Exclusive: How Safe Is My Child At School? New Interactive Maps Allow NYC And LA Parents To Compare Classrooms

By Max Eden

What do parents actually know about what happens at their childrens school?

As states rethink school accountability under the Every Student Succeeds Act, most of the policy discussion revolves around how bureaucrats should calculate ratings that parents rarely see, based on standardized test scores that parents barely credit. The real inner workings of schools, from teacher morale to academic culture to student safety, remain largely a black box for parents.

Few schools rate these important factors, and fewer still report them.

A recent poll of first-generation college students found that 1 in 4 did not feel safe in high school, and nearly 1 in 3 did not feel their high school was an emotionally safe or inclusive place. How many of their parents were aware that their children felt they were in danger at school?

What if there were a safe alternative across town, or even half a block away? Would families even know that?

Parents deserve better. So today, Im introducing a new, intuitive, interactive tool to show what can be done to make basic data accessible to parents and help them answer perhaps the most fundamental question: Does my child feel safe?

Mapping school safety, NYC & LA

Ive chosen the two largest school districts in America, New York City and Los Angeles, for a very simple reason: Unlike many cities, New York and LA conduct comprehensive school climate surveys. And, unlike most major districts that conduct surveys, they make the full data set available to the public.

Ive taken a slice of the data from the 201516 school culture surveys, questions pertaining to school order and safety, and placed it on a Google map so parents can quickly and easily see what students and teachers at their schools are saying as well as how their school compares to others nearby. (Click here for a detailed explanation of how these maps were created and how school surveys were used .)

Here are New York Citys schools, color-coded to reflect the survey results; you can scan and zoom inside the map below, or click here for a full-screen version that you can search by specific address or school name .

To take stock of the individual survey results, click on the green, yellow, or red pin and see the pop-up window:

Click here for full-screen version you can search by address or specific school name

And here are similar groupings, mapped out across Los Angeles: you can scan and zoom below, or click here for a full-screen version that you can search by specific address or school name .

Again, to take stock of the individual survey results, click on the green, yellow, or red pin and see the pop-up window:

Click here to search by a specific school name or address

What percentage of teachers say order and discipline are maintained? What percentage say disruptive student behavior is a significant problem? Do students think their peers are respectful? Do they feel safe in the hallways of their school?

Parents in America’s two largest cities can now get a glimpse inside the black box, and see how their child’s school compares to one down the street.

The complete picture

Consider: A New York mother who sends her child to P.S. 306 in Brooklyn might be alarmed to learn that 68 percent of students say physical fights occur “most” or “all” of the time, 80 percent of students say their peers don’t respect each other, and 80 percent of teachers say order and discipline aren’t maintained.

Whereas, less than a half mile away, at Achievement First East New York, 10 percent of students say physical fights occur frequently, 35 percent report disrespect, and only 2 percent of teachers say order and discipline aren’t maintained. (You can see several more eye-opening case studies from New York City here — and navigate the city for yourself .)

A Los Angeles mother who sends her child to Barton Hill Elementary School in San Pedro may be disturbed to learn that 33 percent of students say they don’t feel safe, 82 percent say bullying is a problem, 83 percent of teachers say that disruptive behavior is a significant problem, and 92 percent of teachers say discipline is ineffective.

Whereas, less than a half mile away, at Crestwood Street Elementary School, less than a quarter of teachers think discipline is ineffective, less than a fifth think disruptive behavior is a significant problem, and only 37 percent of students say bullying is an issue. (You can see several more eye-opening case studies from Los Angeles here — and navigate the city for yourself .)

And all residents of both cities can see the depressing fact that poverty and school disorder track closely, but also hopeful signs that some schools are beating the odds.

Empowering parents

The hope is that these maps will spark calls and conversations. Parents, armed with the knowledge of what students and teachers think, should call their schools and press them to do better. Principals, armed with data from other schools, should call their peers to have a conversation about what’s working and how to adopt it.

More urgently: Parents in districts that have school surveys but don’t share the data as openly as NYC and LA should press their school boards for more transparency, and parents in districts that don’t conduct any surveys at all should demand these data.

The data show every sign of being consistent and reliable: In both cities, there is a high correlation between students’ and teachers’ views of safety in their schools, suggesting that respondents are answering consistently and faithfully.

Elementary and secondary schools in each district are color-coded on the map: green means safe, yellow means somewhat safe, and red means less safe, judging by the percentage of students or teachers who give a negative answer to a consistent question. Admittedly, the coding is discretionary, but if, for example, more than a third of students in a NYC middle school say physical fights occur “most” or “all” of the time, it seems fair to assume something bad is happening.

Again, a longer discussion of the data and methods behind these maps can be found here . And you can click here for more snapshots and in-depth discussions of the New York City and Los Angeles findings.

Please browse through, take note and, most important, share this tool with other parents you know in New York or LA.

Max Eden is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, specializing in education policy. Get the latest news about school climate and school safety, as well as access to new interactive tools that better help parents understand their neighborhood and school district, by signing up for The 74 Newsletter .