Restorative Justice
Education news, analysis, and opinion about the school discipline alternative, which focuses on accountability and repairing harm
See also: Discipline
Restorative Justice in Schools, Explained
What is restorative justice, and how can it be implemented in schools?
Equity & Diversity
Opinion
The Effects of Unequal School Discipline Strategies
Guest blogger Amanda Ronan writes, "The harsh reality is that certain discipline practices are the reflections of institutionalized racism and outward discrimination against people of color and other underserved communities."
Equity & Diversity
Inside One School's Approach to Educating Young Black Men
The three-part audio series Raising Kings profiled a high school for young men of color in Washington, D.C., where educators devote as much time to meeting the social-emotional needs of their students as they do their academic needs. Here’s a deeper dive into some of the issues raised by the series.
Student Well-Being
Video
Psychologist Explains How Restorative Justice Works in D.C. High School for Young Men of Color
Charles Curtis is the psychologist at Ron Brown College Prep, a unique public high school in Washington, D.C. for young men of color. As a central member of the school's CARE team, Curtis is responsible for establishing and helping to carry out the school's unorthodox approach to student discipline: restorative justice. Curtis explains what restorative justice means in a school setting and why he believes it's essential for young black men, who disproportionately experience exclusion when they misbehave at school through suspensions and expulsions. Ron Brown--which has an intense focus on developing students' social-emotional skills and creating a culture where students feel safe physically and comfortable expressing themselves in the classroom--also emphasizes a college-preparatory curriculum. For the past year, Education Week's Kavitha Cardoza and NPR's Cory Turner visited Ron Brown weekly -- and some weeks, daily -- to witness the birth of this new school and to see how its staff tackles some of the toughest challenges in education. We spent hundreds of hours there, from the earliest days to the last bell.
Student Well-Being
Video
Raising Kings: A Year of Reporting Inside a High School for Young Black Males
For more than a year, Education Week's Kavitha Cardoza and NPR's Cory Turner reported on the birth of a new high school in Washington, D.C.: Ron Brown College Prep.
Equity & Diversity
Audio
'They Can't Just Be Average': Profound Academic Challenges in a D.C. School for Young Black Men
At Ron Brown, daunting academic challenges have become glaringly obvious as the school year gets under way.
Equity & Diversity
Audio
Let Brotherly Love Continue: An All-Male Public School Opens
As Washington D.C.'s first all-male public high school opens, 100 9th graders will experience a school grounded in love and empathy.
Student Well-Being
Video
Raising Kings: A Year of Love and Struggle at Ron Brown College Prep
This school is radically different because it's designed specifically to meet the needs of Washington D.C.’s young men of color.
Social Studies
Opinion
Repairers of the Breach
In a time of civic unravelling especially along partisan lines, how can we add a strong emphasis (and assessment dimension) on "civic repair" to every issue and organizing effort?
Social Studies
Opinion
Choice as a Catalyst Starts with Public Relationships
In a world where "informational" has replaced "relational" in education as well as everywhere else, we begin a democratic awakening by recalling and promoting public relationships.
Families & the Community
Opinion
Beyond 'Civics' Vs. 'Citizenship': Possibilities for Common Ground
The recent Making Citizens report is mistaken about the youth civic education initiative Public Achievement -- it reflects itself the mobilizing, good versus evil approach which has come to dominate public life in our time, the approach to politics it also decries. The debate has also illuminated possible common ground to integrate civics and citizenship education and move beyond binary thinking.
School Climate & Safety
Opinion
Beyond Polarization: Education for Civic Repair
It is an ineluctable dynamic that when one polarizes, one purifies. This means eliminating the complexity of "the other side" that one sees as the enemy. In my view this is a serious problem of the National Association of Scholars report, "Making Citizens." It collapses the vast diversity of the civic engagement movement into a left wing conspiracy undertaken with stealth and subterfuge. This is a caricature. Nonviolence as a philosophy brought together with repair of civic life points beyond today's polarization. We need a reawakening to nonviolence tied to repair of civic life.
Teaching Profession
More Teachers' Union Leaders Come Out Against New Student-Discipline Policies
Fresno and Des Moines teachers join educators in New York City and Indianapolis to charge that new student-disciplinary codes are resulting in unmanageable classrooms.
School Climate & Safety
Letter to the Editor
Commentary 'Parodies' Restorative Justice
To the Editor:
The Commentary essay by Richard Ullman ("Zero-Tolerance-Policy Overcorrection," Sept. 14, 2016) led me to empathize with the author's obvious frustrations and concerns about disruptive behaviors. However, he clearly misunderstands restorative justice/restorative practices, and so he ends up giving readers a parody of the actual philosophy and practice of these useful and now globally recognized processes.
The Commentary essay by Richard Ullman ("Zero-Tolerance-Policy Overcorrection," Sept. 14, 2016) led me to empathize with the author's obvious frustrations and concerns about disruptive behaviors. However, he clearly misunderstands restorative justice/restorative practices, and so he ends up giving readers a parody of the actual philosophy and practice of these useful and now globally recognized processes.
School Climate & Safety
Opinion
Restorative Justice: The Zero-Tolerance-Policy Overcorrection
Overreliance on "soft discipline" may reduce suspensions, but it doesn’t actually help students or teachers, writes Richard Ullman.
