Do School Uniforms Fit?

School Administrator, Feb, 2000 by Kerry A. White

Soon after the president's endorsement, the U.S. Department of Education sent a school uniform manual to every school district in the country. The guide, "School Uniforms: Where They Are and Why They Work," listed the potential benefits of school uniforms, including a decrease in violence and theft, a decrease in gang activity, less peer pressure and better discipline.

From there, school uniform policies took off, especially in urban districts. Today, nearly half of the nation's big urban school systems have adopted school uniform policies for all or some of their schools, according to the Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group, the Council of the Great City Schools.

"While they're not universally accepted, some cities [with uniform policies] find that it helps decrease crime and violence," says Michael D. Casserly, the council's executive director. Urban school leaders have reported "it also helps to take the emphasis off things that aren't related to academics," he adds.

Suburban Spread

But the trend has not limited itself to urban schools. The latest school systems considering school uniform policies are, like Pennsylvania's Ridley, largely suburban.

While most of these school systems have fewer problems with school violence and discipline than their urban counterparts--fewer gangs and weapons, less antagonism over status clothes and better student achievement overall--officials are banking on some of the same positive payoffs of which their urban counterparts boast.

"We want to help remove some of the stigma associated with clothes," says Margo Olivares-Seck, superintendent of the 4,700-student Dysart Unified School District in Surprise, Ariz., a suburb of Phoenix. Under her district's policy, school-based councils, made up of parents, teachers and the school's principal, decide whether their schools should adopt uniforms. This year, students at five of the district's seven schools are requiring students to wear navy blue pants or shorts and white, collared shirts.

The number, says Olivares-Seck, could grow soon to include all district schools. "It's great to see kids so well dressed," she says. "You don't see boys in big, baggy pants that let their underwear show or girls in spaghetti straps ... . It's helped to set an atmosphere that school is a place of learning and a place of business,"

Other school leaders say that in the wake of several recent school shootings, including the Columbine High School incident last April, they want to be assured they're doing all they can to prevent school violence.

"Suburban and rural schools are not exempt from big problems," says Arkansas state Sen. Kevin A. Smith, who sponsored a bill that passed during the last legislative session that requires local school boards to consider adopting school uniforms. "I think they're a good thing all-around. It teaches more respect for schools and teachers, and it creates a more team-oriented and orderly atmosphere ... I'm a parent and know the incendiary influence of clothing and appearance. Uniforms help take some of that pressure off."