Restorative Practices Implementation and Evaluation in U.S. K–12 Schools: A Systematic Literature Review

• In Event: Sunday Roundtable Session 1:15 pm
  In Roundtable Session: Restorative Approaches for Supporting School Community, Climate, and Culture (Table 11)

Abstract

Despite preliminary findings that suggest students and teachers have positive experiences with Restorative Practices (Gregory, 2021; Skrzypek et al., 2021; Garnett et al., 2022) and that, in some contexts, the number of out-of-school suspensions decreased (Rainbolt, 2019; Gregory & Evans, 2020), in other contexts, not only did implementation of Restorative Practices not improve racially disproportionate discipline, in some cases the disproportionality worsened (Davison, 2022).
In this paper, I explore how Restorative Practices is being implemented in U.S. k-12 schools, and then I interrogate the research methods being used to evaluate Restorative Practices implementation. I argue that, with notable exceptions, the majority of reviewed articles describe implementation and research methodology that do not reflect the philosophies and principles of Restorative Practices.

Author

• Laura Fittz Parks, Fort Lewis College