Mandatory Public School System Uniforms

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Recommended: The negative effects of school uniforms

Physical and emotional abuse, early sexual initiation, and violence lead to poor academic achievement among public school students (CDC, 2011). Public schools are liberal in their uniform policy. Thirty-seven United States legislatures created laws allowing school districts to put into practice school uniform policies (Konheim-Kalkstein, 2006, p. 26); only fourteen percent of public schools required students to wear a uniform in 2005-2006 (Redmond, 2012). According to the National Educational Longitudinal Study, “uniformed students have significantly higher test scores than do non-uniformed students (Bodine, 2003).” This proposal makes the case that schools need to require students within public schools to wear uniforms over the next year, to improve academic achievement amongst students, with respect to the opponent’s arguments.

The Long Beach, California School District in 1994 was the first public school district to require nearly 60,000 of their students to wear uniforms. Opponents argue uniforms limit personal freedom by restricting student’s choice of clothing. The American Civil Liberties Union supports this argument, noting a violation of student’s First Amendment rights of freedom of speech (creative expression) (Yeung, 2009, p. 849). Proponents argue students are able to choose their clothing during off school hours, and for events like dress down days. The United States courts (AZ, TX, LA, and CA) discarded the argument of the American Civil Liberties Union that school uniforms are unconstitutional, and upheld school uniform policies (Young, 2009, p. 849). The United States Department of Education addressed this conflict recommends school districts, deal with these issues in a manner that allows the student’s right t...

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...erest of our students and society to put into practice a mandatory uniform policy in our public school system.

Works Cited

Adolescent and School Health. (2011). Retrieved from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website: http://www.cdc.gov/HealthyYouth/health_and_academics/index.htm

Bodine, A. (2003). School Uniforms, Academic Achievement, and Uses of Research. Journal Of Educational Research, 97(2), 67-71.

Konheim-Kalkstein, Y. L. (2006). A Uniform Look. American School Board Journal, 193(8), 25-27.

Redmond, J. (2012). Statistics on School Uniforms. In LoveToKnow Corp. Retrieved from http://kids.lovetoknow.com/wiki/Statistics_on_School_Uniforms

Will school uniforms help curb student violence?. (1996). Jet, 89(20), 12.

Yeung, R. (2009). Are School Uniforms a Good Fit? Results from the ECLS-K and the NELS. Educational Policy, 23(6), 847-874.

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