Upticks in school violence increase the likelihood of elementary students transferring schools, according to a study published this week in American Educational Research Journal.

Researchers, who studied six years of data from Baltimore City public elementary school students, found those who are not on free or reduced-price meal programs or live in safer neighborhoods are more than twice as likely to exit when compared to the average student.

Students from the most violent neighborhoods are the least likely to transfer. A doubling of school crime rates, which is possible with just a few incidents, leads to a less than 2% increase in the odds of transfer for that student subgroup. These findings suggest school violent crime is something that could push out the most advantaged students, the authors say.

The researchers also warn that school violence levels, and types of crimes, shift from year-to-year.

"Some students may leave one school because they experienced violence for another that they think is safer, only to find that in the next year their new school experiences more violence than expected,” Julia Burdick-Will, a co-author of the study and assistant professor of sociology and education at Johns Hopkins University, said in a statement. “In this case, students might be inclined to move again in the following year, leading to even more instability in their academic trajectories.”

In addition, the study's authors said students are more sensitive to violence on school grounds or in the area immediately surrounding the school, rather than neighborhood violence.

“This means that creating a safe school environment could reduce violence-related transfers even in a larger neighborhood with high crime rates,” Burdick-Will said. “By focusing on providing a safe zone immediately around a school, administrators and policymakers can potentially increase stability in enrollment patterns at the district level.”

Read the full article about creating safe school environments by Naaz Modan at Education Dive.