Giving Compass' Take:

• Two more extensive research studies by the RAND Corporation show that mixed results of the benefits of restorative justice practices. 

• What methods should educators try next if restorative justice practices are insufficient at curbing school discipline issues?

• Read more about the two RAND studies that focused on restorative justice. 

Many educators rapidly embraced something called “restorative justice,” a set of practices that originated in the criminal justice sector in the 1970s to help victims and offenders reconcile or come to some sort of agreement on reparations.

Early research seemed promising. Developers of  “restorative justice” programs described how “talking it out” yielded benefits, such as a reduction in bullying and fighting, lower suspension rates and fewer missed days of school. Sometimes, early adopters even claimed that student achievement improved. But the studies tended to be small, and they tracked only what happened to students who participated in the program without comparing them to similar students who didn’t participate. No studies could prove that the restorative justice programs were causing any of the positive changes that the advocates had noticed.

At last, more sophisticated research has been commissioned, and the results are starting to trickle in. For proponents of restorative justice, the first two studies are not especially promising with both failing to show clear benefits for these non-punitive approaches to student discipline. Academic achievement fell for some students who were exposed to restorative justice compared to students at schools who were disciplined as usual. Implementation problems were common.

Both studies were conducted by RAND Corporation, a research firm, which randomly assigned schools in the city of Pittsburgh and the state of Maine to try restorative justice practices.

In the Pittsburgh study, published in December 2018, suspension rates fell at the 22 schools that tried restorative justice. But suspension rates also fell at 22 comparison schools in the city that didn’t adopt restorative justice, echoing the dramatic decline in suspensions across the nation.

In surveys, teachers at the schools that tried restorative justice said that their school climate improved. But students reported that teachers struggled more to manage classroom behavior.

Read the full article about research falters on restorative justice by Jill Barshay at The Hechinger Report.