Purpose: The purpose of this project is to develop the BASICS intervention, which merges student advocacy and self-advocacy with teacher and administrator use of restorative practices to create classrooms and schools where students, especially students most vulnerable to peer victimization, feel comfortable advocating for their own and others' emotional safety. Peer victimization increases in the middle grades and often leads to disengagement from school and long-term negative effects, including low educational attainment and socioeconomic status. Students who identify as Black, Native American, transgender, non-heterosexual; who have a disability; or are English Learners are disproportionately affected by peer victimization, subsequent disengagement from school, and its long-term negative effects.

Project Activities: The project team will further develop and adapt to middle school contexts the Advocatr, a mobile app allowing students to report positive as well as negative behaviors affecting themselves or others, developed with funding from the National Institute of Justice, and professional development in multi-tiered restorative practices developed with IES funding. In Year 1, the research team will work with a design team consisting of middle school teachers and administrators and a student focus group to guide initial development. In Year 2, they will test the intervention's feasibility, and in Years 3 and 4 they will test its promise to reduce peer victimization, improve school engagement, and increase school staff's ability to implement restorative practices.

Products: The project will result in a mobile app designed for middle school students to advocate for their and others' emotional safety, and a professional development training curriculum focused on integrating restorative practices with multi-tiered student support systems. Findings from the development and testing of the intervention will be shared in peer-reviewed publications, conference presentations, and through the project website.

Structured Abstract

Setting: The study will take place in urban and rural middle schools with racially diverse enrollment in Oregon.

Sample: Initial development will occur with a design team consisting of middle school personnel (n = 8) and a student focus group comprising students from racial and gender minorities, who have a disability, or who are English learners (n = 10). Feasibility testing will occur with all staff in 1 school, 4 early adopter teachers, 1 early adopter administrator, and 120 students in Oregon. The pilot study will occur with 10 schools, all staff, 40 early adopter teachers, 10 early adopter administrators, and 6000 students in Oregon.

Intervention: The intervention consists of a student and a staff component. The research team will further develop the existing Advocatr app to meet the support needs of middle school students and make it accessible to English Learners, as well as adapt the Advocatr curriculum to middle school contexts. They will further develop staff training materials to increase staff capacity to (a) promote students' willingness and ability to advocate for their own and others physical and emotional safety, and (b) respond to student concerns in a non-punitive and restorative manner. Teachers and administrators who are early adopters will receive intensive follow-up training and coaching.

Research Design and Methods: In Year 1, the researchers will use formative research to collect qualitative data from school personnel and students. In Year 2, they will conduct a single group pre-post design to assess the feasibility of the intervention. In Years 3 and 4, they will conduct a small-scale randomized wait-list controlled trial with 10 schools (5 intervention, 5 control) to assess the promise of the intervention to achieve change on the key measures. Control Condition: During the pilot study, the researchers will randomly assign schools to either intervention or control condition. The control schools will initially conduct business as usual and gain access to the intervention during the last year of the project.

Key Measures: Key student outcomes include use of and satisfaction with the Advocatr app, and self-report of victimization and aggression, relationships with teachers, and school engagement. School staff measures include use of restorative practices within a multi-tiered continuum, relationships with students, and implementation fidelity. School level measures include student attendance, discipline, and academic achievement.

Data Analytic Strategy: The team will use qualitative data analysis to develop the intervention in response to stakeholder feedback. During feasibility testing, they will use descriptive statistics as well as simple analysis of variance to examine differences from pre to post in a single group design. During the pilot study, they will use nested random coefficients analysis to evaluate the impact of the intervention on the identified key outcomes, the moderating effects of student and teacher demographics, and the relative contribution of each intervention component to changes in student outcomes.

Cost Analysis: The researchers will assess direct costs, capital costs, and intangible costs associated with the intervention and compare it to costs associated with business as usual.

Related IES Project: Positive and Restorative Investment in Discipline Reform in Education (PRIDE): Integrating School-wide Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (SWPBIS) and Restorative Discipline (RD) (R305A170631).