Leaders' Voices in the Field

• In Event: 54.021 - Alternative Ways for Improving Student Outcomes: A Restorative Approach to Teaching, Learning, and Leading

Abstract

It’s not out of reach to state that narrow discipline policies like zero tolerance have contributed to the growing “discipline gap” that is affecting the future of our nation’s youth, especially our most underserved. Students of racial and ethnic minority are punished in larger numbers than their white counterparts; thus, U.S. schools have created a school-to-prison pipeline by overemphasizing punitive measures, rather than seeking out restorative measures, such as restorative justice. This presentation is an amalgam of 4 school leaders’ voices, telling their stories of healing, justice and the pursuit of empathy within their school communities. Leaders share the effects of restorative justice and how it impacts student learning; how it connects students to their school via the practice of community circles; how it restores self-image for a group of middle school boys of color; and, how it works to prevent violence by responding to trauma through care and guidance rather than marginalizing urban youth with severe situations that threaten their ability to learn and thrive. These unique narratives create a voice in a space where it is absent. These voices reason for positive, restorative measures to be undertaken in order to onramp disenfranchised students back onto pathways of academic and personal success.

Authors

• Chris Carr, Alliance Simon Technology College Ready Academy

• Omar Reyes, Alliance Simon Technology College Ready Academy

• Jeanne Sesky, California State University - Dominguez Hills

• Amen Rahh, LAUSD