Normally, I do not read the Philadelphia Inquirer; I can find most national news items in the Times, and the Boston Globe provides most relevant local news (not that I read the Globe often; I am more concerned about the forest than the trees, so to speak).
Anyway, I was glad I looked at the Inquirer's South Jersey RSS feed when I saw this article, about the Willingboro School District's decision to adopt a dress code - sort of.
Not that I am surprised at their decision (or their lax enforcement of it). I do not know what the "studies" show about the correlation between a dress code and school "incidents," but I do remember that clothes were not really a big deal in elementary school. Most important was athletic skill. However, I did not go to high school in Willingboro, so I cannot comment on conditions there. I do remember gaining some modicum of respect in sixth grade, when my classmates found out that I was going to private school (which was about 45 minutes away) instead of the local public middle school (which is 5 minutes away from my house, if you walk slow).
Of course, that high school had its own dress code. For me, this did not seem to reduce the amount of clothing-related insults; unless you have all of the students wearing the exact same thing - a school uniform - people are going to try to distinguish themselves. Even worse, the necessity of buying several shirts, ties, and dress pants to wear to school meant that for the six years I went to that school, I bought more clothes than I otherwise would have.