Exclusive: New School Safety Map Finds NYC Charters Safer Than District Schools in Wake of Fatal Stabbing

New Interactive Maps Allow NYC Parents to Compare Classrooms

Editor's note: This exclusive was featured at The 74, based on data collected in a new report by Max Eden.

The Manhattan Institute’s Max Eden returns to a critical topic he researched earlier this year — how New York City students and teachers perceive safety in their schools — at a time of heightened concern following a stabbing in a Bronx high school last month that left one student dead and another critically injured.

Eden maintains that safety and security are perhaps the most critical factor for parents in deciding where they want their children to attend school — particularly for those in struggling neighborhoods — and urged other major school districts to follow New York City’s example by conducting school climate surveys and making the results easily accessible to the public.

Eden used survey results to create a unique series of interactive maps earlier this year showing how New York City teachers and students felt about the level of discipline and order in their schools along with fighting, bullying, gang activity and drug use. Based on some of those results, Eden ranked the schools’ relative safety and allowed readers to compare safety across schools.

In this latest update exclusive to The 74, Eden maps school safety with an eye toward comparing traditional district schools and their closest charter school neighbors.

He finds that:

• Overall: 64 of 150 charter schools provide a safer climate than their neighboring traditional public schools, 24 charters are less safe, and 62 charters are roughly as safe.
• Elementary schools: 24 charters are safer than their neighboring traditional public schools, 12 are less safe, and 20 are roughly as safe.
• Middle schools: 26 are safer than their neighboring traditional public schools, 3 are less safe, and 25 are roughly as safe.
• High schools: 14 are safer than their neighboring traditional public schools, 9 are less safe, and 17 are roughly as safe.

Eden’s full report comparing district and charter school safety based on the 2016-17 school climate surveys will be released Wednesday.

This piece originally appeared at The 74

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Max Eden is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. Follow him on Twitter here.

This piece originally appeared in The 74