Read the text below.
Students who pass through streets with high crime rates are more likely to be absent in school, according to a recent research by a team from Johns Hopkins University.
The team came to this conclusion after studying the usual routes taken by 4,200 freshmen from public high schools in Baltimore, Maryland. The researchers determined the crime rates in those routes using statistics from the Baltimore Police Department and then compared it with data on student absences.
The researchers chose Baltimore for the study because high schools in that city do not provide school buses, so students usually commute to school by public transportation. And unlike other cities, Baltimore does not assign its students to specific schools based on their address. With this, researchers have access to varied data on the routes that students take. In addition, Baltimore has the highest school absenteeism rate in Maryland.
Results of the research revealed that students who walk along and wait in bus stops in streets with higher rates of violent crimes tend to have more absences throughout the school year. Findings also showed that the routes considered dangerous can be found all over Baltimore.
Through this study, the researchers hope to highlight the impact of neighborhood violence on students’ school attendance and academic performance. They emphasized that students often miss school when they are intimidated by violence on the streets. The researchers also noted that students exposed to neighborhood violence tend to have lower scores, less involvement in school, and higher chances of dropping out.