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Contrary to what one reads in the headlines and texts of the nation's most prominent newspapers, what one hears from the mouths of politicians and educational administrators, and what one sees on the evening news, there is absolutely nothing simplistic and straightforward about the current movement to uniform public school students in the United States. The debate over whether or not to uniform the students in our public schools (like public schooling itself) is highly controversial, undeniably complex, and, from the analyses and arguments to be presented in this book, unquestionably rooted deeply in correspondingly multifaceted social, political, legal, cultural, racial, material, and educational structures. Much of the empirical research on school uniform policies' effectiveness has remained in dissertation and/or policy brief formats. This state of affairs is in need of a remedy. This book provides an antidote to the ungrounded, anecdotal components that define the contemporary conversation regarding policies of standardized dress in American K-12 districts and schools. The contributors draw upon years of educational teaching and administrative experience and research directed at objectively and empirically understanding the issue of school uniform policies at two focal levels of schooling: elementary and middle. Uniforms in Public Schools is of the utmost importance for those who wish to be informed and insightful participants in the contemporary debate on school uniform policies.

This book represents the most thorough exposition on the present understanding of the impetuses, debates, legalities, and effectiveness of school uniform policies that have rapidly entered the discourse of school reform in the United States. In it, David Brunsma provides an antidote to the ungrounded, anecdotal components that define the contemporary conversation regarding policies of standardized dress in American K-12 districts and schools. Drawing upon years of experience and research directed at objectively and empirically understanding the issue of school uniform policies, Brunsma provides, for the first time: (1) a comprehensive history of the issue; (2) critical evaluation of the extant literature; (3) reviews of several case studies; and (4) results of nationally representative empirical research. All of this is of the utmost importance for those who wish to be informed and insightful participants in the contemporary debate on school uniform policies. Educators, parents, concerned community members, and others will gladly welcome such a compilation of present understandings of the crucial empirical, sociological, cultural, political, and legal dimensions of the school uniform debate; it will also appeal to all those who are interested in the politics and critical realities behind the school uniform movement underway in the United States. In the end, the school uniform movement reveals a great deal about the politics, social realities, and highly contested terrain of educational reform and the process of schooling in the United States. This book is organized into the following chapters: (1) Dress Codes and School Uniforms: Past, Present, and Future; (2) A Review of the Literature: From Anecdotes to Research and Back Again; (3) The Law and student Clothing (Todd A. DeMitchell); (4) To Uniform or Not to Uniform? Empirical Antecedents to Policy Formation and Adoption; (5) The Effects of School Uniforms and Dress Codes on Educational Processes and Outcomes; (6) The Effects of School Uniforms and Dress Codes on Behavioral and Social Processes and Outcomes; and (7) A Symbolic Crusade: The School Uniform Movement and What It Tells Us About American Education. The following are appended: (1) Means, Standard Deviations, Ranges, and Coding of Variables; and (2) President Clinton's State of the Union Address (Delivered Version). An index is provided.