1. Impacts of Whole School Restorative Practices on Environmental and Student Outcomes in Saint Paul Public Schools
- Author
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Saint Paul Public Schools (SPPS), Kara Beckman, Miles Davison, Amy Gower, and Barbara J. McMorris
- Abstract
The purpose of this study was to evaluate implementation of a whole school restorative practices model in Saint Paul Public Schools, Minnesota. Their model aims to embed practices to develop equitable relationships, engage students in learning, and respond relationally to behavioral concerns over a three-year period. The evaluation followed three cohorts of students in seven schools (4 elementary, 2 middle, and 1 high school) and included two quasi-experimental designed (QED) impact analyses and an analysis of implementation fidelity. The first QED was a school-level analysis focused on disproportionality in discipline outcomes, using a comparative short interrupted time series design with six treatment schools and a matched comparison group of 12 schools (N = 9,629 students). Outcome measures were school-level differences in dismissal and office discipline referral rates between White students and specific student groups of color (i.e., Black and Multiracial Black, Latinx, and American Indian/Alaskan Native students). The second QED was a longitudinal comparison of student-level attendance and discipline outcomes pre and post-implementation, with N= 5,043 students clustered within seven treatment schools and 14 matched comparison schools. Evaluation of fidelity was conducted on the seven schools that implemented restorative practices. Findings from the first QED showed that implementing restorative practices resulted in reduced disproportionality in differences in school-level dismissal rates between Black/Multiracial Black students and White students. The gap between Black and White student dismissals in treatment schools was reduced by an average of 0.021 dismissals per student more than the gap reduction observed in comparison schools (p = 0.02). No statistical evidence was found for differences between treatment and comparison schools for other analyses. For the second QED, no statistical support for improvements in student attendance and discipline was found, although the difference in dismissal rates between students attending restorative practice schools and comparison schools (1.6% vs. 1.0%) may have practical significance and is congruent with results from the first impact study. Fidelity results showed that treatment schools collectively met study thresholds for two of two core training components in year 1, one of four training and implementation components in year 2, and three of four training and implementation components in year 3. Higher levels of fidelity in year 3 indicate preliminary evidence of the minimum levels of program adherence needed to begin to impact school-level outcomes, such as reduced disproportionality in dismissal rates found in the first impact study. This study contributes promising evidence of whole school restorative practices' potential to reduce disparities in exclusionary discipline. Further research is needed to determine whether higher fidelity thresholds or longer periods of sustained implementation could have greater impacts on school-level and student outcomes. [This report was produced by the University of Minnesota's Healthy Youth Development -- Prevention Research Center.]
- Published
- 2024