1. Bullying Blocks
Academic
Achievement
Robert D. Grant Jr

2. • Students who are bullied regularly do substantially worse in school, UCLA psychologists
report in a special issue of the Journal of Early Adolescence
• The UCLA study was conducted with 2,300 students in 11 Los Angeles–area public middle
schools and their teachers.
• A high level of bullying was consistently associated with lower grades across the three years
of middle school.

3. •
The students who were rated the most-bullied
performed substantially worse academically than
their peers. Projecting the findings on gradepoint average across all three years of middle
school.
•
We cannot address low achievement in school
while ignoring bullying, because the two are
frequently linked," said Jaana Juvonen, a UCLA
professor of psychology and lead author of the
study.
•
"Students who are repeatedly bullied receive
poorer grades and participate less in class
discussions. Some students may get mislabeled
as low achievers because they do not want to
speak up in class for fear of getting bullied.
Teachers can misinterpret their silence, thinking
that these students are not motivated to learn.
•
"Students who get bullied run the risk of not
coming to school, not liking school, perceiving
school more negatively and now — based on this
study — doing less well academically," said
Juvonen, who is also a professor in UCLA's
developmental psychology program.

4. Videos on bullying within the Baltimore-City Public School System
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FP1L4At5
Q4M
• http://baltimore.cbslocal.com/video?autoStar
t=true&topVideoCatNo=default&clipId=88183
83
• http://baltimore.cbslocal.com/2013/10/24/for
mer-actor-from-the-wire-launches-antibullying-hip-hop-campaign/
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akuhB8Up
p48

6. According to the Maryland State Department of Education, there were 3,818 incidents of
bullying in Maryland schools during the 2009-2010 school year, and reports of bullying have
been increasing over the past three years. The harmful results of this increased bullying are
more than just bruised arms and hurt feelings.
Maryland law requires school staff to report bullying. As the state Department of Education
noted in its model policy to address bullying. Here’s an example why:
One family found out that their son was running out of school and taking a shortcut home to
avoid the bus. They discovered that, as he walked home from the bus stop, a mob of other
students followed him, taunted him, and dared him to fight. Another student from the school
showed up at the family's door one day, asking if the boy would come out and fight. The boy
eventually began avoiding school altogether. When the family told school administrators
about the problem, the school treated the matter as just "boys being boys."

8. • Baltimore City like many urban school
systems has the mammoth task of
reducing the dropout rate and eliminating
the academic achievement gap of African
American students.
• Unfortunately, the system like many others
across this nation have not really
effectively connected the dots related to
drop out rates and academic success to the
ever escalating bullying and violence in
schools.

9. • The Superintendent Dr. Alonso says that
national statistics related to bullying
suggest that 21,250 students are bullied in
the Baltimore City schools.
• Educators know that most fights that occur
in school are the result of some form of
bullying.
• Lastly, urban school systems like Baltimore
City must understand that the lack of justice
and protection does affect dropout rates
and academic achievement and if this
serious problem is not dealt with effectively
the statistics will never change significantly

12. Baltimore City Public schools have a well
structured reporting policy for bullying in the
school system.
http://www.baltimorecityschools.org/site/Def
ault.aspx?PageID=399