Improving Discipline Disparities Through Restorative Practices Implementation and Evaluation: Highlighting Tensions in Developing Implementation Measures

• In Event: AERA Poster Session 12
  In Poster Session: Issues in Contemporary Program Evaluation in Schools

Abstract

As schools nationwide implement restorative practices (RP), it is critical to understand the implementation process in order to evaluate the success of RP at improving discipline disparities among marginalized students. This paper will highlight a research-practice partnership, focusing on evaluating RP implementation and processes, between a university and local school district. Within this multi-year community-based participatory action research project (CBPR), the need for negotiation in the development of research instruments that authentically represent community needs emerged as a unique study outcome. This paper will discuss the partnership between the university and school district, describe RP instruments developed, and conclude with a call to researchers engaged in CBPR to complicate dominant perceptions of quantitative reliability and validity.

Authors

• Bernice Raveche Garnett, University of Vermont

• Mika Moore, The University of Vermont

• Tracy Arámbula Ballysingh, University of Vermont

• Eliaquin Gonell, University of Vermont