How 'restorative practices' have transformed discipline at Worcester County schools
Worcester County's Pocomoke High School opened its doors as usual to 352 students on a bright but chilly Thursday last December. A mix of mellow pop hits played in the background, and students at the school made their way to their first-period classes, welcomed by staffers with smiles and hellos.
The scene in this small town in the southernmost part of Maryland's Eastern Shore clashed with the image of a modern high school rife with rifts and cliques. That's because the school welcomes all students and treats them with respect, Pocomoke senior Josie Stevens said.
'Every day I get to come in and everyone's already in a good mood,' said Stevens, who is active in the school's Marine Corps Junior ROTC program.
For Principal Jenifer Rayne, this positive environment is a result of the school's adoption of 'restorative practices,' a social science technique that downplays traditional discipline methods such as suspensions in favor of building meaningful relationships among students and teachers.
In Worcester County, restorative practices appear to be working. District officials credit restorative practices with creating an atmosphere that led to a 28% drop in violent incidents across all schools in the past year.
With a majority-minority population and 70% of the student body listed as economically disadvantaged by U.S. News & World Reports, Pocomoke High School is breaking academic odds. The school is currently tied for the highest graduation rate in Maryland, according to U.S. News & World Report rankings. The class of 2024 achieved a 100% graduation rate.
Rayne attributed the school's success to its collaborative culture.
'We don't need to feel like we have to protect ourselves here,' Rayne said. 'We feel accepted, and there is a community-wide goal, including the students, to make sure that our school stays a safe place.'
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Restorative practices are based on the principle that conflict impacts the school community as a whole, so it must be resolved by community-building measures.
Former Pocomoke High School Principal Annette Wallace led the integration of restorative measures into the school between 2012 and 2018.
All schools in the county have since implemented restorative practices, with many ramping up their effort in the past two years. The recent ramp-up included dozens of professional development days in the summer of 2023 for faculty and staff, who then introduced 'community-building circles' where students and teachers can discuss issues within each school.
The transition shifted the focus on discipline to a more situational approach, where troubled students are encouraged to talk their way through problems and repair what was harmed, whether it is another student's feelings or a physical object.
The new approach appears to have created a calmer atmosphere in the county's schools. During the 2022-23 school year, 432 violent incidents were reported in the district — while in 2023-24, there were only 285, according to Wallace, who now serves as chief safety and academic officer for grades 9-12 at Worcester County Public Schools.
There hasn't been a single fight reported in the fall semester at Pocomoke High School, according to Rayne.
Pocomoke High School was not the same place a decade ago. Wallace said the hallways were full of conflicts, and a student even punched a teacher in the face in 2010.
Rasheeda Collier, who graduated in 2009 and is now a restorative practices administrator at Pocomoke, laughed when asked how the school environment could have changed if these practices had been implemented when she attended the school. Collier recalled a different method of conflict resolution.
Suspension rates were high, and students weren't given the chance to explain their actions or discuss their deeper-rooted issues leading to misbehavior.
'It was a different time,' Collier said. 'They felt like suspension was more effective in punishment — versus now, we're looking at research and we're looking at data and we're looking at the outcomes. Suspension is not effective for children. Restoring, rebuilding, repairing, promoting empathy, compassion — that's a more effective purpose than suspension.'
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Collier now runs the LIFT — Learning Interventions for Transformation — classroom, where students who misbehave are referred. There, they discuss what they did wrong and how to move past it.
Suspensions are now rare at Pocomoke High School. Instead, students work with Collier in the LIFT classroom to discuss why they acted a certain way.
Students also set goals to help them break their pattern of negative behavior, Rayne said. These strategies can include self-regulation or self-control. Students check in with Collier for a period of time depending on the severity of their actions, and keeping those students in class is a priority.
'We're not doing hardcore punishment,' Collier said. 'We're doing a rebuilding process with them, which is important because (students) feel safe.'
Collier said these practices appear to prevent students from making the same mistakes twice. Pocomoke had 50% fewer students with multiple referrals for bad behavior from September through December than it did in the same period a year earlier, Rayne said.
'Our students are still able to learn, and they're actually able to grow in the area of social-emotional strategies,' Rayne said.
The school also offers conflict resolution circles — or restorative conferences — for students when they are involved in verbal or physical altercations with other students or teachers. These conflict resolution circles are led by a trained mediator and allow both parties to reflect on their roles in the problem and how they can move on from it.
Snow Hill High School junior Dai'Jon Johnson participated in a restorative conference after an altercation with a teacher. During the conversation, the pair realized their argument was a misunderstanding. They talked their way through their issues.
'I got what I had to say off my chest and the teacher did, too, and we all hugged at the end,' Johnson said. 'It was cool. … I feel like it really helps you see the other side of people.'
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Restorative practices involve much more than a reimagined approach to school discipline. They also get students and teachers talking in hopes of preventing disciplinary problems.
Classrooms use 'community-building circles' at least once a week to help students and teachers find common ground with differing emotions and experiences.
'Through positive relationship building, you build stronger character in your students,' Wallace said.
The circles offer students and teachers an opportunity to share their thoughts on the question of the day and interact through active listening.
'At first, I wasn't too keen on it,' said Stevens, the Pocomoke senior. 'I actually really do think it does help (keep) the classroom together, especially with our small classroom sizes in Pocomoke.'
She said students learn more about their peers' personalities through discussion questions such as: 'What superpower would you want to have?' or 'What are you doing for winter break?' These simple questions open space for students to connect.
'I like knowing more about the people around me,' Stevens said.
Kanye Reid, a junior at Pocomoke, said the circles offer a safe place for those who often don't speak up in class.
'For more personal questions as well, if you want to share, it offers a space … so you're not just stuck suffering in silence,' Reid said.
Teachers also benefit from community-building circles and discuss personal stories and facts they otherwise wouldn't have the chance to share. The circles humanize teachers and help students see their instructors as individuals who have their own set of passions and hardships, according to Snow Hill High School government teacher David 'D.J.' Draus.
'It pays off down the road when you go back to being a teacher and you're asking (students) to do some challenging things … they don't want to do as learners,' Draus said. 'You have to basically ask them to trust you … and you can't just build trust in students by being a teacher of content.'
The use of restorative practices is growing in the nation's schools — but not without some criticism.
The National Center for Education Statistics reported 59% of schools in their subject pool utilized restorative practices in 2022, up from 42% four years earlier. Parents Defending Education, a nonprofit designed to 'keep politics out of education,' reported 1,474 school districts nationwide participate in the practices.
Parents Defending Education claims restorative practices can lead to a lack of accountability for students involved in violent or disruptive behavior. The organization also raised concerns the practices could prioritize 'feelings' over actual consequences, which could halt learning.
The Delmarva Parent Teacher Coalition, a Salisbury parent-teacher group, agrees restorative practices help create excuses for a child's bad behavior.
'Restorative practices does reduce the number of suspensions, expulsions, arrests and juvenile referrals not because it's effective, but because it's designed to downplay, minimize and prevent reporting in the name of 'social justice,' ' editors wrote in a 2024 article called, 'Why School 'Restorative Practices' are Destructive.'
Members of the Delmarva Parent Teacher Coalition declined an interview request.
However, supporters of restorative practices said these criticisms may not be enough to discredit the work done at Pocomoke High School and other Worcester schools.
Wallace said for restorative practices to work, all students and staff must be on board.
'It's worth the time,' Wallace said.
Investing in students to provide conflict resolution strategies and promote community will help kids focus on staying in the classroom, she said. When conflict rates drop, students spend more time learning.
'Those are hours and hours of time our school administrators and our teachers got back with kids, and hours of time our kids got back in instruction,' Wallace said.
The talk-heavy approach intrinsic to restorative practices comes naturally to some, Rayne said. She said through ample training sessions and community investments, any educator can come to adopt — and appreciate — restorative practices.
'That's what happy humans do,' Rayne said. 'We're restorative.'
This article originally appeared on Salisbury Daily Times: Worcester schools turn to 'restorative practices' for discipline
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