Restorative Practices
Restorative Practices
What are Restorative Practices?
Restorative practices focuses on strengthening relationships between individuals and social connections within communities. It focuses on inclusiveness, relationship-building and problem-solving. It champions such restorative methods as circles for teaching social and emotional competencies and conflict resolution conferences that bring victims, offenders and their supporters together handle wrongdoing. Rather than punishment, students are led to reflect on and take responsibility for their actions and develop plans to repair harm. In addition to conflict resolution, restorative practices offer guidance for day-to-day interactions by focusing on strengthening and mending relationships.
Research
A group of researchers evaluated the impact of Restorative Practices on Pittsburg Public Schools in 2018 and found that:
- Implementation of restorative practices through PERC improved overall school climates, as rated by teachers.
- Implementation of restorative practices reduced the average suspension rate: During the study period, average suspension rates decreased in both PERC and non-PERC schools, but rates decreased more in PERC schools.
- Suspension rates of African American students and of those from low-income families also went down in PERC schools, shrinking the disparities in suspension rates between African American and white students and between low- and higher-income students.
Augustine, Catherine H., John Engberg, Geoffrey E. Grimm, Emma Lee, Elaine Lin Wang, Karen Christianson, and Andrea A. Joseph, Can Restorative Practices Improve School Climate and Curb Suspensions? An Evaluation of the Impact of Restorative Practices in a Mid-Sized Urban School District, Santa Monica, Calif.: RAND Corporation, RR-2840-DOJ, 2018. As of February 06, 2020: https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR2840.html
LINK TO THE STUDY CAN BE FOUND HERE HTTPS://WWW.RAND.ORG/PUBS/RESEARCH_REPORTS/RR2840.HTML
Resources
- International Institute for Restorative Practices https://www.iirp.edu/
- Restorative Justice Education https://www.restorativejustice.com/
IIRP
This print resource helps educators understand how Restorative Practices helps to support the basic human development and cognitive needs of children.
Mindfulness In Schools
This is a teacher resource that provides free sample lessons on building mindfulness and social-emotional competencies.
Restorative Solutions
This is a step-by-step guide that can be used to begin and/or improve the implementation of Restorative Practices at the school-level.
Restorative Solutions
This is an administration-level resource use to track the training and/or implementation of Restorative Practice within-the school building.
Restorative Solutions
This is teacher-level and/or school-level resource on how to Build Positive Relationship with students to create a culture of reflection and restorative practices.
Restorative Solutions
This is a teacher-level resource to implement Restorative Practices/Circles in the classroom.
Learning for Justice
This print resource is a compilation of best practices used to set a foundation for restorative practices through Teaching Tolerance.
Teacher Powered
This resource can be used to set the foundation for the creation and implementation of Restorative Practices at the school-level. It can also be used to identify your current stage of implementation and work to further your present level of implementation.
Three_Steps_for_Social_Emotional_and_Behavioral_MTSS___RTI_11.pdf
Whitepaper___Developing_an_Action_Plan_to_Improve_Classroom_Attendance_v15.pdf
3_Strategies_for_Reducing_Chronic_Absenteeism_v12.pdf