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The Relationship Centered Schools (RCS) campaign seeks to transform schools by creating opportunities for relationship-building, valuing student voice, and investing in staff. The experiences of two RCS sites in California shed light on factors that enable or hinder relationship-centered practices as well as implications for practice and policy.
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Restorative practices are a set of approaches designed to build community in schools, teach interpersonal skills, repair harm when conflict occurs, and meet students’ needs to prevent misbehavior. Research shows restorative practices improve student outcomes and school climate.
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There is widespread agreement that addressing physical safety threats students may encounter at school should be a priority. But how this can best be accomplished is hotly debated. A new study reveals that some popular approaches can have unintended consequences.
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Not all school safety strategies are effective, and some can lead to unintended consequences. Existing research sheds light on the evidence base for two very different approaches to school safety and efficacy on creating safe schools.
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Across the country, many schools have adopted restorative practices in an effort to improve school climate and student outcomes while reducing exclusionary discipline. Restorative practices improve students’ academic achievement and decreases suspension rates and disparities.
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Fremont High School in Oakland, CA, is among the many schools seeing benefits from adopting restorative practices in place of exclusionary discipline policies such as suspensions and expulsions, which disproportionately impact students of color and students with disabilities. Since implementing these policies, Fremont has reduced suspension rates and increased enrollments.
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Exclusionary discipline (suspension and expulsion) increases risks of student misbehavior, dropout, and incarceration—and Black students are 4 times more likely than White students to experience such discipline. An alternative to exclusionary discipline, restorative practices address root causes of misbehavior and can improve academic, disciplinary, and school climate measures and reduce racial disparities.
Melanie Leung-GagnéJennifer McCombsCaitlin ScottDaniel J. Losen
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Research shows that exclusionary discipline practices like suspensions and expulsions are ineffective at improving school safety and deterring infractions, may have a long-lasting negative impact on students, and disproportionately affect students based on their gender, race, school level, and disability status.
Dion BurnsDaniel EspinozaJulie AdamsNaomi Ondrasek
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In California, the approximately 47,000 students who live in foster care face complex educational challenges. This report sheds light on the needs, characteristics, and outcomes of California students living in foster care and promising practices to better support them, including enhancing effective coordination and collaboration among agencies; building trusting relationships in schools; and providing targeted social, emotional, and academic services.
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Following the school shooting in Uvalde, TX, there have, once again, been calls for armed teachers or security officers in schools. But research shows that more guns don’t make schools safer. Instead, there are three evidence-based strategies for increasing school safety: gun controls, reporting of warning signs, and school-based social-emotional and mental health supports.
