School Uniforms: Yes or No

Are school uniforms a useful policy for public schools? Continued controversy, as well as questions of Constitutional freedoms, cultural and ethnic biases, and rights of free-expression continue to stoke the debate over the adoption of mandatory dress codes in public schools, more precisely: the mandatory wearing of specific school uniforms.For one faction, “School dress codes and mandated school uniforms may seem like godsends to parents who are attempting to negotiate the treacherous shoals of adolescent culture and identity formation" however the debate over these policies continues to "raise a multitude of issues and problems" most of which center around the adverse affect of mandatory school uniforms as researched and described by analysts, (Hoge, Foster, Nickell, and Field).Issues of school safety, student performance and morale have re-ignited the debate over whether or not school uniforms, like those used for centuries in private schools, should be adopted for use in public schools.

Controversy surrounds the question as to whether or not mandatory school uniforms in public schools exert a positive influence over academic performance, the reduction disciplinary enforcement, and positive allegiance to school communities, or whether or not such policies simply incite egregious behavior.Few things in life are as clear as adolescents' seemingly innate drive to assert their independent judgment of social affairs[... ] they are prone to express a degree of doubt about the many potential futures they are bound--and often compelled--to endure”; despite this fact, voices in authority continue to proffer the us of school uniforms as a possible panacea to everything from school violence to increasing drop-put rates, (Hoge, Foster, Nickell, and Field) The argument against mandatory school uniforms is comprehensive and backed up by solid research and data.During a controlled experiment conducted with the Long Beach school district provided object research data by which the efficacy of school-uniforms in public schools might be measured.

The results of the study indicated, rather than securing the hoped-for conditions and results that advocates of school-uniforms cited as their objective, the implementation of mandatory school-uniforms resulted in negative effects: “Hypothesis 1, which stated that student uniforms decrease absenteeism, was not supported by our results. Additionally, other desired results were also unobtained: “Hypothesis 2, which stated that student uniforms decrease behavior problems, was not supported by the analysis. Hypothesis 4, which reports that student uniforms will increase student achievement, was not supported by the data” (Brunsma, and Rockquemore).Startlingly enough, the impact of school-uniforms seemed to be one of exacerbation of the existing problem issues: “All four of the original hypotheses[..

. were not supported. Most striking were the significant negative effects of uniforms on achievement, an outcome of much concern to educators and policy makers;” so the conclusion based on research evidence is that school uniforms are not useful in many of the areas by which proponents justify their necessity, (Brunsma, and Rockquemore). Opposition Viewpoint Advocates of school uniform generally specific criteria upon which their favorable opinion of school uniforms is based.Though these criteria are seldom reinforced by objective data or demonstrable evidence, the argument for school uniforms appeals to an intuitive sense of order and control and represents the enforcement of a highly visible measure of action.

This final point may be the most overlooked and potentially important aspect of school uniforms: that use of them demonstrates in a highly visible fashion the intention to restore order and continuity to the educational process and venues in question.Other supposed benefits of school uniforms adhere to an admirable set of desired school-conditions: “lowering student victimization, decreasing gang-activity and fights, differentiating strangers from students in school buildings, increasing a supporting and positive attitude toward learning, heightening school-pride and identity and conformity to organizational goals” (LaPointe, Holloman).In addition to the hoped-for benefits of uniforms, proponents of school-uniforms in public schools generally cite specific, important criteria as to what constitutes a school-uniform: “clothing can be considered a uniform when it (al) serves as a group emblem, (b) certifies an institution's legitimacy by revealing individuals' relative positions, and (c) suppresses individuality. The specificity in this distinction is intended to serve an administrative function of hierarchy identification and enforcement: “The presence of uniforms in schools automatically implies a two-tiered hierarchical structure--those who wear uniforms (subordinates) and those who do not wear uniforms (superiors), ” (Brunsma, and Rockquemore) Further Questions As mentioned, most, if not all of the above-mentioned assertions are unsupported by factual evidence, but are the result of prima facie determinations which have a superficial basis.The desire to outwardly control the physical dress of students and give the appearance of established order and conformity presents an interesting, and possibly damaging, distraction form the underlying factors of poverty, drug-abuse, crime, and social distress which give rise to so much of the destructive behavior and low student performance in public schools. So, is it possible that ideas of conformity and homogeny are only superficial salves against the perceived threats and negative trends in public schools?Could better results be obtained by recognizing individuality, rather than attempting to stamp it out? Breaking New Ground Though the cited scientific evidence seems to contradict the use of school-uniforms in public schools, the use of school uniforms does demonstrate at least one verifiable good: “uniforms act as a catalyst for change and provide a highly visible opportunity for additional programs[.

.. ] Instituting a uniform policy can be viewed as analogous to cleaning and brightly painting a deteriorating building in that on the one hand it grabs our immediate attention.In this way, the issue of school uniforms as a debate is useful to give exposure to the more essential, more serious issues underlying public school dysfunction.

The implementation of school-uniforms may be highly useful in garnering much needed attention and redressing of serious challenges facing the public schools, but primarily from the attention-grabbing capacity the adoption of uniforms grants a given educational institution, (Brunsma, and Rockquemore).Given these facts and the established research which indicates the negative impact of mandatory uniforms on educational efficacy and in-school discipline, would some form of mandatory dress code which still allowed -- or in fact encouraged -- the expression of individuality preserve the positive aspect of mandatory uniforms while staving off the negative impacts?Further questions include whtehr or not the curbing of self-expression causes some of the root-proboems which the proponents of mandatoruy uniforms are reacting aginst originally; the evidence cited by research seems to suggest that the curbing of individuality is more dangerous than harmful to educational excellence.It may be the case that the stifling of individual expression extends to school curriculums, grading systems, course-work, and instruction style and that the evidence gained by the study of the mandatory school uniform issue will ultimately point the way to studies which uncover similar patterns of behavior which underline other education-related issues.