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Article Edits: Restorative Justice, Adding more information on schools and its impact on student growth and learning.

Restorative justice

Restorative Justice in Public Schools

Restorative Justice in Higher Education

a.	According to a research review done in February of 2016 by West Education (an educational research non-profit) they found that instating restorative justice models of student discipline have a positive impact on many facets of the school experience such as school discipline, attendance and absenteeism, academic outcomes and school climate. i.	For example, among a class of 6th graders in a Texas school, during the first year restorative justice was introduced there was an 84% drop in out-of-school suspensions and a 19 % drop in ALL suspensions as a whole. And in the visual behind me you can see the various student discipline drops throughout schools across the country. ii. West Ed also states that punitive and exclusionary approaches to address absence and truancy can actually prevent youth from reengaging with school and in turn, increase their likelihood of engagement with the justice system. Implementing restorative justice models have been shown to balance this fact and improve attendance where a 50% percent reduction of absenteeism happened in the first year and tardiness decreased about 64%. iii. What may be the selling point for you are the effects restorative justice has on academic outcomes for students. Even though a lot goes into how a student performs academically so it is hard to gauge if restorative justice plays a big part in it, West Ed collegues reported a sizeable gain in graduation rates for schools implementing restorative justice compared to non-restorative justice schools. Over the course of 3 years post-implementation, cumulative graduation rates rose 60% in schools where restorative justice was present where in non-restorative justice schools it only rose about 7%. iv. Lastly and what I find most important is its effect on school climate. Again, it may not be something that can be tangibly measured because everyone views school climate differently. But I believe that a positive school climate can have the biggest effect on how students learn and engage with resources at school. Ed West and colleagues after their research noted that 70% of staff reported an improved overall school climate after the first year of implementation. b.	These are all important things to keep in mind and why I believe instating restorative justice models of student discipline can have a broader impact on schools as a whole.