CRE Admins Blog
The 1st Report to the Nation on Youth Courts and Teen Courts Now Available
Posted by GIRC on Sep 30, 08
Global Issues Resource Center announces the availability of the 1st Report to the Nation on Youth Courts and Teen Courts (MS Word doc). This national report documents significant highlights and events over a fifteen (15) year period of unprecedented and historic growth of this groundbreaking American juvenile justice prevention and intervention program that utilizes volunteer youth to help sentence their peers.
The report begins in 1993, when fewer than seventy-five (75) local youth and teen courts existed in just about a dozen states. The report concludes fifteen (15) years later in 2008, when more than a record 1,000 local communities in 48 states and the District of Columbia now operate these local juvenile justice programs. Historic numbers of youth and adults are now involved, as more than 111,868 juvenile cases were referred to local youth and teen courts and more than 133,832 volunteers – to include both youth and adults who volunteered to help with the disposition and sentencing of these juvenile cases. The report is written and researched by Scott Bernard Peterson and Jill Beres.
Why Do So Many Teachers Quit the Profession?
Posted by CR Ed on Sep 15, 08
Clearly, the belief of the folks at CREducation.org is that classroom conflict is a problem for new teachers, and one that contributes to the high number of teachers that leave after just 2 or 3 years in the classroom.
A recent article in Good Magazine provides a glimpse into this problem with short interviews with seven teachers who struggled and left teaching (or relocated).
For more details on the current state of teacher retention, this 2006 Washington Post article “Half of Teachers Quit in 5 Years” provides a quick summary.
Revisiting the School-Based Violence Prevention Debate?
Posted by CR Ed on Sep 03, 08
Administrators new to the field of conflict resolution may be interested in reviewing a debate that occurred back in 1993-94 regarding the role and effectiveness of school-based violence prevention and conflict resolution programs. The debate was played out in the journal Health Affairs. To see the articles in question, try this link to their archives search tool.
We’ve come a long way since then in terms of research and sophistication in program design and delivery, but it is interesting to review the issues in a historical perspective.
New Catalog Item added on Conflict Resolution for Special Needs Students
Posted by CR Ed on Apr 27, 08
Administrators may want to take a look at a new resource posted to our catalog entitled Creating Harmony in the Classroom: Building safe and inclusive classrooms for special populations. The 231-page manual developed with support from FMCS is designed “to assist teachers with building an inclusive and safe classroom for all students, including special needs, deaf, and visually impaired youth.” Includes chapters on building self-awareness in students, enhancing student’s problem-solving skills, mediation in school settings, evaluting conflict resolution education programs and a chapter on resources.
Public Videos on Peer Mediation are Growing
Posted by CR Ed on Mar 22, 08
With the growth of YouTube as a medium of expression and information sharing, we are also seeing it used to promote Peer Mediation activity. Here are some examples that might inspire creative content producers at your school.
Romeo High School in Michigan (RHS) Peer Mediation Video (8:37) This video pulls together various clips from a High School mediation program, including providing evidence of increased awareness about the program. Nicely done.
Also, see this informative report on the program available as a pdf. It includes statistics on the program and sample materials used by the student mediators.
More Peer Mediation Club Activities at RHS (6:12) This video shows more of the activities the peer mediation students do interacting with other schools in the district.
Peer Mediation (better than a Light Saber Battle to the Death?) (3:37) This humorous student-produced video promotes peer mediation in their school.
Los Angeles Dispute Resolution Services (DRS) Peer Mediation Video (10:55) This video documents some systemwide activities in Los Angeles County.
Hoku Kubota Peer Mediation Training (a Hawaiian School) (2:00)
This video provides a quick glimpse at a mediation training happening in a Hawaiian school, giving a sense that mediation is happening “all over” the world.
For an even more international feel, check out this video on a college peer mediation program in the Netherlands. Hope you speak Dutch!
Peer Mediation op College De Brink 2008 (in Dutch!) (8:58)
NYC Ombuds Report Notes Inadequate Support for Conflict Resolution in NYC Schools
Posted by CR Ed on Mar 05, 08
A February 2007 report issued by the NYC Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum notes that “the DOE is not doing enough to ensure that conflict resolution training and services are supported in city schools.” This conclusion is based on a survey of 158 administrators designed to glean administrators’ perspective on DOE school safety policies, including the degree to which those policies cultivate an atmosphere conducive to teaching and learning. The survey also asked administrators for the rates of incidents and superintendent suspensions in their schools during the 2004-2005 and 2005-2006 school years. Finally, the survey asked administrators about the number of teachers in their schools who had received conflict resolution training and the degree to which conflict resolution training and programming is a part of day-to-day life in their schools. The full report, entitled Between Policy and Reality: School Administrators Critical of Department of Education School Safety Policy, is available online. A primary concern is that there has been a shift away for social-emotional learning and conflict resolution education and toward a policing and “get tough” policy despite explicit support for CRE.
As noted in the report, “The New York City Department of Education’s Citywide Standards of Discipline and Intervention Measures state that ‘[a]dministrators, teachers, counselors, and other school staff are expected to engage with students, including students with disabilities, in intervention and prevention strategies that address the student’s behavioral issues...and family circumstances: social/emotional learning, such as conflict resolution/mediation/negotiation...’. To this end, the DOE offers voluntary conflict resolution professional development training for teachers and administrators. Additionally, the state provides various funding streams for complementary programming, such as the Violence Prevention and Extended Day grant.”
A couple of key findings related to teacher training in Conflict Resolution:
98 percent of high school administrators report that no teachers, or just “a few”, in their schools have received any conflict education and/or resolution training.
82 percent of administrators at all levels report that no teachers, or just “a few”, have received conflict education and/or resolution training.
The Report cites New York University Professor of Education Pedro Noguera’s warning that, “[s]chools that rely on security guards and metal detectors to create safety may end up creating an environment that is so repressive that it is no longer conducive to learning.” Referring to the success of community policing initiatives, Prof. Noguera asserts that safety is “ultimately a by-product of social relationships and from the willingness of the members of a community to look out for each other and hold one another accountable.”
The Public Advocate’s office followed up with a second study of conflict resolution service providers. The report from this study, released in May of 2007 is entitled Conflict Unresolved: DOE Fails to Recognize What Works in School Safety and Student Achievement. A quick review of this study is posted in our Researcher’s Blog.
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