers, have been proposed or implemented within New Haven. See excerpt below:
Financed by federal stimulus grants for two years, the $60 million plan uses a formula gleaned from an analysis of more than 500 students who were shot over the last several years to predict the characteristics of potential future victims, including when and where they might be attacked. While other big city school districts, including New York, have tried to focus security efforts on preventing violence, this plan goes further by identifying the most vulnerable students and saturating them with adult attention, including giving each of them a paid job and a local advocate who would be on call for support 24 hours a day.
From the study of the 500 shootings, Mr. Huberman said, officials know that deadly violent outbursts are not truly random. The students at highest risk of violence, by statistics, are most likely to be black, male, without a stable living environment, in special education, skipping an average of 42 percent of school days at neighborhood and alternative schools, and having a record of in-school behavioral flare-ups that is about eight times higher than the average student.
We’ll have much more information about data about youth violence issues in New Haven as we relaunch the site over the coming months.
Author: Mark Abraham, Executive Director, DataHaven, 10/6/09
