Giving Compass' Take:

• Don Spangler and Crystal Cubbage highlight the work of Building 21, a non-profit that uses restorative practices to help students in Philadelphia.

• How can we make sure these practices are benefiting students in marginalized communities? Are you prepared to support non-profits that are bringing such methods to schools in your community?

• Learn about another way to tear down disparities in discipline towards students of color.

Based in Philadelphia, Building 21 is a non-profit that partners with school districts and communities to design, launch, and operate innovative schools. We also work with schools and districts that are transitioning to competency-based education through our affiliate model.

David Sparrow, B21 Director of Behavioral Health, who leads the schools Restorative Practices initiatives, came to the school after years of experience at a Wilmington, DE school for youth who had been removed from their home schools for disciplinary reasons. “It was a tough school,” Sparrow recalls, but this was primarily because almost every student had some form of mental health diagnosis, had grown up in a high poverty community, and had experienced trauma that contributed to his or her behavioral issues. Eager to learn more effective approaches for these students, Sparrow and a colleague attended workshops at the International Institute for Restorative Practices (IIRC), where they witnessed firsthand how restorative practices can transform even the most challenging schools.

The use of restorative practices “calls for everyone in the building to be restorative towards another, not just staff and students,” says Sparrow. “It’s across all relationships in the building and involves all school and community stakeholders.”

B21 started by providing professional development in restorative practices for teachers and administrators during its Summer Institute, as part of faculty meetings prior to the beginning of school, and then through regular professional development sessions during the school year.

“Eighty percent of restorative practices is just about cultivating healthy and productive relationships,” says Sparrow. “The human relationship has to come first. You’re not here to teach math, you’re here to teach math to young men and women.”

Read the full article about restoration practices by Don Spangler and Crystal Cubbage at Getting Smart.