July 2007 — News
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Research: Benchmarks for School Safety
Districts around the country, from urban centers to rural communities, are focusing their security efforts in large part on data security--in particular in regulating and monitoring Internet usage and keeping students' computer screens within view of adults. But schools may be neglecting the physical side of security, according to the K-12 School Safety Index 2007, a benchmark study conducted by Quality Education Data and released by CDW Government (CDW-G).
The study's aim was to create a benchmark for school safety covering data security, physical security, and emergency preparedness and provide a means for schools to compare themselves with a national average. 381 public school districts were polled over a three-week period in May 2007, with respondents providing details about the security measures in place in their districts, problems they face, and security-related incidents occurring over the last 12 months.
What the study found in terms of data security is that, on the whole, school districts are addressing threats to data security, though there is a high reliance on software-only solutions, allowing clever students to bypass security measures. What it found in terms of physical security is that districts are not doing much beyond installing security cameras.
Data Security
The study includes two principal components covering data security. The first is the index itself, which is designed to be a numeric measure of data security preparedness, with a number of categories, each of which is worth a certain number of points. In the chart below, you'll find the national results for this year. The first 11 questions, delineated by the black up arrow, are each worth 10 points for a "yes" response. The last six questions are each worth -10 points for a yes response. In both cases, a "no" response is worth zero points. So there are 110 points possible. The national average came out to be 55.3 points.
A blank chart is available on CDW-G's School Safety Index site for district IT staffers to fill out for themselves for comparison with the national responses. (See link at the end of this article.)
Breaking it down, only 40 percent of districts reported monitoring student e-mail, while 82 percent said they monitor access to student data.
Overall, 39 percent of districts reported allowing non-district-owned devices access to the district's network, but 92 percent do require user authentication of some sort. An overwhelming 95 percent block or limit access to websites; 89 percent place computers where adults can see the contents of the screens; 81 percent monitor Web activity; and 38 percent operate a closed district network.
