Impacts of Whole School Restorative Practices on Environmental and Student Outcomes in Saint Paul Public Schools

Abstract

restorative practices (WSRP) in Saint Paul Public Schools (SPPS), Minnesota. The SPPS WSRP model is an approach for developing equitable relationships, engaging students in learning, and positively responding to disciplinary concerns. District- and school-based restorative coordinators provided training, coaching and ongoing support to educators and students to build a restorative school culture, establish a relational learning climate and create systems of relational accountability. The evaluation of WSRP consisted of two quasi-experimental designed (QED) impact studies and an implementation fidelity study: • Impact Study 1 was a school-level study focused on disproportionality in discipline outcomes between subgroups of students. This QED utilized a comparative short interrupted time series (C-SITS) design with two cohorts of 6 WSRP schools and a matched comparison group of 12 schools. Outcome measures (derived from administrative data) consisted of school-level differences in dismissal rates and office discipline referral (ODR) rates between White students and specific student groups of color (i.e., Black and Multiracial Black, Latinx, and American Indian/Alaskan Native students). Statistical support was found for the primary confirmatory research question of whether WSRP would result in reduced disproportionality in differences in dismissal rates between Black/Multiracial Black students and White students. Results from the impact model showed that the gap between Black and White student dismissals in WSRP schools reduced by an average of 0.021 dismissals per student more than the gap reduction observed in comparison schools (p = 0.02). We did not find statistical support for exploratory questions focused on differences in exclusionary discipline rates for students from other racial and ethnic subgroups to those of White Students. • Impact Study 2 was a longitudinal comparison of student-level attendance and discipline outcomes pre and post WSRP intervention, with three cohorts of students clustered within 7 WSRP schools and 14 matched comparison schools. Outcome measures (derived from administrative data) were focused on attendance (i.e., student attendance rate, whether a student was chronically absent or not) and discipline (experienced an office discipline referral or not, experienced a dismissal or not) during a school year. Using hierarchical linear modeling (HLM), we did not find statistical support for the primary confirmatory question focused on attendance or exploratory research questions focused on other outcomes. However, we did note that difference in dismissal rates between students attending WSRP schools and students attending comparison schools is promising (1.6% vs. 1.0%) and congruent with significant results on dismissals from Impact Study #1. • The Fidelity of Implementation study was conducted in 7 participating treatment schools (4 elementary, 2 middle, and 1 high school) implementing WSRP during a three–year period. Treatment schools collectively met study thresholds for 2 of 2 core components in year 1, 1 of 4 core components in year 2, and 3 of 4 core components in year 3 of implementation.