Mandatory School Uniforms

School Administrator, Feb, 1996 by Carl A. Cohn

Long Beach's Pioneering Experience Finds Safety and Economic Benefits

Two Years ago, when our school system set out to become the first in the nation to require uniforms in all elementary and middle schools, much of the public school educational establishment reacted skeptically. We were told that permissive parents, civil liberties interest groups, timid legislators, and a biased news media would not let it happen.

Now that we have had 1 1/2 years of implementation with 99 percent compliance and a substantial decrease in school crime, the same establishment is asking: How did you do it?

Board Leadership

In fall 1993, Proposition 174, a statewide voucher initiative that would have provided public funds for private and religious schools, was defeated by the voters amidst a rancorous debate about dissatisfaction with the public schools. Our school board members participated in those debates and promised the voting public that, if they defeated the measure, it would not be business as usual in the public schools.

Voucher proponents criticized large public school systems in various ways, including this faint praise and condemnation: "Even when some individual schools get better, the leadership doesn't have the courage to bring the reforms to the whole system."

This rang particularly true in our district because we had a highly successful pilot uniform program involving 11 of our 70 elementary and middle schools. Administrators in these schools were reporting significant improvements to school climate.

Board member Ed Eveland, a retired school administrator, took that challenge and commitment seriously. Three months after the defeat of the voucher initiative, Eveland's proposal for mandatory uniforms for all elementary and middle schools was unanimously passed by the board with a target starting date of September 1994. Individual schools were given the authority to meet with parents, teachers, and administrators to determine their own choice of uniform, incentives, compliance measures (within approved parameters), and means for providing financial assistance to indigent families.

Throughout our experience with mandatory school uniforms, the board has remained unanimous in pursuing full implementation of a policy that promises an improved learning environment and safety benefits for students. The policy also means substantially reduced clothing costs for parents.

Promoting Safety

Last year, the Public Agenda Foundation in its survey report, "First Things First: What Americans Expect from the Public Schools," revealed that parents and community members want public schools that are "safe, orderly, and emphasizing the basics." The report suggested that a public school without a primary emphasis on student safety is fraudulent in seeking any other improvements no matter how lofty or noble their purpose may be.

At uniformed schools in Long Beach, we're making student safety a top priority. Gang clothing is virtually nonexistent. Our uniforms thus provide a safe passage for children who must negotiate their way through gang territories going to and from school. Our students clad in uniforms need not worry about gang colors and styles. They don't have to focus undue attention upon making sure they or their parents select clothing colors or items that avoid inadvertently advertising one's self as a gang member. Uniforms go a long way toward providing a neutral coat of arms for children whose clothing might otherwise make them targets.

Our uniforms also allow easy and immediate identification of outsiders who do not belong on campus. Every administrator of a large school knows the potential for problems of disruption and violence when outsiders, including gang members, gain access to a school campus without a process of ready identification.

Some parents and members of the news media have asked why we didn't just stick with the vigorous enforcement of a dress code as opposed to mandating uniforms. The truth is that we have had a dress code in the Long Beach schools for three decades and in recent years had amended it to exclude clothing and articles favored by gangs.

However, as most school administrators know, gang colors and items of apparel change constantly. Successive bans against one item or color after another is like trying to hit a moving target. Uniforms eliminate the need for serial proscriptions of constantly changing gang styles and colors. Monitoring uniform compliance in our elementary and middle schools has been more effective than trying to enforce anti-gang codes.

More importantly, our first-year results in reducing on-campus school crime following implementation of mandatory uniforms are impressive. Occurrences of fighting, assaults, robbery, vandalism, and weapons possession have dropped sharply from the previous year without uniforms. Overall, we experienced 36 percent fewer crime incidents districtwide in our K-8 schools.

In addition, suspensions of students at our elementary and middle schools dropped significantly. Interestingly, this also was true at our high schools, which recorded 9 percent fewer suspensions last year.