Previous Award Number: R305A170197
Previous Awardee: IRIS Media, Inc

Co-Principal Investigator: Girvan, Erik

Purpose: Researchers built on completed pilot work to develop modules introducing teachers to restorative practices, and initial data supporting the modules' acceptability, teachers' increased use of restorative practices, positive changes in Latino students' perceptions of school climate, and reduced disciplinary disparity. Specifically, researchers further developed the positive and restorative discipline curriculum, developed a fidelity of implementation measure to assess the extent to which the curriculum is implemented at the school and classroom levels and identified the active ingredients related to reduced racial disparities in discipline. They also generated a feasibility and usability analysis and demonstrated the promise of the curriculum's effectiveness to improve student perceptions of classroom climate, decrease racial disparities in discipline, and improve academic achievement for traditionally underperforming groups.

Project Activities: The project team completed an iterative development process and then tested the promise of the intervention in a pilot test. This iterative process first involved focus groups to develop socially valid materials for all school stakeholders. Then, early adopters tested the intervention independently at their schools and completed surveys. This process was repeated until a moderately high rating of feasibility and utility was achieved. Finally, a pilot study was conducted as a small-scale randomized control trial through the use of surveys and observation tools to determine the effectiveness of the intervention on student discipline, academic outcomes, and social-emotional wellbeing.

Key Outcomes: The main features of the intervention and findings of the project's pilot study are as follows:

• The main features of the School-wide Positive and Restorative Discipline (SWPRD) professional development intervention for high school teachers are restorative strategies teachers can use to promote trusting relationships with and among students (Vincent, McClure, Marquez, & Goodrich, 2021).
• Results of feasibility testing with three schools indicate that school staff value the quality of the training. Staff reported increased use of positive behavior support and of restorative practices. Although early adopters of the intervention reported increased self-efficacy, student and parent perceptions of school climate showed little change (Vincent, Inglish, Girvan, Van Ryzin, Svanks, Springer, & Ivey, 2021).

Structured Abstract

Setting: The study took place in high schools in rural and urban Oregon.

Sample: Initial development occurred with focus groups comprising 4 administrators, 14 teachers, 11 parents, and 11 students. Feasibility testing occurred with 12 high school teachers and 85 students. The pilot study occurred with 72 high school teachers and 2552 students from 16 schools.

Intervention: The School-wide Positive and Restorative Discipline (SWPRD) intervention includes print and video materials for administrators, teachers, and students. The administrator materials focus on raising schoolwide awareness of implicit bias and using data for decision making. The teacher materials focus on strengthening positive relationships through restorative practices including affective statements, affective questions, active listening, reframing, and using proactive circles. The student materials focus on building and maintaining social capital and problem solving.

Research Design and Methods: In the first phase of the project, researchers solicited feedback on initial drafts through the convening of four focus groups consisting of individuals with various levels of expertise in restorative discipline practices and from various stakeholder groups which allowed the researchers to determine the social validity of the intervention. In the second phase, selected schools received the various modules of the intervention to implement at the school. After this implementation, teachers and administrators were asked to complete the staff survey which included open-ended items to allow for suggestions for changes. Researchers repeated this cycle until the participants gave at least a moderately high rating of feasibility and utility. In the final phase of the study, schools and teachers in the intervention condition were given access to the curriculum and coaching. Surveys and observation tools were used to assess the outcome measures.

Control Condition: During the pilot study, researchers randomly assigned schools to intervention or control condition. The control schools initially conducted business as usual and gained access to the intervention during the last months of the project.

Key Measures: Primary measures included student discipline outcomes (office referrals, suspensions, and expulsions), student academic outcomes (performance on curriculum-based measures and state achievement tests), students' perception of relationships and procedural justice, and teacher sense of efficacy with restorative practices.

Data Analytic Strategy: Researchers first used focus group data to develop the intervention in response to practitioner and expert feedback. During feasibility testing, they used descriptive statistics as well as a simple analysis of variance (ANOVA) to examine differences across student racial/ethnic groups. During the pilot study, researchers tested the effectiveness of the intervention using a three-level linear model whereby students are nested in classrooms which are nested in schools.

Project Website: https://pride.obaverse.net/

Products and Publications

ERIC Citations: Find available citations in ERIC for this award here.

Selected Publications:

Vincent, C.G., McClure, H.H., Marquez, B., and Goodrich, D. (2021). Designing Professional Development in Restorative Practices: Assessing High School Personnel's, Students', and Parents' Perceptions of Discipline Practices. National Association of Secondary School Principals Bulletin, 105(4): 250–275.

Vincent, C.G., Inglish, J., Girvan, E., Van Ryzin, M., Svanks, R., Springer, S., & Ivey, A. (2021). Introducing restorative practices into high schools' multi-tiered systems of support: Successes and challenges. Contemporary Justice Review: Issues in Criminal, Social, and Restorative Justice, 24(4): 409–435. https://doi.org/10.1080/10282580.2021.1969522