Building a Positive Behavior Framework through Restorative Practices
First Presenter's Institution
The Restorative Group
First Presenter's Brief Biography
Dr. Benjamin “Ben” Lester currently serves as the Director of Restorative Community Schools and as a restorative coach/consultant with The Restorative Group. Prior to his role with The Restorative Group, Ben was Director of Student Services for a metro-Atlanta school system serving 42,000 students and 6,000 employees across 40 schools and centers. Ben led a district-wide social and emotional learning initiative focused on five core areas: access, opportunity, and cultural competence; positive behavioral framework; mental health and suicide prevention; trauma-informed practices; and staff well-being and self-care. Over the past 20 plus years, he has been a teacher, a professor, an administrator, and an educational coach utilizing restorative practices.
Second Presenter's Institution
Cherokee County School District
Second Presenter’s Email Address
robert.shaw@cherokeek12.net
Second Presenter's Brief Biography
Dr. Robert Shaw currently serves as an Administrator on Special Assignment leading and supporting school counselors, social workers, and a student health and behavior wellness initiative. In the past he has served in a variety of school-based administration across multiple districts in Georgia.
Third Presenter's Institution
Cherokee County School District
Third Presenter’s Email Address
tara.quinn-schuldt@cherokeek12.net
Third Presenter's Brief Biography
Dr. Tara Quinn-Schuldt currently serves as a Student Support Specialist and provides district-level support the a student health and behavioral well-being initiative. She is a former social worker with experience in mid-west and in multiple districts in Georgia.
Fourth Presenter's Institution
Cherokee County School District
Fourth Presenter’s Email Address
debra.murdock@cherokeek12.net
Fourth Presenter's Brief Biography
Dr. Debra Murdock currently serves as in the role of Chief Operations Officer leading the Office of School Operations. Dr. Murdock previously served as a high principal and earned the honor of Principal of the Year.
Document Type
Event
Primary Strand
Restorative Practices
Relevance to Primary Strand
Restorative practices are an integral part of the Cherokee County School District's initiative CCSD C.A.R.E.S. - Cultivating Achievement, Resiliency, and the Empowerment of Students. CCSD C.A.R.E.S. aims to support student health and behavioral well-being across five core areas: access, opportunity, and cultural competence; positive behavioral framework; mental health and suicide prevention; trauma-informed practices; and staff well-being and self-care.
Alignment with School Improvement Plan Topics
Climate and Culture
Brief Program Description
What if discipline could be reimagined and restored? “Consequences with a conscience” is a restorative discipline approach that aims to change behavior through establishing, feeding, and restoring relationships. This session will provide an overview of a multi-year strategic approach to developing a positive behavior framework through virtual and job-embedded coaching of restorative practices.
Summary
The current generation of K-12 students are living through a time of unprecedented disruption and change to the child/adolescent developmental experience. This disruption is a result of a variety of factors primarily driven by technological advancements and the COVID-19 global pandemic. Many students have an unreconciled feeling of isolation and discontent often manifested as maladaptive or detrimental behaviors. Additionally, these feelings have resulted in students lacking a sense of belonging and connection. As a means to meet the needs of this challenge, one metro-Atlanta district decided it had to take a different approach to discipline, code of conduct infractions, and consequences. Restorative practices challenge traditional approaches to discipline solely based on broken rules and punitive consequences and, instead, focuses on identifying harm and the repair of relationships. Mindset and hearset change can be difficult. However, by focusing on equity, applied neuroscience, social and emotional learning skills, trauma-informed practices, and restorative practices, individual and organizational transformation can happen.
“Consequences with a conscience” is a restorative discipline approach that aims to change behavior through establishing, feeding, and restoring relationships. The district has implemented a multi-year strategic plan to develop a positive behavior framework through virtual and job-embedded coaching of restorative practices. The virtual coaching includes six three-hour sessions on foundational restorative practices. In the following academic year, schools receive multiple onsite job-embedded coaching sessions with a restorative coach. This presentation will discuss the development/implementation of this strategic plan, the core skills and strategies that are taught, and how to replicate this in other districts.
Evidence
Research suggests that implementation of restorative practices results in a variety of benefits to individual students and to the greater school community. Among these benefits, improvements at the school level focus on inclusive school climates, improved discipline, and positive conflict management. At the individual level, the research demonstrates improvement in social and emotional learning skills as well as interpersonal relationship skills (Lodi, E., et. al., 2022). Empathy is the foundational skill consistent with all forms of restorative transformation (Maynard and Weinstein, 2019). One district’s restorative journey in building a positive behavior framework was based upon this research.
Learning Objective 1
Identify foundational restorative practices
Learning Objective 2
Understand how to change fixed mindsets related to discipline and consequences
Learning Objective 3
Develop a strategic plan for implementing a positive behavior framework
Recommended Citation
Lester, Ben, "Building a Positive Behavior Framework through Restorative Practices" (2023). Southeast Conference on School Climate. 49.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/secsc/2023/2023/49
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Building a Positive Behavior Framework through Restorative Practices
The current generation of K-12 students are living through a time of unprecedented disruption and change to the child/adolescent developmental experience. This disruption is a result of a variety of factors primarily driven by technological advancements and the COVID-19 global pandemic. Many students have an unreconciled feeling of isolation and discontent often manifested as maladaptive or detrimental behaviors. Additionally, these feelings have resulted in students lacking a sense of belonging and connection. As a means to meet the needs of this challenge, one metro-Atlanta district decided it had to take a different approach to discipline, code of conduct infractions, and consequences. Restorative practices challenge traditional approaches to discipline solely based on broken rules and punitive consequences and, instead, focuses on identifying harm and the repair of relationships. Mindset and hearset change can be difficult. However, by focusing on equity, applied neuroscience, social and emotional learning skills, trauma-informed practices, and restorative practices, individual and organizational transformation can happen.
“Consequences with a conscience” is a restorative discipline approach that aims to change behavior through establishing, feeding, and restoring relationships. The district has implemented a multi-year strategic plan to develop a positive behavior framework through virtual and job-embedded coaching of restorative practices. The virtual coaching includes six three-hour sessions on foundational restorative practices. In the following academic year, schools receive multiple onsite job-embedded coaching sessions with a restorative coach. This presentation will discuss the development/implementation of this strategic plan, the core skills and strategies that are taught, and how to replicate this in other districts.
