THE IMPACT OF SCHOOL VIOLENCE ON TEACHER PERFORMANCE AND ATTITUDES

Abstract

Schools maintain a steady rate of violent crimes nationally with more than 1.6 million violent acts occurring towards teachers over a four year period (NCES, 2007). Nearly 35 percent of teachers report that school violence affects their teaching (NCES, 2009). Concurrently, teacher attrition rates are steady across school districts nationwide at nearly twenty percent and cost taxpayers billions of dollars per year. This study explored teacher's perceptions of school violence and its influence on their teaching performance and attitudes towards others. In addition, it investigated whether teacher's perceptions of school violence had an effect on teacher's intentions on attrition. A representative sample of teachers from Southeastern Pennsylvania was selected at random to participate in an on-line self reported survey. Five teachers were then randomly selected for unstructured individual interviews. Results indicated that there is a relationship between perceptions of school violence with teacher's performance, attitudes and thoughts on moving or leaving the profession. Both interpersonal non-physical violence (INPV) and group crime violence (GCV) were positively associated with negative teacher performance as well as negative teacher attitudes. Additionally, interpersonal non-physical violence (INPV) was positively associated with intended teacher attrition as more than half the teachers reported that they might transfer schools due to school violence.