Restorative Justice Practices and the Persistence of Racially Disproportional School Discipline

 

Background and Purpose:

In recent years, national attention has been brought to the high and disproportional suspension rates across U.S. K-12 schools. Multi-tiered relationship-building interventions such as restorative justice practices have been used to reduce school suspension rates. While studies suggest that restorative practice reduce overall school suspensions, racially disproportional school suspensions persist. To understand why disproportionality often remains, this study examined the intervention process across case-study teachers for a 9-month period at an urban high school. Specifically, this study asks, (1) will the case-study school decrease its racial disproportionality in school exclusions during the intervention year compared to the pre-intervention year? Secondly, how do restorative practices influence relationship building? And third how do restorative practices influence discipline outcomes? The purpose of this study was to understand the relational and procedural intervention mechanisms that reduce overall school suspension while racial disproportionality persists.

Methods:

A mixed-methods approach was used to analyze secondary school suspension data, intervention instrument data and participant interviews. Pre-intervention school suspension data from the 2014-2015 academic year were compared with 2015-2016 intervention year data at an urban school in Western Pennsylvania. Black (41%) and White (36%) students accounted for most students enrolled (n=1,518). Descriptive statistics, risk-ratio’s and logistic regression for school suspension data across both years were computed. Secondly, systematic classroom observations (n=31) across four teachers were conducted using the instrument RP-observe. This instrument was used to score the quality of restorative practices “circles” facilitated. Finally, ten interviews and one focus group was conducted among educators, administrators, security officers and one school social worker. Using NVIVO 11, themes were developed through an iterative process yielding the following emergent themes: facilitators of restorative practices, barriers to restorative practices and educator discipline ethos

Results

As exhibited in school suspension literature, overall suspensions decreased during the intervention year while racially disproportional suspensions remained. Holding Black males as the reference group and controlling for IEP eligibility and free lunch status, Black males had a significant greater odds of suspension in comparison to Asian males (OR = .377, p<. .001), Asian Females (OR = .107, p<. .001), White Males (OR = .517, p<. .001) and White females (OR = .319, p<. .001) during the intervention year. Moreover, within gender analysis indicate that the discipline gap was greater between Black girls and White girls compared to Black Boys and White boys. RP-Observe instrument data indicate that circle quality fell within low-to-mid range scores. This corresponds with qualitative findings that suggest that barriers such as lack of time, lack of quality circle discussions and lack of buy-in impacted how restorative circles were facilitated.

Conclusions and Implications:

In conclusion, this study reflected previous work that suggests that restorative practices can reduce overall suspension but not racially disproportional suspensions. Findings from this study indicate that the implementation process lacked fidelity and therefore had a limited impact on discipline disparities. Suggestions for an intersectional approach to restorative practices are discussed.