This causal-comparative study examined the relationship of school uniforms to attendance, academic achievement, and discipline referral rates, using data collected from two high schools in rural southwest Georgia county school systems, one with a uniforms program and one without a uniforms program. After accounting for race and students with disabilities status, School A (with uniforms) had significantly better attendance and somewhat fewer minor behavior infractions, but trended lower in standardized math scores and more intermediate and major behavioral infractions than School B (without uniforms). These findings failed to demonstrate an unambiguous advantage of school uniforms, consistent with the mixed results across reports in the published literature. Implications and suggestions for further research are detailed.

Does clothing make the person or does the person make the clothing? How does what attire a student wears to school affect their academic achievement? In 1996, President Clinton cited examples of school violence and discipline issues that might have been avoided had the students been wearing uniforms ("School uniforms: Prevention or suppression?"). In his 1998 State of the Union address, he mentioned the positive impact uniforms had made in the Long Beach Unified School District, which has a highly diverse ethnic and socioeconomic population that is also the third largest district in California. When students have continuous negative experiences in school, dropping out and delinquency tend to be the common responses. The role of schools is to provide a positive, safe and secure learning environment where students feel protected enough to explore and develop their intellectual and social competencies. Hard evidence that proves the wearing of uniforms provides a direct link to better academic achievement is not conclusive, however, there is evidence that supports there are fewer discipline problems/referrals and violence as well as higher attendance rates since the implementation of a uniform policy. What appears to have been overlooked in the data analysis is the effect of other programs that are often being implemented at the same time as the uniform policy and may also have a direct impact on the discipline and attendance issues. There are many arguments for and against school uniform policies. The pros and cons of school uniform are listed in this paper. (Contains 14 online resources.).

Author's abstract: The purpose of this study is to determine whether a relationship exists between the implementation of a mandatory uniform policy in an urban public middle school and student attendance rates (as measured by the schools yearly progress report collected by the state Board of Education). Four schools serving students in grades 6-8 in an urban school district in Georgia were included in this study. Three comparisons were used to determine whether or not and, if so, the extent to which the relationships existed. Some qualitative and quantitative measures were utilized in the design of this mixed method study. These methods were used as control for other plausible explanations for improvements in school attendance rates; to measure a school without an implemented mandatory uniforms policy; and to measure the schools with employed mandatory uniform policies' attendance rates. Analyses employed ANOVA and t-tests with Z-Score tests for small sample size. Through these three comparisons, a pattern emerged that indicated the implementation of mandatory uniforms in public schools has a positive relationship with student attendance rates.