Conflict Resolution Education - National Criminal Justice Reference ...

In 1994, staff teams from seven alternative and
two middle schools with a high percentage of atrisk
students received training in the PEF Conflict
Resolution model. Postintervention surveys
showed that students significantly changed their
attitudes toward conflict after learning the PEF
model. Students were more inclined to explain,
reason, compromise, or share in an effort to resolve
their conflicts. Students were less likely to involve
authority figures or to use aggression and threats
when resolving conflicts. Additional surveys indicated
that teachers felt more respected and less
frustrated after the implementation of the PEF
model. 14
♦ Evaluations of a conflict resolution initiative in
the Palm Beach County school district showed a
considerable reduction in student referrals and
suspensions. For example, after the Safe School
Center initiated a conflict resolution program
using the PEF curriculum at Spady Elementary
School, the number of referrals at the school
dropped from 124 between September and December
1992 to 5 during the same period in 1994.
Between January and June 1995, the Safe
School Center sponsored 49 Fighting Fair for
Families workshops throughout the Palm Beach
County school district. Parents who attended one
of these workshops, which used PEF materials,
noticed favorable results. In a 2-month followup
survey of 163 participants, 79 percent reported
improving how conflicts were handled at home,
76 percent reported improving how feelings were
treated at home, and 70 percent reported improving
how people listened to each other at home.
In addition, 80 percent still displayed the Rules
for Fighting Fair poster in their homes. 15
♦ During the 1992–1993 school year, a middle
school with an enrollment of more than 700
students in Orange County, North Carolina,
initiated a conflict resolution program that included
a combination of components from various
conflict resolution projects. Nine teachers
and 391 sixth-grade students were taught about
conflict resolution through lectures, discussion
groups, and role-playing. The students were
71
taught about individuality, anger, and power.
The project also taught the students the PEF
Rules for Fighting Fair from the same Fighting
Fair curriculum used in the Florida study described
above. Twenty-six students were selected by their
peers to be trained in peer mediation. After four
4-hour training sessions, the peer mediators provided
mediation when needed. Mediation sessions
lasted up to 1 hour and took place in a counselor’s
office or a conference room. Adults were nearby
if requested.
The outcomes of this conflict resolution project
were significant. The sixth-grade students’ behavior
patterns exhibited a marked change from the
1991–1992 school year to the 1992–1993 school
year. Disciplinary referrals to the principal’s office
dropped from 150 to 27 (82 percent), in-school
suspensions decreased from 52 to 30 (42 percent),
and out-of-school suspensions decreased from 40
to 1 (97 percent). The reduced number of disciplinary
actions suggests that the conflict resolution
project had a beneficial effect, but it is not
clear whether the 1991–1992 school year was
atypical with regard to behavior problems, and it
is not known whether the decreases represented
specific disciplinary actions or all kinds of actions.
Nevertheless, the reductions are impressive. 16
♦ The Mediation Project of the Public Justice Department
of St. Mary’s University in San Antonio,
Texas, has provided middle and high school
students with conflict resolution training through
a school-university-community project. Preliminary
studies of the first schools trained have shown
significant reductions in disciplinary problems and
in student violence on school campuses. Smithson
Valley Middle School recorded a 57-percent decrease
in disciplinary actions during the first year
of its peer-based mediation program. 17
♦ Through the Lawyers Adopt-a-School Program
of the American Bar Association, Section of
Dispute Resolution, lawyers have successfully
adopted several schools in Montgomery County,
Maryland: Bradley Hills Elementary School,
Springbrook High School, Francis Scott Key
Middle School, and White Oak Middle School.