A study created by David Brunsma through the University of Missouri and Kerry A. Rockquemore from Notre Dame measured the consequences of uniforms on attendance, behavior, substance abuse, and academic achievement and figured that uniforms didn’t improve these. In their report published inside The Journal of Education Research in September/October 1998, the authors contend that uniforms may even possess the opposite influence on academic achievement.
They state, “Here, up against the expected, student uniform use actually decreases, an average of, the standardized test score of these tenth graders who wear them due to mandatory school policy.” Although these assertions were contested by Ann Bodine within the November/December 2003 issue of The Journal of Educational Research, where she argued how the research methods were flawed, their email address particulars are often cited by school uniform opponents, with no other formal studies support claims for either side of the debate.
Perhaps moreover, Brunsma and Rockquemore consider other reasons schools may see a correlation between uniforms and improved test results and also other benefits. They state, “What is omitted from the discourse on school uniforms is the possibility that, as an alternative to directly impacting specific outcomes, uniforms work as a catalyst for change and provide a very visible window of opportunity. It is this window allowing additional programs to become implemented… Requiring students to wear uniforms is a change which not simply effects students, but school faculty and parents.
Instituting a required uniform policy is often a change that’s immediate, highly visible, and shifts the environmental landscape of the particular school.” Whether or not school uniforms directly improve attendance, behavior, and grades remains dependent on debate.
