Students were yanking each other's hair out while brawling in the school's corridors and cafeteria, and administrators couldn't figure out how to make the violence stop.

 

So they called in Boyes-Watson, a sociology professor at Suffolk University in Boston, to train students and teachers in a conflict-resolution practice known as restorative justice. Drawing from Native American traditions, the concept uses ritualized dialogue to try to mend broken communities. Participants gather in circles to try to resolve problems through discussion, rather than retribution.

 

Across the country, more and more schools are turning to restorative justice as they realize that traditional disciplinary measures - suspensions and expulsions - often don't deter misbehavior, but can instead set troubled students up for failure by further disengaging them from school.  Complete article.

 

What Works Clearinghouse Intervention Report: Fast Track

 

The What Works Clearinghouse issued an Intervention Report on the Fast Track: Elementary School program.  This report provides an overview of the Fast Track program, which is a multi-tiered approach to decreasing conduct problems and increasing academic and social-emotional development.  This report compiles research and effectiveness summaries of Fast Track, and the findings meet the What Works Clearinghouse standards for children classified as having an emotional disturbance.  Access summary and full report.