Apr 05

Have you seen my day? How can I ever find the time to use restorative questions? March 21/23

Listen now to the podcast now on Circle Forum 

“I am so busy that I don’t have time for this! Besides, how can I use restorative questions during my busy day?” It’s one of the questions we often hear from educators. And schools are very busy places so setting an intention to make some small changes in your language and questions can make a big difference. Integrating questions like “What’s happening?” Or “What do you think?”  can invite better conversations. Simple.Practical.Effective. That’s what we like in a busy school!

Find out more about how to use restorative practices in lots of busy school settings. Send me a note to stan@restorative.ca

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Apr 05

Complex and severe student absenteeism requires a community response, it’s not just a school problem! March 7/23

Listen now to the podcast now on Circle Forum 

The most severe and chronically absent students need a community surrounding them to address the issues that impact their attendance. It’s not an easy thing to do yet is essential and can benefit from a restorative approach as you’ll hear in this week’s podcast CircleForum.

“To best meet the needs of students and families, some of the recipients have adjusted the tiers and processes for attendance improvement as a way to provide students and families the individual and needed support to ensure they are successful, feel valued and are connected to their school community. Communications and interventions at the school and district levels provide education to families via newsletters and attendance presentations to inform and empower parents and/or guardians. Community resources and partnerships further help mitigate the many barriers to attendance faced by students and families.” This program identifies and recognizes school attendance improvement programs that review chronic absentee data at the district or county level—outstanding and innovative programs that will serve as models for other SARBs in the state. For more information on effective practices, see the 2015 SARB Handbook“.California Student Attendance Review Board recognition program

“graduation from TCP(Truancy Court Program) was associated with improved attendance. Approximately half of 2008-2009 TCP participants graduated from the program after one or two semesters of participation. Thus, the program can be described as effective for about half the participants. Graduation from TCP appears to be the key to achieving improved attendance as 7 well as some behavioral benefits, but analysis of participant characteristics provided limited insight into factors affecting whether a participant graduated. Further study may lead to a better understanding of the participant characteristics and program ingredients that enable participants to succeed within and outside TCP. “Evaluation of the Truancy Court Program in Baltimore City

Find out more about how to use restorative practices in a community response to absenteeism. Send me a note to stan@restorative.ca

Mar 02

Research shows restorative practices has some positive effects reducing suspensions Feb.28/23

Listen now to podcast at CircleForum

By itself, restorative practices does not do it all! The research shows some positive change in reducing suspensions. The recommendations coming out of this research are worth a second look. Shelley, Steve and Stan discuss how the complexity involved with attendance, suspensions and achievement require complex responses.

“The authors examined a specific restorative practices program — the International Institute for Restorative Practices’ SaferSanerSchools™ Whole-School Change program — implemented in a selected group of PPS schools under a program called Pursuing Equitable and Restorative Communities, or PERC. The researchers found that PERC achieved several positive effects, including an improvement in overall school climates (as rated by teachers), a reduction in overall suspension rates, and a reduction in the disparities in suspension rates between African American and white students and between low- and higher-income students.” Can Restorative Practices Improve School Climate and Curb Suspensions?

Find out more about how to use restorative practices in a whole school approach. Send me a note to stan@restorative.ca

Check out our free resources at www.restorative.ca

Music by Skilsel from Pixabay

Mar 02

Research says social-emotional learning and character development lowered absenteeism by 15% and suspensions by 72% Feb 21/23

Listen now to podcast at CircleForum

Student achievement and attendance are improved by the non-academics of social emotional learning and character education. Using a restorative lens, Shelley, Steve and Stan discuss the many positive in this program, things like interactive discussions.

“Using school-level archival data, analyses comparing change from baseline (2002) to one-year post trial (2007) revealed that intervention schools scored 9.8% better on the TerraNova (2nd ed.) test for reading and 8.8% on math; 20.7% better in Hawai‘i Content and Performance Standards scores for reading and 51.4% better in math; and that intervention schools reported 15.2% lower absenteeism and fewer suspensions (72.6%) and retentions (72.7%). “

Impact of a social-emotional and character development program on school-level indicators of academic achievement, absenteeism, and disciplinary outcomes: A matched-pair, cluster randomized, controlled trial

Find out more about how to build a Tier 2 interventions for student social-emotional learning. Send me a note to stan@restorative.ca

Check out our free resources at www.restorative.ca

Music by Skilsel from Pixabay

Mar 02

Research says understanding the behavioural message of the absentee student can improve attendance. Feb 14/23

Listen now to podcast at CircleForum

To say that attendance is complex is to state the obvious. Shelley , Steve and Stan discuss how a restorative process can develop student voice, parent voice and a fair process in addressing student attendance. One size does not fit all so it’s important to determine the reasons behind the attendance behaviour. A circle process which has great questions and focusses on listening goes a long way.

“School absenteeism (SA) is associated with anxiety, depression, and disruptive behavior. It is a risk factor for academic difficulties and school dropout, which predict problems in adulthood such as social, work-related, and health problems. The main goal of this study is to examine the initial effectiveness of a modular transdiagnostic cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) intervention (Back2School) for increasing school attendance and decreasing psychological problems, relative to a comparator control arm (treatment as usual [TAU]).”

The Back2School modular cognitive behavioral intervention for youths with problematic school absenteeism: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

Find out more about how to build the Tier 2 interventions for students at risk and reduce chronic absenteeism . Send me a note to stan@restorative.ca

Check out our free resources at www.restorative.ca

Music by Skilsel from Pixabay

Mar 02

Research says early weekly alerts to parents increases student attendance in middle and high school Feb 7/23

Listen now to podcast at CircleForum

Using Restorative Practices, communication with middle school and high school parents is all about building a partnership relationship with school and home. The research on these early and timely ALERTS shows improvement in student attendance. From our perspective, it adds to good conversations and connections.

“ABSTRACT We partnered a low-cost communication technology with school information systems to automate the gathering and provision of information on students’ academic progress to parents of middle and high school students. We sent weekly automated alerts to parents about their child’s missed assignments, grades, and class absences. The alerts reduced course failures by 27 percent, increased class attendance by 12 percent, and increased student retention, though there was no impact on state test scores. There were larger effects for below-median GPA students and high school students. More than 32,000 text messages were sent at a variable cost of $63.

Find out more about how to build the partnership connections with parents and reduce chronic absenteeism . Send me a note to stan@restorative.ca

Music by Skilsel from Pixabay

Feb 07

Research indicates a curriculum connected to students improve achievement and attendance – Jan. 31/23

Listen now to Circle Forum 

Each person in a school plays a role in student attendance. Teachers can do something by connecting the curriculum to relevant issues and topics in the lives of their students. Research says that students feel more confident in their learning when the curriculum is frequently connected to their lives which in turn IMPROVES ACHIEVEMENT AND ATTENDANCE!

“The results indicated that students randomly assigned to either utility value intervention, compared to the control condition, subsequently became more confident that they could learn the material, which led to increased course performance. The utility value interventions were particularly effective for the lowest-performing students. Compared to those in the control condition who showed a steady decline in performance across the semester, low-performing male students randomly assigned to the utility value conditions increased their performance across the semester. “ Making Connections: Replicating and Extending the Utility Value Intervention in the Classroom

Find out more about how to connect the curriculum to students’ lives and to reduce chronic absenteeism and send me a note to stan@restorative.ca

Check out our free resources at www.restorative.ca

Music by Skilsel from Pixabay

Feb 07

Harvard study shows reduced absenteeism by 10% or more with personalized communication with parents – Jan 24/23

Listen now to Circle Forum 

“No way my child has missed that much school already!” Parents underestimate the number of days missed by a factor of 2. A relational approach to communicating with parents is firm and fair not punitive. Provide parents with the data AND with the support is part of the conversation this episode with Shelley, Steve and Stan

“Parents of 28,080 high-risk Kindergarten through 12th grade students received one of three personalized information treatments repeatedly throughout the school year or received no additional communication (control). The most effective versions reduced chronic absenteeism by 10% or more, partly by correcting parents’ biased beliefs about their students’ total accumulated absences. The intervention reduced student absences comparably across grade levels, and reduced absences among untreated cohabiting students in treated households.” Reducing Student Absences at Scale by Targeting Parents’ Misbeliefs

Find our more about how to build in relational connections with parents to reduce chronic absenteeism and send me a note to stan@restorative.ca

Check out our free resources at www.restorative.ca

Music by Skilsel from Pixabay

Feb 07

Attendance improves with Positive Greetings at the Door , a low-cost, high yield strategy – Jan.17/23

Listen now to Circle Forum 

Simple and proactive and doable! These are things we appreciate about the research on positive greetings at the door(PGD) “Results revealed that the PGD strategy produced significant improvements in academic engaged time and reductions in disruptive behavior. Moreover, results from a social validity questionnaire indicated that teachers found the PGD strategy to be feasible, reasonable, and acceptable. “Positive Greetings at the Door: Evaluation of a Low-Cost, High-Yield Proactive Classroom Management Strategy It works AND teachers could fit this into their day! Our restorative reflections in this episode resonate with the proactive welcoming, the building of a sense of belonging and the relational importance of affirming our students.

Find our more about how restorative circles and relationship building in your school can affirm students and impact their attendance, send me a note to stan@restorative.ca

Check out our free resources at www.restorative.ca

Music by Skilsel from Pixabay

Feb 07

Research which shows that serving breakfast after the bell can reduce student absenteeism by an average of 6% – Jan.10/23

Listen now to Circle Forum 

We love research and data that supports initiatives to reduce student absenteeism. In this episode we do some restorative reflections on this Tier 1 intervention that is good for all. Moving a breakfast program into the school day promotes conversations and community for students and staff.

“The study found that Breakfast After the Bell programs can help reduce chronic absenteeism and improve other student outcomes.  This research reinforces that school breakfast can very much be intertwined with student success in schools” A Study on Chronic Absenteeism and. Breakfast After the Bell

Find our more about how restorative practices and relationship building in your school can impact student attendance and send me a note to stan@restorative.ca

Check out our free resources at www.restorative.ca

Music by Skilsel from Pixabay