Fix School Discipline Toolkit for Educators | Page 36
What does Restorative
Justice look like at the
district level?
David Yusem, OUSD Restorative Justice
Program Manager
Our overarching goal is to create an environment
where suspensions and expulsions are reduced
and students graduate. Our targeted goal, under
the Voluntary Resolution Plan, is to eliminate
racially disproportionate discipline of our AfricanAmerican students. In order to achieve these goals,
we are working together to implement a variety of
alternatives, including RJ. Since RJ is a philosophy,
and not a program, it looks different at different
schools. Currently, there are 27 total in various
stages of RJ implementation. Using Oakland Fund
for Children and Youth funding from the City of
Oakland, we have placed peer RJ coordinators at 8
middle schools. Some of those people also act as
whole school RJ Coordinators. However, at some of
our schools, RJ coordinators are often a counselor or
support person that also is tasked with supporting
the school in implementing RJ.
Because retributive punishment is ingrained in the
fabric of our society, RJ is a large culture shift. When
people think of consequences, they usually think of
punishment and it is hard for them to get past the
perception that RJ is soft. In fact, it is much harder
for a student to be accountable for something he or
she has done and seek to repair the harm. It is harder
to sit with the harmed student or school community
member and acknowledge that you harmed that
person. It also takes time to build community, but,
of course, it is time well-spent. Regularly sitting in
circle affords us the opportunity to get to the root of
unwanted behavior. Certain behaviors are actually
coping mechanisms for trauma. So a lot of behavior
seen as “willful defiance” is actually an attempt to
deal with external issues. Harmed people harm other
people. If we address the root of the behavior, then
we can stop the cycle of harm.
I am also currently collaborating with our other
initiatives, African-American Male Achievement
and social emotional learning units. RJ also works
very well with the Social Emotional Learning(SEL)
34 How we can fix school discipline
approach. In an RJ circle, students and adults are
passively exercising and honing SEL skills – such
as empathy, decision making, social awareness and
self-regulation. As students master these skills, they
can sit in a circle effectively and discuss curriculumspecific topics and SEL topics, such as “What does it
mean to be a good friend?”
In OUSD, RJ is proving to be very effective with
engaging students, reducing violent incidents,
suspensions and expulsions, and creating a positive
school climate overall. We have students asking
for circles instead of fighting with each other. They
understand that RJ is not a top down punitive model
and their voices will be heard. However, we have a
long way to go too. This work is leading to a districtwide culture shift, which is going to take many years,
starts and stops, and successes and failures.
Crunching the Numbers: Does it Work?
RJ implementation in OUSD schools has helped
to narrow the gap in discipline between AfricanAmerican and white students. From 2011 to 2014,
OUSD schools using RJ decreased the differences
in suspension rates for African-American and white
students from a 15% difference to a 10% difference,
while at a similar non-RJ schools in the district, the
gap remained the same.
RJ has also had significant, positive impacts on
student achievement and engagement in Oakland.
From 2010-2013, high school dropout rates at RJ
high schools in the district decreased by 56%, while
non-RJ high schools had a 17% decline. Four-year
graduation rates in RJ schools increased by about
60% in the three years after the program was started,
compared to 7% for non-RJ schools. The percent of
ninth graders who are proficient readers increased by
128% at RJ high schools, compared to 11% in non-RJ
high schools.”1
Feel free to contact us:
Oakland Unified School District
David Yusem, Program Manager
[email protected]
1 Oakland Unified School District,”Restorative Justice in Oakland
Schools: Implementation and Impacts” (2015), available at www.ousd.
k12.ca.us/restorativejustice