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Norwood Elementary, a Title I science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) school in Baltimore County, MD, recently realized that traditional behavior management programs and processes were not working with our students. Over time, we discovered more successful approaches, and restorative practices became our way to transform the culture and climate to one of enduring peacefulness, persistence, grit, and compassion. The data below helps prove we are on the right track.
This past school year, our behavior interventionist kept track of the following trends and documented the numbers. We then analyzed this data:
* 55% decrease in office referrals;
* 49% decrease in time missed from instruction;
* 55% decrease in physical aggression;
* 97.7% of students feel safe in school; and
* Over 20,000 minutes back in classroom compared to last year.
We asked ourselves the following questions:
* Do restorative practices change behavior?
* Do restorative practices foster a peaceful culture in a school?
* Can we improve in the area of behavior management using restorative practices?
THE RATIONALE
Norwood STEM Program is an innovative, 21st century, restorative-practice school. Norwood is a Title I school with a diverse population of 520 students. The families want better for their children and support the academic program. The children want to go to college because of our many connections with Towson University.
The challenge for our community was the switch to restorative practices in place of rewards and punishment. We are a school try- ting to make a difference for our population, one that is lasting and has effects beyond the walls of our schoolhouse. Many parents, teachers and students have fixed mindsets on traditional behavior management. These are hard to change, but at Norwood we are starting to change mindsets. Our students are immersed in a collaborative community of problem solvers. We embrace mistakes as a natural part of child development and provide a toolkit of resources through our character education programs. Furthermore, we do not believe in teaching character in isolation, but we infuse it throughout the curriculum, school day and every possible aspect of our culture. Students collaborate daily, working in small groups in the classrooms to build relationships. The teachers work on building relationships with our parents and students. We work hard to...