Outcome Evaluation

The implementation of restorative practices in the school setting impacts both the relationships in the classroom and the number of students excluded from school. These evaluations discuss the impact of restorative practices on different measures.

Improving School Climate: Findings from Schools Implementing Restorative Practices

From the International Institute for Restorative Practices e-Forum: The International Institute for Restorative Practices has compiled a 36-page booklet of findings from schools in the United States, England and Canada that are implementing restorative practices.

Introducing Restorative Practices into Scottish Schools

In 2004, the Scottish Executive allocated funding for a 30-month pilot project to introduce restorative practices into schools in three Local Authorities. An August 2007 evaluation report outlines the implementation process for the different areas and the progress made in establishing restorative practices in the school.

Wong, Dennis S. W. and Ma, Stephen K. and Wing Lo, T and Ma, Stephen K. and Lok, David P. P. and Wing Lo, T. School Bullying Among Hong Kong Chinese Primary Schoolchildren.

The first comprehensive survey of 7,025 Chinese primary schoolchildren found that 24% of respondents reported that they had sometimes physically bullied another child. When children observed school bullying, 56% said they immediately reported it to their teachers. Another 20% tried to stop the bullying by approaching the bullies. The study also identified factors associated with bullying. These included coming from an adverse psychosocial background and having more contact with violent values through association with deviant peers and exposure to the mass media. On the basis of the research findings, potential methods of bullying intervention are discussed. (author's abstract). Restorative practices are discussed among the interventions.

McCold, Paul. Evaluation of a Restorative Milieu: CSF Buxmont School/Day Treatment Programs 1999-2001. Evaluation Outcome Technical Report

The Community Service Foundation (CSF) and Buxton Academy operate six school/day treatment programs in southeastern Pennsylvania. They are community treatment settings for adjudicated delinquent and at-risk youth. CSF also operates other programs for youth in trouble. All of the programs use restorative practices. McCold speaks of a "restorative milieu" because the CSF Buxmont culture consists of many restorative techniques and processes, not just isolated restorative interventions, and because the restorative approach extends beyond staff interaction with youth to staff-to-staff and student-to-student relationships. In this paper McCold presents results of an evaluation of the CSF Buxmont school/day treatment programs to assess the effectiveness of their restorative practices in encouraging positive changes among youth in the programs. The analysis covers the outcome experiences of more than 900 youth discharged from the programs over a two year period between 1999 and 2001.

. A case study of comprehensive schoolwide improvement at a high needs elementary school.

A qualitative case study method was used to examine one elementary Title 1 school's experiences in implementing a continuous, comprehensive school improvement plan over a five year period from 2003-2008. This is a high needs school with over 80% of the families living in poverty. The researcher conducted 14 on-site interviews including the principal, faculty, and staff from the school to assist in determining the most important school wide improvement strategies from the faculty's perceptions at the case site. The Assistant Superintendent of Instruction and Human Resources of the case site school district was also interviewed in regards to the school leadership and collaboration at the case site. The researcher also made several site visits, observed different team sessions and collected several cultural documents. The strategies followed in implementing a comprehensive school improvement plan at the case site included: Value Added teacher training and collaboration, implementing the Circle of Courage frame work, the Restorative Justice Center, ELL home liaison, extended school day focused specifically on vocabulary instruction, Bright Future's Health Literacy Center, school leadership and teams, and professional learning communities. The student achievement gradually improved over the five year process of school wide comprehensive improvement. (author's abstract)

. School-based programs to reduce bullying and victimization.

This report presents a systematic review and meta-analysis of the effectiveness of programs designed to reduce school bullying perpetration and victimization (i.e. being bullied). The authors indicate the pitfalls of previous reviews and explain in detail how the present systematic review and meta-analysis addresses the gaps in the existing literature on bullying prevention. (excerpt)

Warren, Cathy. Evaluative Review: Lewisham Restorative Approaches Partnership.

This report examines the progress of Lewisham’s Restorative Approaches Partnership in its work in schools and attempts to identify: 1) Evidence that restorative approaches are having an impact on behaviour in schools; 2) Lessons learnt from those who have made most progress in implementing the approaches; and 3)Future needs to support continued development of restorative work in schools. (excerpt)

Bitel, Mark. Preliminary Findings from the Evaluation of Restorative Justice in Schools.

The preliminary evidence from the pupil surveys does not show clear effects between the schools which are in the pilot (programme schools) and the comparator schools (nonprogramme schools). However, when comparing the pre- and post-intervention surveys in schools that have implemented restorative practices to a significant degree, there are clear trends that suggest that restorative practices are having a significant effect. (excerpt)

Edgar, Kimmett and Bowen, Gillian and Bitel, Mark and Bowen, Gillian and Thurlow, Jane and Bitel, Mark. The evaluation of the Lambeth Restorative Justice Conference Pilot Project in Schools.

In May 2000, the Youth Justice Board in England initiated a plan to test, in two schools in Lambeth, restorative justice approaches in response to robbery and bullying in school settings. This was part of the Board’s overall exploration of interventions that might reduce youth crime. The project was devised in partnership with the Metropolitan Police in Lambeth. To evaluate the project, the Youth Justice Board engaged Partners in Evaluation and the Oxford Centre for Criminological Research. The evaluation, reported in this document, reviewed a number of key areas: levels of victimization, bullying, and robbery in the two schools; means for introducing restorative justice approaches in the schools; satisfaction of participants (victims and offenders) in the schools’ restorative justice conferences; short-term and long-term effects of the conferences on participants; and the larger effects of conferences, if any, on the nature and frequency of acts of victimization in the two schools. This paper presents research findings and analysis in these key areas, as well as a number of recommendations to enhance the use of restorative justice conferences in school settings. Additionally, several appendices provide further information on the study methodology, data-gathering, and research instruments.

Crow, Gill and Holton, Liz and Marsh, Peter and Crow, Gill. Supporting Pupils, Schools and Families: An Evaluation of the Hampshire Family Group Conferences in Education Project

Hampshire County Council Social Services Department was one of the first UK agencies to promote the use of Family Group Conferences (FGCs) as a means of involving wider family networks in the support of children and young people. They took their first referrals in 1994. The model originates in New Zealand and has now been subject to significant development and testing (Marsh and Crow, 1998). In 1998 a bid for education funding by the Principal Welfare Officer allowed the setting up of 'Education FGCs' to be developed. The Conferences try to help young people experiencing some difficulty in school, but as this report will show there are often family issues and welfare concerns as well. The report evaluates the work of the Education FGC project from its first implementation through the experience of the young people many months after their FGC. (excerpt)

Youth Justice Board for England and Wales. Summary of the national evaluation of the Restorative Justice in Schools Programme

In May 2000, the Youth Justice Board for England and Wales launched a pilot initiative in two schools in the London borough of Lambeth using restorative justice conferences to tackle exclusions, truancy, bullying and other forms of anti-social behaviour. Following early signs of promise, in April 2001, the Board gained three years, funding under the Treasury's Invest to Save scheme to extend the programme to the borough of Hammersmith & Fulham, and two other London boroughs, which subsequently withdrew from the scheme. (excerpt)

Youth Justice Board for England and Wales. National Evaluation of the Restorative Justice in Schools Programme

The Restorative Justice in Schools programme consisted of nine local Yots working across 26 schools (20 secondary and 6 primary). The contract to evaluate these initiatives was awarded to Partners in Evaluation, a specialist agency with a multi-ethnic team of researchers and a national reputation for conducting evaluations in the fields of health, education, social exclusion and regeneration. The evaluation was intended to explore the following research questions: 1. What are the levels of victimisation, bullying and robbery in the schools in the study? 2. How are restorative justice approaches introduced into the schools? 3. To what extent are participants in restorative justice conferences (victims and offenders) satisfied with the process at the time of the conference? 4. To what extent do the conferences show short-term and long-term effects on the participants' experience of victimisation, robbery and bullying? 5. Do conferences and other restorative justice approaches have wider effects on the nature and frequency of acts of victimisation in the schools involved in the project? 6. Are restorative justice conferences a useful tool in reducing school exclusions? This report shows the findings of the national evaluation. In writing the report, our aim has been to produce a report that is concise and usable, presenting the most important data so that the key findings and messages do not get lost. (excerpt)

Cavanagh, Tom. Creating a Culture of Care in Schools Using Restorative Practices

We live in a moment in time that is profoundly affected by the shootings at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, in 1999 and the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. In reaction to these tragic events and with a renewed focus on safety, schools in the United States and elsewhere have deepened their commitment to peacekeeping, based on stricter rules and harsher punishment, patterned after the punitive system of our courts. These get-tough policies include police presence in the schools, metal detectors, zero tolerance policies, student and locker searches, and drug and alcohol testing. As a result of these policies, we have criminalized our schools and put some students on a schoolhouse to jailhouse track. Dr. Wendy Drewery, Assistant Dean for Graduate Study in the School of Education at the University of Waikato in New Zealand, and her colleagues are leaders in New Zealand in implementing restorative justice practices in schools. Professor Drewery began her work in response to the overrepresentation of the Maori people in school suspensions. The "restorative practices" outlined in Professor Drewery's work are currently being implemented as part of the Restorative Practices in Schools Project in schools in New Zealand. Because the theory I created in my dissertation study is based on the same theory as Dr. Drewery's work, I will replicate my study in one or more of the New Zealand schools involved in her project. I am spending an academic year in the schools involved in the project as a Fulbright scholar to learn how these practices affect the culture of the schools. The purpose of this presentation is to present the highlights of a paper I will write outlining my original ethnographic study and the results of the replicated study to date. Abstract courtesy of the Centre for Justice and Peace Development, Massey University, http://justpeace.massey.ac.nz.

McCold, Paul. Evaluation of a Restorative Milieu: Replication and Extension for 2001-2003 Discharges

The Community Service Foundation and Buxmont Academy operate eight school-day treatment programs, 16 residential group homes, a home and community supervision program and an intensive drug-and-alcohol treatment supervision program in southeastern Pennsylvania for adjudicated delinquent and at-risk youths. All of these programs utilize what are broadly termed "restorative practices." This researcher has coined the term "restorative milieu" because the culture comprised of many formal and informal restorative techniques and processes, not just isolated formal restorative justice interventions. This paper reports on the replication and extension of a previous evaluation, with a second wave of 858 day treatment discharges during school years 2001-02 and 2002-03. The original finding of a significant reduction in reoffending for youths participating three months or more in a CSF Buxmont Academy restorative environment was replicated with a new cohort of youths and was still evident for the original cohort at two years following discharge. (excerpt)

Samuels, Fae Ernestine. The Peer Mediation Process in Secondary Schools

The purpose of this study was to investigate the practice and the impact of peer mediation in eight secondary schools. This research is the first to investigate peer mediation in secondary schools. In doing so, it sought to give the peer mediators and other students a "voice." The students explained the peer mediation process, the effects on their personal lives, relationships, school climate and families. The thirty-three participants of the study include eight mediators, two disputants, two non-disputants, six students who refused mediation, seven teachers, one non-teacher and seven administrators. Three students refused to be interviewed. All student participants were eighteen years of age when interviewed. The method employed is qualitative. A personal interview was conducted with each mediator and disputant to investigate what happens during the mediation process, their satisfaction with the process and the impact it is having on them and the school community. Teachers, coordinators of the peer mediation programs and administrators were also interviewed individually to get their perception of the program's impact on the mediators, disputants, other students and the school climate. Data gathered were analysed in four stages. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and the categories and themes were identified and sorted. The findings indicate that peer mediation provides one of the best opportunities for creating peaceful schools. The study is significant because it verifies and brings to the forefront ten issues that are important to the field of peer mediation and conflict resolution. Author's abstract.

McGrath, Jim. Restorative Practices in Education: Managing Challenging Behaviour. Evaluation Report for Southend-on-Sea Restorative Practices Project, September 2003 – July 2004

The Southend Family Group Conference Project has established itself as a core service within the Borough in the short period that it has been in operation. The introduction of Restorative Practices has further strengthened its reputation as a proactive and forward thinking service. This evaluation was a study of the first forty-eight restorative conferences to be held in the piloted Southend schools. The aim of this research is to establish the Projects success in implementing the process and the effectiveness of Restorative Practices when used to challenge unacceptable behaviour. (excerpt)