How schools are using restorative justice to remedy racial disparities in discipline

Too many schools today are pushing children into pipelines of incarceration and violence instead of liberation.

From slavery times to the present, black people have treasured education as liberatory. It was unlawful for enslaved blacks to learn to read and write. When the slavemaster learned his wife was teaching young Frederick Douglass to read, he at once forbade it: “[I]f you teach . . . [him] how to read, there would be no keeping him. It would forever unfit him to be a slave.” Upon hearing these words, Douglass had an epiphany, understanding in that moment that education was “the path way from slavery to freedom” and was the most important thing he and other slaves could do to free themselves. Douglass went on to become a leader in the anti-slavery and women’s rights movements, a best-selling author, and a US diplomat.

Restorative Justice in Schools

There are growing numbers of studies establishing the effectiveness of school-based restorative justice in reducing suspensions, expulsions, and police referrals, while improving academic outcomes and decreasing violence. For instance, according to a 2015 implementation study of whole-school restorative justice in Oakland that compared schools with restorative justice to schools without, from 2011 to 2014, graduation rates in restorative schools increased by 60 percent compared to a 7 percent increase in nonrestorative schools; reading scores increased 128 percent versus 11 percent; and the dropout rate decreased 56 percent versus 17 percent. Harm was repaired in 76 percent of conflict circles, with students learning to talk instead of fight through differences at home and at school, and more than 88 percent of teachers said that restorative practices were very or somewhat helpful in managing difficult student behaviors.

Too often we locate responsibility for school discipline issues and racial disparities in the children and their perceived cognitive or developmental deficits, stopping there, as did the school administrators in the vignette above. This is not surprising—we are socialized to view the world through a lens that centers on the individual. Though this behavioral and psychological approach may be well-meaning, it is shortsighted. Strategies to create equal educational opportunity in our schools require much more, including rigorous and ongoing professional development for all staff in restorative justice. There is some evidence that teachers who implement restorative justice with high fidelity will be perceived as more respectful of students of all racial groups, will have more positive relationships with all students, and will therefore be less likely to rely on punitive school discipline approaches than low-restorative-justice-implementing practitioners. The inference is that implicit bias will be reduced if teacher-student classroom relationships are of better quality. Relational strategies that are race-neutral, however, are not likely to reduce school discipline disparities. Holistic relational strategies that simultaneously interrogate the bias and systemic factors that historically maintain racial hierarchies in education will likely be more productive.

Restorative practices are essential for the success of urban schools. When schools are first introduced to the concept of restorative practices, it can seem like a long shot that the approach would work. The trauma that exists in marginalized communities can be addressed with the tools that restorative practices provide. Students will have the opportunity to have conversations about harm that they would have never had if not for the approach. All students, regardless of race, color, creed, or socioeconomic status want to find a way to repair harm. Restorative practices offers an avenue towards teaching students how to “make it right” without violence.

http://successfulacademics.com/BlackChildSEL.html

https://www.scribd.com/document/366618990/Education-and-Black-Child-GogginsII-2017#from_embed

https://www.rochester.edu/warner/cues/restorative-practices/

https://www.iirp.edu/school-resources/research-and-evaluations

https://www.salon.com/2019/04/21/these-schools-use-restorative-justice-to-remedy-racial-disparities-in-discipline/