Standards for School-Based Peer Mediation
Peer mediation can be a successful approach to facilitating student-centered, negotiation- based management and resolution of interpersonal conflict in schools. Such programs provide a unique opportunity for diverse students to use communication, human relations, and problem-solving skills in real-life settings. Effective programs help to create a safe and welcoming school environment and can assist in reducing school conflicts and violence and improve interpersonal and inter-group relations, especially when part of a comprehensive violence prevention plan. The qualities that mark an effective peer mediation program include youth empowerment, cultural competence, diversity, responsiveness to the specific needs of the population it serves, fair resolutions to student conflicts, and measurable outcomes.
The Education Section of the Association for Conflict Resolution (ACR) organized a project to update and significantly expand the older Recommended Standards for School-Based Peer Mediation Programs, originally published in 1996 by the Standards Committee of the National Association for Mediation in Education (a forerunner of ACR). The Education Section convened the Peer Mediation Standards Committee to complete this project. This committee has drawn upon diverse practitioner knowledge and relevant research to set forth the components necessary to develop and sustain an effective peer mediation program. Their final document, entitled Recommended Standards for School-based Peer Mediation Programs is now available as a pdf.
