ERIC EJ1082779: Empathy, Equity, Empowerment: Using Restorative Practices to Build Character and Community While Reducing Suspensions

2015·0.1 MB·English

by  ERIC

Empathy, Equity, Empowerment: Using
Restorative Practices to Build Character and
Community While Reducing Suspensions
Christopher Martin
A middle school science teacher in Denver, As a new teacher, this system seemed
Colorado, finds success using restorative approach- logical and was very similar to what
es that focus on empathy rather than punitive I experienced as a student in my own
childhood. Many students willingly
zero-tolerance school discipline policies.
complied with the system, but those
who did not were never really sup-
Ib egan my career as a science
ported or helped to work through
teacher at a public charter school.
whatever was the underlying impedi-
We were small in size, and the staff
ment to their success. Those who
were all very new to the profession.
struggled with academics or behavior
The school was built around a model
were viewed negatively and whisked
of behavior management that was
away. The “problem” was the family’s
punitive. Staff would enter merits
– or the next school’s – to resolve.
and demerits in a computer system
that tracked and communicated this Reflecting on my first school’s disci-
information to administration, pline policy, I realized that the school
students, and families. Students was actually operating out of fear and
performing within the expected compliance rather than trust, positive
performance band were celebrated and relationships, or a sense of community.
those dropping below a certain status Luckily, my experience in this building
were eventually suspended or expelled was short. I don’t necessarily blame
from the building. For some students the staff or administration, as they
this system was effective, but the may have simply been operating within
students who struggled to meet a system that was familiar or that had
expectations were rarely able to catch functioned well in other contexts.
up, and most ended up being pushed Nevertheless, an opportunity to
out of the school. more equitably serve and support
the students and greater community
was missed.
Christopher Martin has taught science at Skinner Middle School in Denver, Colorado, for eight years.
14 Annenberg Institute for School Reform
Fast-forward a few years, and I found someone who was using the method
myself working for Denver Public with fidelity in my own teaching.
Schools at Skinner Middle School. Admittedly, I was barely aware of it.
Located in North Denver, we are a I thought of it as an isolated technique
traditional Title 1 middle school; about that the restorative practices coordina-
70 percent of our children are a racial tor used when students were sent to the
minority (primarily Hispanic). Our discipline office. The times when I did
leadership and community have attempt restorative approaches, I held
worked tirelessly to make Skinner a on to my anger and frustration about
place our neighborhood is willing to what had happened in the situation,
send their kids. We pride ourselves in and this prevented me from sincerely
serving all of our students’ needs by facilitating or participating in a
offering art, drama, music, sports, restorative conversation. Seeing
language, and student leadership students come back to class and make
opportunities, among a host of other the same behavior choices after a
ways to connect with the world. restorative conversation did not help
to convince me of the effectiveness of
For a number of years before I arrived,
restorative approaches.
Skinner not only struggled to attract
and keep a student body, but also was Throughout this first year at Skinner,
not able to engage our community or I would send students to the discipline
grow its students academically. As office and check in on them. Witness-
recently as the early 2000s, we had to ing the deep processing through which
plead with families to send their our restorative practices coordinator
students to us. Instead, families bussed guided students was impressive, but
their students across town to schools I still found myself asking why restor-
with better records and reputations. ative approaches weren’t working for
All this has changed, and Skinner is on me. Also, why did the process not seem
a continued upward trajectory to move to have an immediate effect on altering
from good to great. behavior for the positive? I was still
skeptical of restorative approaches,
We acknowledge that one of the
but it would soon all come together
greatest agents of change in our new
and start to make sense.
positive perception and status in the
community has been the caliber of The policy, systems, structures, rituals,
citizen produced by Skinner Middle and routines at Skinner Middle School
School. This is in no small way due to are all very intentional and informed
our use of restorative approaches, through data work, feedback from our
which focus on building, maintaining, community, and our school’s annual
and repairing relationships among all needs assessment. At the end of each
members of a school community. Data year, our staff complete a thorough and
from 2007 to 2014 show that while pointed questionnaire meant to inform
enrollment nearly doubled from 300 to everything we do around our systems
600 students, incidents of out-of-school and policy. Empowered with this data
suspension were cut from just under and feedback, each summer our
300 to approximately 50 per year. prevention and intervention work-
group meets for a potluck nearly every
During my first year in the district,
week to discuss which of our policies
I was honestly a bit overwhelmed with
and systems work and which ones need
new content and found myself back
to be refined.
in survival mode. While the school’s
policy was to use restorative approach- In the summer before my second year
es to discipline, I personally wasn’t at Skinner, I joined this work group,
Christopher Martin VUE 2015, no. 42 15
and that’s when I really began to proaching conflict resolution. Empathy
understand how and why restorative is the basis of how we interact with
approaches work and just how much it each other; and it seeps into everything
has helped us turn the school around. we do at Skinner Middle School.
By having an opportunity to pause
Skinner is proud to share that we
over the summer and think about my
have gained positive attention for our
practice and the restorative approaches
implementation of restorative ap-
philosophy, I began to understand
proaches. Families take notice and
what I was hoping to get out of
comment on the new abilities their
students. It was clear that I wanted
students have to act with empathy.
students’ behavior to fall within a
Beyond our community, we have also
continuum of appropriate behavior,
received accolades at the district level
but did I want them to perform out of
for our use of restorative approaches.
fear or because they truly care about
We were identified by Denver Public
each other? Did I want our future
Schools as a model for other schools to
generations to live their lives in fear of
reference for best practices. Padres y
“
Jóvenes Unidos and the National
Education Association are even using
us as a case study to further under-
stand our effectiveness.
Did I want our future generations to live All of our staff have been trained to
“ use restorative approaches indepen-
their lives in fear of breaking laws, or to be
dently in our classrooms and
throughout the building. The fidelity
empowered with knowledge, empathy, and
of this process is reinforced through
role-play activities and the use of our
awareness to be strong enough to make
prevention and intervention manual,
which is the product of our summer
the right choices?
meeting sessions used to refine and
then define everything we do at
Skinner. It covers everything from how
students enter the building and dress
code questions to how teachers will
approach a restorative conversation.
breaking laws, or to be empowered
When we encounter incidents of behav-
with the knowledge, empathy, and
ior in need of redirection, we first seek
awareness that are necessary to be
to warmly redirect. If behaviors
strong enough to make the right
continue or are at the point of needing
choices, no matter who is watching?
a pause or removal from the class-
Restorative approaches were the
room, students are asked to take a
means to achieving this empathy and
break and complete a refocus form.
empowerment, and I became fully
We use a buddy teacher’s classroom as
invested in using them for the follow-
a place to provide a temporary break
ing school year.
from the environment and invite an
Before launching into how restorative opportunity to reflect. The form
approaches function in our building, it consists of a series of five questions
is best to provide some context. The designed to help students use empathy,
restorative approach isn’t just a thing think about what happened, and take
that we do; instead, it is a whole responsibility for making things right:
mindset and systematic way of ap-

16 Annenberg Institute for School Reform
What happened? implementation, it starts to make
sense. Layer the refocus with addition-
Who was affected?
al support and reinforcement from our
What are you able to take restorative practices coordinator, dean
responsibility for? of students, and dean of culture, and
you begin to understand that this is a
What could you have done
multi-tiered system of support. These
differently in this situation?
staff support students through empa-
What are you willing to do to thetic thinking when they experience
make things right? escalated conflict. Peer-to-peer conflict,
peer-to-staff conflict, student-to-family
Before returning to class, the buddy conflict – all of these situations are
teacher or original teacher has a quick addressed with restorative practices.
processing conversation to assess the Even the most severe behavior
student’s readiness to return to class. incidents require a restorative conver-
If the quality of their thinking demon- sation, and this shows our students
strates a thorough, empathetic that empathy and understanding the
reflection, they are ready to rejoin the impact of one’s actions is something
learning environment. Start to finish that defines Skinner Middle School.
the refocus should take less than ten
minutes and reinforces Skinner’s In addition, as part of our intentional-
mission of accountability to empathy. ity we embed events and activities
throughout our year that require
What the refocus process does not students to grow their skill levels in
guarantee is that mistakes in behavior awareness and empathy. Examples
choices will never happen again. include our Skinner Cares Day and the
Research shows that adolescent brains RESPECT program. Skinner Cares Day
are easily susceptible to peer influence, pauses academic instruction for an
and they may also be battling years of entire day in order to focus ourselves
conditioned behavior or be triggered inward. Differentiated at the grade
by traumatic life experiences. What level, staff facilitate activities and
the refocus can guarantee is that the scaffolded conversations on topics like
student has kept their dignity, he or bullying, race, and sexuality with the
she has been held accountable for their goal of developing deeper empathy and
actions, and that both the student and respect for one another. RESPECT also
the teacher now have an understanding pauses instruction as a small-group,
of how this behavior can be avoided in week-long class that heightens aware-
the future by different action steps. ness in social situations and provides
Since the student has kept his or her skills for students to safely and
dignity throughout, the incident is no expertly navigate future challenging
longer a power struggle between interpersonal situations.
teacher and student. It is about equity
for everyone. Each refocus offers an Most recently, our staff had the
opportunity for the student and teacher pleasure of continuing to learn how to
to, at minimum, maintain their better serve our students by participat-
relationship and oftentimes enhance ing in a Trauma Informed Systems of
it by coming together in sharing Care session. Hosted in our own
perspective. building, a regional expert helped staff
understand that much of what we iden-
At first glance, the refocus might not tify as undesirable student behavior is
seem impactful. However, when you actually a triggered response caused by
understand that its strength comes trauma in their lives. Trauma can
from the consistency of school-wide include food or housing insecurity,
Christopher Martin VUE 2015, no. 42 17
language or cultural barriers, abuse, At Skinner, we are continuing to grow
neglect, and bullying. Knowing what in how we learn to use restorative
might trigger a response from any one approaches, which are not designed to
person is impossible. But what we be a quick fix. Undesired behaviors in
learned from this training was that the the school setting are conditioned and
triggered responses can be mediated us- reinforced over years from students’
ing strong interpersonal relationships. previous experiences at school and
Strong interpersonal relationships are interactions with family and peers or
created and maintained through from values in our society. To build
empathy, which reinforces just how trust and relationships and to learn
important our intentional culture of new behaviors takes time and practice.
restorative approaches is to our My school’s success with restorative
successes at Skinner Middle School. approaches stems from investment and
support from staff in the process and
I am unendingly grateful for a fresh
the fidelity of our implementation. This
start, a new perspective, and a new
approach can be highly effective in
approach to developing student
supporting and empowering students,
conduct. My current building leaders
and staff, to act with intention and
and peers have been instrumental in
empathy, and our school is a model
helping me make a transformation
of what this can look like.
from someone who uses fear and
compliance as a management strategy For more on Skinner Middle School’s
to someone who uses compassion and restorative approaches, see http://
empathy to mold and model citizenship skinner.dpsk12.org/restorative-
in our student body. approaches/.
As the age of zero-tolerance school
discipline policies comes to an end,
punitive punishment and suspension
have been deemed ineffective. Behav-
iors don’t change without support.
Removing students from opportunities
to learn without taking time to repair
the hurt promotes isolation. This can
lead to the withdrawal and disenfran-
chisement in our school system of
those we are supposed to serve:
students and families. Worse still, as
students get caught in the punitive
discipline cycle, negative perceptions
of education are developed. As
students spend time out of class, we
further the achievement gap between
the haves and have-nots.
18 Annenberg Institute for School Reform