Restorative Practices: Improving Equity and Positive School Culture
Imagine the following scenario. A student is struggling in class to be focused and engaged. After multiple behavior reminders, the student is asked to go to the office, for what the educator views as intentionally disruptive behavior. An intervention specialist calls their parents after the student gets angrier and more frustrated. Finally, after an outburst directed at the assistant principal, the student is dismissed from school for the rest of the day. Now imagine that same student in a school who has been working to implement restorative practices. Instead of being viewed as disruptive, the teacher recognizes the behavior is trying to communicate a need and asks the student how they are doing. The student admits they are struggling so the teacher invites them to the restorative practice space where they are able to openly share their needs and feelings with the same intervention specialist, who provides safe space and support. The teacher stops by to check on their student, help with content and contribute to a decision on next steps. They all decide that the student will benefit from some flexibility for emotional needs today. Instead of the student being sent home and feeling isolated from school, using a restorative practice approach, the teacher and the student are able to identify the issue and provide a solution that allows the young person to continue learning both academic and social emotional skills.
The above scenario is based on approaches the St. Paul Public Schools (SPPS) have been using since 2017 in an effort to increase belonging, engagement and connection to school while reducing rates of exclusionary school discipline and dismissal, disproportionately experienced by Black students. Research has shown that school climate and systemic equity are inextricably linked and when students experience racially inequitable school discipline, their sense of connection is negatively impacted. Disproportionality in student discipline is one of many potential areas that RP can impact and is a key focus for SPPS.
HYD-PRC evaluation team members Kara Beckman, Dr. Barb McMorris, Angeline Gacad along with collaborator Dr. Miles Davison, are helping SPPS evaluate the implementation and impact of whole school restorative practices in 20 schools. With five of those schools having completed nearly 4 years of implementation prior to disruptions caused by COVID-19, the team worked with SPPS partners to select a group of 12 comparison schools that mirrored the 5 restorative practices schools demographically and in disciplinary outcomes prior to implementation. Results showed that the 5 pilot schools were able to narrow the discipline disparity between Black and non-Black students for defiance of authority dismissals. Multi-race students also had lower dismissal rates in the restorative practices schools than comparison schools. Data showed a 40% decline in defiance of authority dismissals for Black students which indicates that restorative practices schools appear to be having success utilizing alternative strategies to address behavioral incidents and are less frequently using exclusionary or dismissal discipline.
“These findings show that restorative practices can contribute to creating systemic equity and positive school and district cultures,” says Beckman. “While these results are exciting, it should be noted that these results were a result of 3.5 years of solid implementation – and that was before pandemic disruptions,” she said. Leaders of SPPS restorative practices schools worry that further progress toward these equity goals may not be achieved without ongoing funding and resources. “As a larger system we need to reevaluate our commitment to the visions that we identify and I'm talking specifically about restorative practices… What it really needs to be is a coordinator. I'm not gonna lie. We're scratching and clawing. I think we need to have a real honest conversation as a district on if we're really committing to a vision. What does that mean? It has to mean more than: you're part of a 3 year grant, then you're on your own. Because if we are really truly committing to it, then it means we’re dedicating resources to it: time, effort, money, people to continuing that, indefinitely,” said one pilot site principal.
Beckman agrees, “our implementation data indicate there are currently too many aspects of education that work against sustained restorative practices implementation – changing priorities, turnover among educators and administrators, punitive mindsets and behavioral policies, under-resourced classrooms and overwhelmed students and educators. In the absence of transformative systems change, if we truly are going to address systemic inequity and school climate through a restorative practice lens, we will need point people in the buildings to sustain the work.”
To view the original outcome summary, please click here.
Research supported by an Education Innovation and Research early-phase grant from the U.S. Department of Education, grant no. U411C180164 (PI: Kimani) to evaluate Whole School Implementation of Restorative Practices in Saint Paul Public Schools.