James Huguley, Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and colleagues from the Schools of Social Work, Education, Medicine, and The Pittsburgh Study at Children’s Hospital, have been awarded a $3 million dollar grant from the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) for the Just Discipline Project. The IES grant, under the Transformative Research in the Education Sciences Grants program, supports innovative or unconventional research that has the potential to lead to new scientific paradigms, novel and more effective approaches to education practice or policy, or transformative technologies that substantially increase learner outcomes. In addition to Dr. Huguley, the scientific team includes Dr. Ming-Te Wang (School of Education), Debby Moon (School of Social Work), and Kaleab Abebe (School of Medicine and The Pittsburgh Study).
Alternatives to exclusionary discipline like restorative practices are sorely needed in education, yet rigorous examinations of restorative practice effects have largely been inconclusive. Scholars and practitioners have noted that restorative practices often falter due to a lack of adequate staffing and training mechanisms, yet fully supported models have not been rigorously tested. In response, the Just Discipline and Effective Restorative Practices study will assess the effectiveness of the program’s innovative model that uses a full-time restorative practitioner and youth leaders in the school to lead restorative method programming and to provide in-house training and expertise for teachers.
The study also advances the field by including a robust implementation study and a cost-benefit analysis conducted in over 10 elementary schools serving approximately 3,500 students. In a second wave, the study will consist of a fully powered cluster randomized trial across 40 elementary schools.
Dr. Huguley notes, “Our interdisciplinary team is very excited to carry out this work with our community partners. This study will produce first-of-its-kind information on whether an adequately supported restorative practice model can impact both disciplinary and academic outcomes, and do so in ways that reduce inequality in education.”
The Institute of Education Sciences, a part of the U.S. Department of Education, is the nation's leading source for rigorous, independent education research, evaluation and statistics.