A Research Proposal: This 5 page paper presents a research proposal to determine if wearing school uniforms has any effect on elementary student academic achievement. The paper begins with an introduction that discusses the lack of empirical evidence regarding the effects of wearing uniforms. Very few studies have been conducted and the few that are published have conflicting data. The writer presents the hypothesis in this introduction. The next section is the proposed methodology for the study and finally, the data analysis strategies to be used. Bibliography lists 5 sources.
Name of Research Paper File: MM12_PGunfach.rtf
Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
in violence and behavior problems to increasing academic achievement. For every article one finds supporting school uniforms, another article refuting that opinion can be found. There have been very few
empirical studies conducted to correlate the wearing of uniforms with a decline in violence, a decline in behavioral referrals, an increase in attendance or an increase in learning. There is,
however, a significant amount of anecdotal evidence that makes these correlations. In terms of validity, anecdotal records from teachers and administrators are compelling evidence of the benefits gained when uniforms
are required. Seamon, Schultink and Slocum comment on the difficulty of conducting empirical research studies on the effects of school uniforms: "Research is often difficult to conduct because the
implementation of school uniforms accompanies changes in personnel, curriculum, and other policies. It also may be difficult to find a school system undergoing the change" (Seamon, Schultink and Slocum, 2002).
Seamon, Schultink and Slocum report that a study addressing the correlation between school uniforms and student achievement was conducted in Charleston, South Carolina secondary schools during the 1995-1996 school
year (2002). Students in two schools were compared, one school required uniforms, the other did not (Seamon, Schultink and Slocum, 2002). The investigator controlled for demographics and socio-economic status (Seamon,
Schultink and Slocum, 2002). The investigator administered mathematics and language arts tests and a self-esteem inventory and found that the school where uniforms were mandatory had "higher attendance, esteem and
academic scores" (Seamon, Schultink and Slocum, 2002). One of the few empirical studies was conducted by Brunsma and Rockquemore from Notre Dame (1998). These investigators concluded that there was a
slight positive correlation between wearing uniforms and standardized test scores (Brunsma and Rockquemore, 1998). The investigators went on to say that uniform policies are "not significantly correlated with any of