Kindergarten Cop: A Case Study of How a Coalition Between School Districts and Law Enforcement Led to School Resource Officers in Elementary Schools

Abstract

Adopting school resource officers (SROs) is a popular response to school shootings. Using the advocacy coalition and multiple streams frameworks, we explore how school districts in one county formed a coalition with the Sheriff’s Department, adopting SROs in elementary schools following the Sandy Hook shooting. We describe how this coalition was bound together by shared beliefs on school safety and the goodness of law enforcement. The implementation activities of SROs related to the beliefs of the coalition, focusing on security and relationship building. The beliefs were not uniformly understood by SROs—many interpreted their role to include student discipline and managing behavior of students with disabilities. The findings show the utility of comparing policy adoption processes with implementation activities.

Keywords

elementary schools leadership politics policy case studies policy analysis qualitative research

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Abbott

(2018, May 30). School and firearm safety action plan. https://gov.texas.gov/uploads/files/press/School_Safety_Action_Plan_05302018.pdf

Ackrill

Kay

(2011). Multiple streams in EU policy-making: The case of the 2005 sugar reform. Journal of European Public Policy, 18(1), 72–89. https://doi.org/10.1080/13501763.2011.520879

Addington

L. A.

(2009). Cops and cameras: Public school security as a policy response to Columbine. American Behavioral Scientist, 52(10), 1426–1446.

Ansell

Reckhow

Kelly

(2009). How to reform a reform coalition: Outreach, agenda expansion, and brokerage in urban school reform. Policy Studies Journal, 37(4), 717–743. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1541-0072.2009.00332.x

Balingit

Strauss

Bellware

(2020, June 12). Fueled by protests, school districts across the country cut ties with police. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2020/06/12/schools-police-george-floyd-protests/

Blad

(2019, February 21). School police and civil rights: A primer for administrators. Education Week. http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/rulesforengagement/2019/02/school_police_and_civil_rights_a_primer_for_administrators.html

Cairney

(2013). Standing on the shoulders of giants: How do we combine the insights of multiple theories in public policy studies? Policy Studies Journal, 41(1), 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1111/psj.12000

Camera

(2020, June 12). The end of police in schools. US News & World Report. https://www.usnews.com/news/the-report/articles/2020-06-12/schools-districts-end-contracts-with-police-amid-ongoing-protests

Canady

(2018). Standards and best practices for school resource officer programs. National Association of School Resource Officers. https://www.nasro.org/clientuploads/About-Mission/NASRO-Standards-and-Best-Practices.pdf

10.

Cibulka

J. G.

Myers

(2008). Fearful reformers: The institutionalization of the Christian Right in American Politics. Educational Policy, 22(1), 155–180. https://doi.org/10.1177/0895904807311301

11.

Cohen

M. D.

March

J. G.

Olsen

J. P.

(1972). A garbage can model of organizational choice. Administrative Science Quarterly, 17(1), 1–25.

12.

Crepeau-Hobson

M. F.

Filaccio

Gottfried

(2005). Violence prevention after Columbine: A survey of high school mental health professionals. Children & Schools, 27(3), 157–165.

13.

Curran

F. C.

(2020). The expanding presence of law enforcement in Florida schools [Research report]. University of Florida Education Policy Research Center. https://education.ufl.edu/eprc/files/2020/09/Curran-The-Expanding-Presence-of-Law-Enforcement-in-Florida-Schools.pdf

14.

Curran

F. C.

Fisher

B. W.

Viano

(2020). Mass school shootings and the short-run impacts on use of school security measures and practices: National evidence from the Columbine tragedy. Journal of School Violence, 19(1), 6–19.

15.

Curran

F. C.

Fisher

B. W.

Viano

Kupchik

(2019). Why and when do school resource officers engage in school discipline? The role of context in shaping disciplinary involvement. American Journal of Education, 126(1), 33–63.

16.

DeBray

Scott

Lubienski

Jabbar

(2014). Intermediary organizations in charter school policy coalitions: Evidence from New Orleans. Educational Policy, 28(2), 175–206. https://doi.org/10.1177/0895904813514132

17.

DeBray-Pelot

E. H.

(2007). School choice and educational privatization initiatives in the 106th and 107th congresses: An analysis of policy formation and political ideologies. Teachers College Record, 109(4), 927–972.

18.

DeBray-Pelot

E. H.

Lubienski

C. A.

Scott

J. T.

(2007). The institutional landscape of interest group politics and school choice. Peabody Journal of Education, 82(2–3), 204–230. https://doi.org/10.1080/01619560701312947

19.

Devine

(1996). Maximum security: The culture of violence in inner-city schools. The University of Chicago Press.

20.

Diem

Sampson

Browning

L. G.

(2018). Reorganizing a countywide school district: A critical analysis of politics and policy development toward decentralization. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 26, 1. https://doi.org/10.14507/epaa.26.3253

21.

Dougherty

K. J.

Nienhusser

H. K.

Vega

B. E.

(2010). Undocumented immigrants and state higher education policy: The politics of in-state tuition eligibility in Texas and Arizona. The Review of Higher Education, 34(1), 123–173. https://doi.org/10.1353/rhe.2010.0012

22.

Ellingson

L. L.

(2009). Engaging crystallization in qualitative research: An introduction. SAGE.

23.

Final Report on the Federal Commission on School Safety. (2018). U.S. Departments of Education, Justice, Homeland Security, and Health and Human Services.

24.

Fisher

B. W.

Hennessy

E. A.

(2016). School resource officers and exclusionary discipline in US high schools: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Adolescent Research Review, 1(3), 217–233.

25.

Fisher

B. W.

Higgins

E. M.

Kupchik

Viano

Curran

F. C.

Overstreet

Plumlee

Coffey

(2020). Protecting the flock or policing the sheep? Differences in school resource officers’ perceptions of threats by school racial composition. Social Problems. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1093/socpro/spaa062

26.

Gottfredson

D. C.

Crosse

Tang

Bauer

E. L.

Harmon

M. A.

Hagen

C. A.

Greene

A. D.

(2020). Effects of school resource officers on school crime and responses to school crime. Criminology & Public Policy, 19(3), 905–940.

27.

Heaviside

Rowand

Williams

Farris

(Eds.). (1998). Violence and discipline problems in U.S. public schools: 1996-97. U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement.

28.

Henry

A. D.

(2011). Ideology, power, and the structure of policy networks. Policy Studies Journal, 39(3), 361–383. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1541-0072.2011.00413.x

29.

Herweg

Huß

Zohlnhöfer

(2015). Straightening the three streams: Theorising extensions of the multiple streams framework. European Journal of Political Research, 54(3), 435–449. https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-6765.12089

30.

Herweg

Zahariadis

Zohlnhöfer

(2018). The multiple streams framework: Foundations, refinements, and empirical applications. In Weible

C. M.

Sabatier

P. A.

(Eds.), Theories of the policy process (4th ed., pp. 17–53). Routledge.

31.

Hirschfield

P. J.

(2008). Preparing for prison? The criminalization of school discipline in the USA. Theoretical Criminology, 12(1), 79–101.

32.

Holliday

B. S.

(2013). Anatomy of a coalition: The emergence of support for school choice in Georgia [Doctoral thesis]. University of Georgia.

33.

Homer

E. M.

Fisher

B. W.

(2020). Police in schools and student arrest rates across the United States: Examining differences by race, ethnicity, and gender. Journal of School Violence, 19(2), 192–204.

34.

Howlett

(2019). Moving policy implementation theory forward: A multiple streams/critical juncture approach. Public Policy and Administration, 34(4), 405–430. https://doi.org/10.1177/0952076718775791

35.

Howlett

McConnell

Perl

(2017). Moving policy theory forward: Connecting multiple stream and advocacy coalition frameworks to policy cycle models of analysis: Howlett, McConnell and Perl. Australian Journal of Public Administration, 76(1), 65–79. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8500.12191

36.

Jenkins-Smith

H. C.

Nohrstedt

Weible

C. M.

Ingold

(2018). The advocacy coalition framework: An overview of the research program. In Weible

C. M.

Sabatier

P. A.

(Eds.), Theories of the policy process (4th ed., pp. 135–171). Routledge.

37.

Jenkins-Smith

H. C.

Sabatier

P. A.

(1994). Evaluating the advocacy coalition framework. Journal of Public Policy, 14(2), 175–203.

38.

Kafka

(2011). The history of “zero tolerance” in American public schooling. Palgrave McMillan.

39.

Kallergis

(2018, May 31). Gov. Abbott announces $120M in funding for safety action plan at Texas Schools. ABC13 Houston. https://abc13.com/3538469/

40.

Kerlikowske

(2013, March 28). School resource officers. The White House What’s Happening Blog. https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/blog/2013/03/28/school-resource-officers

41.

Kim

(2003). Irresolvable cultural conflicts and conservation/development arguments: Analysis of Korea’s Saemangeum project. Policy Sciences, 36, 125–149.

42.

Kingdon

J. W.

(2011). Agendas, alternatives, and public policies. Updated (Vol. 128, pp. 251–257). Pearson Education.

43.

Klausmeier

Maryland Safe to Learn Act of 2018. , Pub. L. No. SB1265 (2018).

44.

Koon

D. S.-V.

(2020). Education policy networks: The co-optation, coordination, and commodification of the school-to-prison pipeline critique. American Educational Research Journal, 57(1), 371–410.

45.

Kunichoff

(2020, June 24). Chicago Public Schools will keep its police program—For now. Chalkbeat Chicago. https://chicago.chalkbeat.org/2020/6/24/21302393/chicago-public-schools-will-keep-its-police-program-for-now

46.

Kupchik

(2010). Homeroom security: School discipline in an age of fear. New York University Press.

47.

Kupchik

Monahan

(2006). The new American school: Preparation for post-industrial discipline. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 27(5), 617–631.

48.

Lenhoff

S. W.

Lewis

J. M.

Pogodzinski

Jones

R. D.

(2019). “Triage, transition, and transformation”: Advocacy discourse in urban school reform. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 27, 32. https://doi.org/10.14507/epaa.27.4230

49.

Lewis

W. D.

Young

T. V.

(2013). The politics of accountability: Teacher education policy. Educational Policy, 27(2), 190–216. https://doi.org/10.1177/0895904812472725

50.

Lieberman

J. M.

(2002). Three streams and four policy entrepreneurs converge: A policy window opens. Education and Urban Society, 34(4), 438–450. https://doi.org/10.1177/00124502034004003

51.

Lincoln

Guba

(1985). Naturalistic inquiry (pp. 290–296). SAGE.

52.

Livingston

M. D.

Rossheim

M. E.

Hall

K. S.

(2019). A descriptive analysis of school and school shooter characteristics and the severity of school shootings in the United States, 1999–2018. Journal of Adolescent Health, 64(6), 797–799.

53.

Lugg

C. A.

Robinson

M. N.

(2009). Religion, advocacy coalitions, and the politics of U.S. public schooling. Educational Policy, 23(1), 242–266. https://doi.org/10.1177/0895904808328527

54.

Madfis

(2014). Risk of school rampage: Assessing and preventing threats of school violence. Palgrave Pivot.

55.

Madfis

(2016). “It’s better to overreact”: School officials’ fear and perceived risk of rampage attacks and the criminalization of American public schools. Critical Criminology, 24(1), 39–55.

56.

Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act. , Pub. L. No. Chapter 2018-3 (2018).

57.

McDermott

K. A.

(2005). In MINT condition? The politics of alternative certification and pay incentives for teachers in Massachusetts. Educational Policy, 19(1), 44–62. https://doi.org/10.1177/0895904804270775

58.

McLendon

M. K.

Cohen-Vogel

Wachen

(2014). Understanding education policymaking and policy change in the American states: Learning from contemporary policy theory. In Cooper

B. S.

Cibulka

J. G.

Fusarelli

L. D.

(Eds.), Handbook of education politics and policy (pp. 86–117). Routledge.

59.

Musu-Gillette

Zhang

Wang

Zhang

Kemp

Diliberto

(2018). Indicators of school crime and safety: 2017 (No. NCES 2018-036/NCJ 251413, p. 280). National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education, and Bureau of Justice Statistics, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice.

60.

Gottfredson

D. C.

(2013). Police officers in schools: Effects on school crime and the processing of offending behaviors. Justice Quarterly, 30(4), 619–650.

61.

Nance

J. P.

(2016). Rethinking law enforcement officers in schools. George Washington Law Review Arguendo, 84, 151–159.

62.

National Association of School Resource Officers. (2015, August 14). NASRO position statement on police involvement in student discipline. https://www.nasro.org/aboutnasro/nasro-position-statement-on-police-involvement-in-student-discipline/

63.

National Association of School Resource Officers. (n.d.). Frequently asked questions. National Association of School Resource Officers. https://www.nasro.org/faq/

64.

National Center for Education Statistics. (n.d.). http://nces.ed.gov/

65.

Nolan

(2011). Police in the hallways: Discipline in an urban school. University of Minnesota Press.

66.

Nolan

(2015). Neoliberal common sense and race-neutral discourses: A critique of “evidence-based” policy-making in school policing. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 36(6), 894–907.

67.

Noor

K. B. M.

(2008). Case study: A strategic research methodology. American Journal of Applied Sciences, 5(11), 1602–1604.

68.

Owens

E. G.

(2017). Testing the school-to-prison pipeline. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 36(1), 11–37.

69.

Piazza

(2019). Antidote or antagonist? The role of Education Reform Advocacy Organizations in educational policymaking. Critical Studies in Education, 60(3), 302–320. https://doi.org/10.1080/17508487.2016.1252782

70.

Riedman

O’Neill

(2019, February 12). CHDS—K-12 School Shooting Database. Center for Homeland Defense and Security. www.chds.us/ssdb

71.

Ripberger

J. T.

Gupta

Silva

C. L.

Jenkins-Smith

H. C.

(2014). Cultural theory and the measurement of deep core beliefs within the advocacy coalition framework: Cultural theory and the measurement of deep core beliefs. Policy Studies Journal, 42(4), 509–527. https://doi.org/10.1111/psj.12074

72.

Ritter

Hughes

C. E.

Lancaster

Hoppe

(2018). Using the advocacy coalition framework and multiple streams policy theories to examine the role of evidence, research and other types of knowledge in drug policy. Addiction, 113(8), 1539–1547. https://doi.org/10.1111/add.14197

73.

Sabatier

P. A.

(1988). An advocacy coalition framework of policy change and the role of policy-oriented learning therein. Policy Sciences, 21(2–3), 129–168.

74.

Sabatier

P. A.

Weible

C. M.

(2007). The advocacy coalition framework. In Sabatier

(Ed.), Theories of the policy process (2nd ed., pp. 189–220). Westview Press.

75.

Scott

Jabbar

LaLonde

DeBray

Lubienski

(2015). Evidence use and advocacy coalitions: Intermediary organizations and Philanthropies in Denver, Colorado. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 23(124), 1–23.

76.

Shedd

(2015). Unequal city: Race, schools, and perceptions of injustice. Russell Sage Foundation.

77.

Sotirov

Memmler

(2012). The advocacy coalition framework in natural resource policy studies—Recent experiences and further prospects. Forest Policy and Economics, 16, 51–64.

78.

Stake

R. E.

(1978). The case study method in social inquiry. Educational Researcher, 7(2), 5–8.

79.

Stout

K. E.

Stevens

(2000). The case of the failed diversity rule: A multiple streams analysis. Education Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 22(4), 341–355.

80.

Theriot

M. T.

(2009). School resource officers and the criminalization of student behavior. Journal of Criminal Justice, 37(3), 280–287.

81.

Tracy

S. J.

(2010). Qualitative quality: Eight “big-tent” criteria for excellent qualitative research. Qualitative Inquiry, 16(10), 837–851.

82.

Tracy

S. J.

(2013). Qualitative research methods: Collecting evidence, crafting analysis, communicating impact. Wiley-Blackwell.

83.

Trousset

Gupta

Jenkins-Smith

Silva

C. L.

Herron

(2015). Degrees of engagement: Using cultural worldviews to explain variations in public preferences for engagement in the policy process: Preferences for engagement in the policy process. Policy Studies Journal, 43(1), 44–69. https://doi.org/10.1111/psj.12083

84.

Turner

E. O.

Beneke

A. J.

(2020). “Softening” school resource officers: The extension of police presence in schools in an era of Black Lives Matter, school shootings, and rising inequality. Race Ethnicity and Education, 23(2), 221–240.

85.

van Gestel

Denis

J.-L.

Ferlie

McDermott

A. M

. (2018). Explaining the policy process underpinning public sector reform: The role of ideas, institutions, and timing. Perspectives on Public Management and Governance, 1(2), 87–101. https://doi.org/10.1093/ppmgov/gvx020

86.

Venters

Hauptli

M. V.

Cohen-Vogel

(2012). Federal solutions to school fiscal crises: Lessons from Nixon’s Failed National Sales Tax for Education. Educational Policy, 26(1), 35–57. https://doi.org/10.1177/0895904811425913

87.

Vergari

(2007). The politics of charter schools. Educational Policy, 21(1), 15–39. https://doi.org/10.1177/0895904806296508

88.

Weible

C. M.

(2018). Introduction: The scope and focus of policy process research and theory. In Weible

C. M.

Sabatier

P. A.

(Eds.), Theories of the policy process (pp. 1–13). Routledge.

89.

Weible

C. M.

Nohrstedt

(2012). The advocacy coalition framework: Coalitions, learning, and policy change. In Araral

Fritzen

Howlett

Ramesh

(Eds.), Routledge handbook of public policy (pp. 125–137). Routledge.

90.

Weible

C. M.

Sabatier

P. A.

McQueen

(2009). Themes and variations: Taking stock of the advocacy coalition framework. Policy Studies Journal, 37(1), 121–140.

91.

Weisburst

E. K.

(2019). Patrolling public schools: The impact of funding for school police on student discipline and long-term education outcomes. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 38(2), 338–365.

92.

Yazan

(2015). Three approaches to case study methods in education: Yin, Merriam, and Stake. The Qualitative Report, 20(2), 134–152.

93.

Yin

R. K.

(2002). Case study research: Design and methods. SAGE.

94.

Young

T. V.

Shepley

T. V.

Song

(2010). Understanding agenda setting in state educational policy: An application of Kingdon’s multiple streams model to the formation of state reading policy. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 18, 15.

Supplementary Material

Please find the following supplemental material available below.

For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.

For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.

0.00 MB

0.05 MB