Raising the Bar: Measuring Restorative Practices
Gaye M. Lang, Ed.D.&Danita Bailey–Samples, Ph.D.
Abstract
Schools across the nation often engage in unequal discipline practices that result in increased suspensions and expulsions for students of color. Data collection from schools by the U. S. Department of Education illustrates this problem. “Black students are suspended and expelled at a rate three times greater than white students. On average, 5% of white students are suspended, compared to 16% of Black students” (U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights, 2014). Practices that purport to be discipline often marginalize students of color. Fortunately, however, schools across the country have begun to use Restorative Discipline Practices (RDP) as a means to change the disproportionate out-of-school and in-school suspensions of African-American students that result from inadequate and ineffective discipline practices.