A Cluster-Randomized Trial of Restorative Practices: An Illustration to Spur High-Quality Research and Evaluation

ABSTRACT

Restorative practices in schools lack rigorous evaluation studies. As an example of rigorous school-based research, this article describes the first randomized control trial of restorative practices to date, the Study of Restorative Practices. It is a 5-year, cluster-randomized controlled trial (RCT) of the Restorative Practices Intervention (RPI) in 14 middle schools in Maine to assess whether RPI affects both positive developmental outcomes and problem behaviors and whether the effects persist during the transition from middle to high school. The 2-year RPI began in the 2014–2015 school year. The study’s rationale and theoretical concerns are discussed along with methodological concerns including teacher professional development. The theoretical rationale and description of the methods from this study may be useful to others conducting rigorous research and evaluation in this area.

Funding

This research was supported by a grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R01# 1HD072235).

Notes

¹ Tools and work plans are available upon request from IIRP (http://www.safersanerschools.org).

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by a grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R01# 1HD072235).

Notes on contributors

Joie D. Acosta

Joie Acosta, PhD (Community and Cultural Psychology, University of Hawaii at Manoa) is a Senior Behavioral Scientist at the RAND Corporation. She specializes in research focused on the implementation and evaluation of prevention and health promotion programs in the areas of mental health, suicide prevention, and public health. Over the past year, she has served as the principal investigator of the national study of restorative practices and as a co-PI on two large-scale randomized controlled trials testing an implementation support intervention to improve the quality of mental health promotion programs for adolescents.

Matthew Chinman

Matthew Chinman, PhD (Clinical/Community Psychology, University of South Carolina) is a Senior Behavioral Scientist at the RAND Corporation. His focus has been to develop strategies to build the capacity of community-based practitioners to adopt and successfully implement evidence-based practices and programs. As such, he co-developed Getting To Outcomes® (GTO), a model and implementation support intervention designed to help community organizations to better plan, implement, and self-evaluate programs across a number of domains.

Patricia Ebener

Patricia Ebener, BS (Social and Behavioral Relations, Johns Hopkins University) is a senior researcher and survey director at the RAND Corporation. Her focus has been on the study of capacity building with community-based practitioners to adopt and successfully implement evidence-based practices and programs. She has directed data collection for a number of evaluations of Getting To Outcomes® (GTO), a model and implementation support intervention designed to help community organizations to better plan, implement, and self-evaluate programs across a number of domains.

Andrea Phillips

Andrea Phillips, MEd, is a Senior Project Associate at the RAND Corporation with expertise in education policy, policy analysis, program evaluation, and project management. Currently, her research is focused on implementation of large-scale innovative reform efforts, college and career readiness in rural schools, randomized controlled trials of algebra software, summer learning programs, school climate, and alternative transportation to get students to and from school safely. Prior to RAND, she taught middle school in Washington, DC and led school reform efforts in response to intervention, school climate, and data driven decision making.

Lea Xenakis

Lea Xenakis, MPA, is a Project Associate at the RAND Corporation. Her approach to research includes mixed methods, combining qualitative and quantitative methods. She has participated in over 20 program evaluations, systematic reviews, and randomized controlled trials covering topics from stress and anger management to complementary medicine for chronic pain.

Patrick S. Malone

Patrick S. Malone, PhD (Social Psychology, University of Texas) is a staff researcher at the RAND Corporation, Senior Research Scientist at Duke University, and partner and senior consultant at Malone Quantitative. His research focuses on innovative quantitative methods for research in social sciences and behavioral public health, with a particular focus on topics in child and adolescent development.

Note: The authors report that, to the best of their knowledge, neither they nor their affiliated institutions have financial or personal relationships or affiliations that could influence or bias the opinions, decisions, or work presented in this article.