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Improving Emergency Preparedness in Local School Districts

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Improving Emergency Preparedness in Local School Districts

Chapter III: Methodology and Results

Introduction

The chapter describes how the current study relies on secondary data, which is already published, peer-reviewed research, to answer the research question: How effective are emergency preparedness practices in public high schools at improving staff readiness and response performance during active threat situations? Since this project is not an original fieldwork, the methods of this chapter are based on the dmethods of the authors of the chosen studies. The chapter is divided into studies and introduces the purpose, procedures, setting, limitations, participants, research instruments, and results for each source. The chapter further describes how the results of each study will be used in the current project. The four studies selected have a defined sample, well-defined data collection methods, and quantifiable results that can be used to test one or more components of the study hypotheses. The current project employs a structured comparative analysis rather than a pooled meta-analysis because the studies do not use the same design, population, or outcome measures, and the studies are presented chronologically.

Hypotheses

The study tests the following hypotheses:

1. Emergency preparedness practices centered on training, communication, and coordination are positively associated with improved staff readiness in public high schools during active threat situations.

2. Emergency preparedness practices centered on training, communication, and coordination are positively associated with stronger staff response performance in public high schools during active threat situations.

3. Higher staff readiness is associated with stronger response performance during active threat situations.

4. Stronger staff readiness and response performance increase the likelihood that emergency preparedness practices will contribute to reducing injuries and deaths during active threat events.

Study 1: Active Shooter Protocols: Perceptions, Preparedness, and Anxiety (2021)

Title and Purpose

The study aimed to determine the impact of active shooter training in high school on the subsequent anxiety and preparedness of college students. The research also determined whether students were more aware of campus protocols than of high school protocols (Worthington et al., 2021, pp. 91, 94).

Procedures

The survey was conducted anonymously online following Winthrop University's Institutional Review Board approval on May 7, 2019. Participants signed informed consent, then reflected on the active shooter training they had received in high school and answered identical questions about their current university. The survey covered perceived knowledge, protocol knowledge, type of training, anxiety, and preparedness, and took approximately 10 minutes to complete. The authors presented the data analysis in three steps using bivariate correlations, two hierarchical linear regression analyses, and a dependent t-test (Worthington et al., 2021, p. 96).

Setting and Limitations

The data were gathered in one midsize public university in the Southeast (Worthington et al., 2021, p. 95). It was also only one university setting used in the study, although participants were reminiscing about past high school experiences. The other limitation is that the measures were based on perceptions, knowledge, and anxiety rather than direct observation of emergency action. Moreover, the research indirectly addressed long-term effects by using retrospective reports, implying that the results rely on participants' memories.

Description of the Participants

The final sample consisted of 364 undergraduate students from the same university who volunteered to participate, some of whom were granted extra credit. They were aged 18-29 years, with a mean age of 20.30 years. The sample consisted of 281 women, 74 men, and 9 answering other. The majority of participants attended public high schools, including 339 students, 16 students from parochial schools, and 9 students from private or independent schools (Worthington et al., 2021, p. 95). This explanation is significant as the recent school employees were not studied. It studied college students who were reminiscing about previous high school training.

Description of the Research Instrument(s)

Three variables of knowledge were assessed in the survey, including current anxiety in active shooter situations and perceived preparedness. Perceived knowledge was gauged using five scaled-down questions from the Crisis Knowledge Index, and protocol knowledge was gauged using a 15-item yes-or-no checklist. The protocol items asked about the answers the participants had been trained on, including lockdown, evacuation, fight, and other protocol measures. Self-report items used to measure anxiety were feeling frightened or nervous about an active shooter at school, using a 4-point Likert-type scale. The measure of preparedness was based on two 10-point items that asked whether participants would know what to do and how prepared they felt in the event of a campus shooting (Worthington et al., 2021, pp. 95 - 96). These tools are applicable because they gauge preparedness-related dimensions such as perceived knowledge and preparedness.

Results and Application

Wortington et al. (2021) found that the high school variables accounted for 5% of the variance in anxiety, and the university variables accounted for an additional 11% of the variance. To be prepared, the high school variables accounted for 8% of the variance, and the university variables accounted for an additional 26% (pp. 96-98). The researchers also discovered that preparedness was negatively associated with anxiety, i.e., the more prepared the student was, the less anxious they were, r = -.50, p =.001 (p. 96). High school-level evacuation protocols and perceived knowledge were significant predictors. They perceived knowledge of university protocols was significantly lower than perceived knowledge of high school protocols, t(363) = 5.83, p < .001, d = .40 (Worthington et al., 2021, pp. 91, 98). In the present project, the findings will serve as evidence for Hypothesis 1, as they show that knowledge of training and protocols is related to readiness-related outcomes. Nonetheless, since the research relied on students' perceptions rather than staff actions during active threat situations, it will not be used alone to test Hypothesis 2 or Hypothesis 4.

Study 2: Correlates of the Number Shot and Killed in Active Shooter Events (2021)

Title and Purpose

The study identified the factors related to the number of people who were shot and killed in active shooter events. This was not to test a single complete theory, but to test variables related to casualty outcomes (Blair et al., 2021, pp. 336-340).

Procedures

The research relied on secondary data based on FBI active shooter reports on 250 shootings that were identified between 2000 and 2017 (Blair et al., 2021, p. 341). The authors retrieved data on the FBI reports, recoded the data on shot and killed to include only those cases of bullet-wounded and killed victims, and added the data with the records of the law enforcement, after-action reports, and at least two news articles per case. They then statistically modeled the relationship between offender, target, and guardianship-related variables and the number shot and killed. The authors observe that event resolution was used as a proxy for guardianship because the data lacked strong direct indicators, such as police response time or the time taken to confront the attacker.

Setting and Limitations

This study was conducted on a national event dataset rather than a single school or district. The breadth of that is a strength as it includes most categories of active shooter incidents. The authors also recognized several limitations in the data. Past events might have been omitted because searches of archival news are more effective over time, less deadly events might not have received as much media coverage, and the FBI data did not capture all the more specific timing and guardianship controls that would be helpful for explanation.

Description of the Participants

The human subjects were not the units of analysis in the traditional meaning of the term. Rather, 250 active shooter incidents found in the FBI reports during the period 2000-2017 were analyzed in the study (Blair et al., 2021, pp. 336, 341). Since the research examined events rather than individuals, the descriptive characteristics of the location type, the weapon type used, the offender's demographics, the offender's mobility, and the event resolution were relevant.

Description of the Research Instrument(s)

The main research instruments were the FBI active shooter reports and the authors’ coding scheme. Coded variables were date, demographics of the attacker, relationship to the place, type and number of weapons, mobility, type of location, time of day, day of the week, and event resolution. The place types were school, retail, factory, office, outdoors, and others (Blair et al., 2021, pp. 340-341, 347). Another way the authors enhanced accuracy was by recoding shot and killed counts and cross-checking official reports and news accounts (Blair et al., 2021, p. 341).

Results and Application

Blair et al. (2021) discovered that there were one or two fewer people estimated to have been shot in schools than in any other place, with an estimated mean of 3.99 people shot versus higher estimates in retail, factory, office, outdoor, and other locations (pp. 347, 353 - 354). They also discovered that the lowest number of people were killed in schools after adjustment of the number shot, and that the more recent the attacks were, the more it was estimated that one person less would be shot at and one person less would be killed (pp. 353 - 354). Incidents where victims stopped the attacker were associated with the smallest number of estimated people shot and killed, and the estimated mean number of people shot was 3.84 to 3.92, as compared to the 6.53 to 6.63 when the attacker shot himself or herself when police arrived (Blair et al., 2021, pp. 347, 353 - 354). Blair et al. (2021) also note that, in the FBI data, potential victims thwarted attackers in approximately 1 in 6 attacks (p. 341). The findings from the present project will primarily be used to evaluate Hypothesis 4, demonstrating that protective action and event context can be linked to casualty outcomes. The study can indirectly inform hypothesis 2 by suggesting that effective action during an event is important. Nevertheless, it cannot directly test staff preparedness, as it does not assess their training, knowledge, or perceptions.

Study 3: Educating and Empowering Inner-City High School Students in Bleeding Control (2022)

Title and Purpose

The study aimed to find out whether a Stop the Bleed course would make students more comfortable, willing, and prepared to intervene in acute bleeding. Even though the research did not focus on active shooter situations, the training focused on responding to violence and on immediate life-saving actions before the arrival of emergency medical services (Okereke et al., 2022, pp. 186-187).

Procedures

The study was a prospective interventional pilot study, carried out between January and March 2020 in a single inner-city high school in Brooklyn, New York, and the researchers had originally planned to conduct follow-up work following the completion of the study in March 2020 (Okereke et al., 2022, pp. 187 -188, 191). Physical education or health education classes were used to recruit students, who were given the choice to join, and alternative activities were provided to those who would not join. The students, not the staff, conducted the training. The course consisted of 1 55-minute class period, including a 20-25 minute interactive PowerPoint presentation, discussion, and a 15-minute skills station involving tourniquet placement, wound packing, and pressure application. Students were asked to complete anonymous pre- and post-survey paper questionnaires on a 5-point Likert scale. The authors employed the McNemar test with a p-value of p <.05 to investigate the differences in willingness, comfort, and preparedness before and after the training (Okereke et al., 2022, pp.187 - 188).

Setting and Limitations

The researchers conducted the study at a single charter high school in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Brownsville, which the authors characterized as a high-violence-exposure neighborhood with high risk factors (Okereke et al., 2022, pp. 187-188). The authors acknowledge several limitations. It was a small pilot study in a single setting; the classroom was not controlled, not all participants had prior Stop the Bleed training, and the results were not measured by action but by a self-reported survey. They also pointed out that the research failed to establish whether the gains would be sustained in the long run.

Description of the Participants

The researchers used a sample of high school students aged 13 to 19, totaling 290 participants. All in all, 98.6 of the student population recruited took the surveys and the course. The average age was 15.7 years; 40.8% were female, and 11.4% had received prior Stop the Bleed training. The students were separated into 25-30 class groups and instructed by two or three Stop the Bleed trainers in emergency medicine, pediatric, or trauma surgery (Okereke et al., 2022, pp. 186 - 189).

Description of the Research Instrument(s)

The primary tools were anonymous paper surveys administered pre-intervention and post-intervention. In the pre-survey, there were 7 questions, and in the post-survey, 8 questions were included, since one extra question was added on willingness to assist a bleeding victim. The students scored their answers on a five-point Likert-type scale. Even the training intervention could be regarded as a structured tool, as it incorporated didactic delivery, discussion, and practical skills training in tourniquet application, wound packing, and pressure control (Okereke et al., 2022, pp. 188 - 189). This description is not redundant, as it separates the survey from the training intervention and indicates that both contributed to the study's purpose.

Results and Application

Okereke et al. (2022) obtained evident post-training gains. There was an increase in the percentage of students who reported being somewhat likely or very likely to assist an injured person who was bleeding, from 43.8% before training to 80.8% after training. The preparation level rose to 83.8% (p < .0001) and self-rated comfort rose to 76.5% (p < .0001), with all changes being statistically significant at p < .0001. 186, 189). The numbers are also explained in the table. For example, 37 students, or 13.2, rated themselves as very likely to help before training, compared to 134 students, or 46.9, who rated themselves as very likely to help after training. Similarly, 30 students (10.6%) rated themselves as very comfortable before training. In contrast, the proportion who rated themselves as very comfortable after training was 55 students (20.5%) (Okereke et al., 2022, p. 189). The results will be used to inform Hypothesis 1 in the present project, as they suggest that structured emergency training can increase readiness-related outcomes in a school setting. Indirect contribution to Hypothesis 4 that the study can make relates to the fact that it focuses on life-saving intervention before the arrival of professional responders. However, because students, not staff, were used and because self-reporting results were used, the study cannot be used in isolation to determine whether training improves staff response performance when faced with active threat conditions.

Study 4: School Counselors’ Perceptions and Understandings of Lockdown Drills: Navigating the Paradox of Safety and Fear (2023)

Title and Purpose

The study was conducted to develop a preliminary perception of how the policy of mandatory lockdown drills is implemented in reaction to active shooter events in public schools. The authors focused on school counselors' lived experiences with lockdown drills.

Procedures

The research was based on a phenomenological design, as the authors were interested in participants' personal experiences and the meanings they gave to lockdown drills. The 2019 academic year included four 60-minute semi-structured focus group interviews used to collect data. The participants were enrolled in free professional development workshops for school counselors at a large urban university college of education. The sessions were tape-recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using Creswell and Poth's steps of phenomenology in the footsteps of Moustakas. In practice, the researchers shifted from descriptions of participants to coded units of meaning and, consequently, to the larger themes that depicted common experiences among the focus groups. The interview questions focused on what lockdown drills meant to the participants, how they experienced them while working as counselors, and how students and other stakeholders reacted to them (Eckhoff & Goodman-Scott, 2023, pp. 526, 533-536).

Setting and Limitations

The study was based on five school districts in the Southeastern United States in the 2019 school year. The sample comprised counselors in PK-12 settings across urban, suburban, and rural environments. The primary weakness of the tool in the current project is that it is qualitative and targets school counselors rather than the entire staff. It also covers a wider grade range compared to the public high schools alone.

Description of the Participants

The authors employed purposive sampling to select school counselors who had participated in school-based lockdown drills. The ultimate sample comprised 26 practicing school counselors from five public school districts in the Southeastern United States. The average age of participants was 41.7 years, and the average professional counseling experience was 12.2 years. They worked in PK through Grade 12 in urban, suburban, and rural public schools (Eckhoff and Goodman-Scott, 2023, pp. 523, 533-534). This explanation answers the questions of who was involved, where they were employed, and why the sample is not limited to public high schools.

Description of the Research Instrument(s)

A semi-structured focus group protocol, comprising three general, open-ended questions about lockdown drills, counselor experiences, and student and stakeholder responses, was used as the main research instrument. The audio recordings were transcribed safely, and the transcripts served as the primary source of qualitative data. That phenomenological analysis then sorted such responses into units of meaning and larger themes, enabling the authors to discover how the participants interpreted the paradox and tension of implementing lockdown drills (Eckhoff and Goodman-Scott, 2023, pp. 533 -536).

Results and Application

Four general themes emerged from the study: Awareness of School Violence, Necessity and Variability in Preparation, Paradox of Safety, and Communication as Support and Challenge (Eckhoff and Goodman-Scott, 2023, pp. 523, 536-537). The results showed that numerous counselors endorsed drills but also had communication issues, emotional stress, and building-level constraints that made their use problematic. The findings also revealed that a large proportion of counselors were on administrative or safety teams to conduct the drills. In contrast, others conducted them with other employees (Eckhoff and Goodman-Scott, 2023, pp. 536-537). These findings will serve as the main informants for Hypothesis 2 and Hypothesis 3 in the current project, as they demonstrate the potential effects of communication and implementation conditions on the translation of preparedness into improved response performance. Nevertheless, the study will not be used in isolation to test the hypothesis of casualty reduction, as the findings are qualitative and do not provide specific data on performance.

Plan for Analysis

The four studies will be compared according to how well their results address the four hypotheses. Worthington et al. (2021) and Okereke et al. (2022) will be used mainly to assess whether training is associated with readiness-related outcomes such as preparedness, comfort, and perceived knowledge. Eckhoff and Goodman-Scott (2023) will be used to evaluate how communication and implementation conditions may influence the relationship between readiness and actual response. Blair et al. (2021) will be used to assess whether protective action is associated with fewer injuries and deaths during active shooter events. Because the studies do not measure the same populations or use the same variables, they cannot be combined statistically. Instead, the analysis in Chapter IV will compare their results to determine whether the total body of evidence supports, partially supports, or fails to support each hypothesis.

Chapter III Summary

This chapter explained how the selected studies gathered and processed their data, and how the results of these studies will be implemented in the current project. The four acceptable sources constitute a composite body of secondary data encompassing survey research, regression analysis, event-level statistical analysis, and qualitative focus group interviews. Collectively, these studies provide usable evidence on training, preparedness, communication, protective actions, and casualty-related outcomes, and they also indicate the limitations of the existing evidence base.

References