# data[].attributes.body
Zero Tolerance creates a negative school environment, void of healthy and supportive relationships. Punishments typically associated with Zero Tolerance tend to put students at greater risk for decreased connectivity to school, increased participation in risky or illegal behavior, poor academic achievement and dropout and, for many, subsequent entry into the "school to prison pipeline" (Boccanfuso and Kuhlfield, 2011 Cassalla, 2003).

# data[].attributes.body
Students suspended or expelled for a discretionary violation are nearly 3 times more likely to be in contact with the juvenile justice system the following year. — ACLU

# data[].attributes.body
What Are You Staring At? by Pete Wallis and Joesph Wilkins:  Designed for use in schools, this comic teaches children about restorative justice.

# data[].attributes.body
Hacking School Discipline by N. Maynard and B. Weinstein:  restorative practices with practical ideas and modeling.

# data[].attributes.body
Restorative Discipline for Schools by L. Stutzman Amstutz and J. Mullet:  Easy read with applications and models for RJ in the classroom.

# data[].attributes.body
Restorative Teaching Tools by K. McGoey, L. Pointer, and H. Farrar: Engaging Practices for Integrating Restorative Justice Principles in Group Settings

# data[].attributes.body
The 57 Bus by Dashka Slater: An fictional examination of race, gender, and the justice system.

# data[].attributes.body
It Wasn't Me by Dana Alison Levy:  Six students are brought together during a school break to find out who has vandalized one of the student's property.

# data[].attributes.body
Laila's talk focuses on the value of incorporating restorative justice in the school system and the ways in which it could minimize the school to prison pipeline.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Restorative Justice | Laila Fakhoury | TEDxLSSC

# data[].attributes.body
Ron Brown school psychologist explains the value of RJ on adolescent development and students of color.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Psychologist Explains How Restorative Justice Works in D.C. High School for Young Men of Color

# data[].attributes.body
" It's a lot of hard work, and it was new for just about everybody."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
subscribe to Code Switch podcast

subscribe to Code Switch podcast

We spent the past three episodes looking at the first year of a high school for black boys in Washington, D.C. Now, we're taking a look back on our reporting. What does it mean for a school like Ron Brown to exist - and what does that say about our society?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Reflections On A Year At Ron Brown High : Code Switch

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
We spent the past three episodes looking at the first year of a high school for black boys in Washington, D.C. Now, we're taking a look back on our reporting. What does it mean for a school like Ron Brown to exist - and what does that say about our society?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
subscribe to Code Switch podcast

subscribe to Code Switch podcast

This story contains language that some readers may find offensive.
"I can't teach the book right now," says Shaka Greene, algebra teacher at Ron Brown College Preparatory High School. "Because my students are still learning to add 49 plus 17."

So begins Part 3 - the conclusion of our podcast series: Raising Kings: A Year of Love and Struggle at Ron Brown College Prep.

This radical new high school in Washington, D.C., is really two schools - two approaches - in one. It strives to teach students traditional subjects, including algebra and English, while also helping them grow socially and emotionally. But both efforts require valuable class time, and the school struggles to find a balance.

In the second half of the school year, that struggle for balance reaches a crisis: Roughly 40 percent of the students are at risk of failing ninth grade.

In response, Principal Ben Williams makes several big changes. He gives students more time in their core classes, including math. He creates a special, seven-week session of optional Saturday classes.

"It's like a light bulb in my head came on," says Paul, a freshman who attends Saturday school to get much-needed algebra practice. "I started getting more help and more support. I went from an F to a B." (We're not using the students' last names to protect their privacy.)

But many students don't take advantage, and the grades aren't improving fast enough.

The showdown that's been looming all year comes in May, when teachers learn about a pair of districtwide grading policies that will make it easier for students to pass.

The first one requires that teachers give half-credit, instead of a zero, when students don't turn in homework.

"I hate it, and my students know I hate it," says English teacher Schalette Gudger. "I think it's a play into creating a generation of students, particularly in urban school systems, that are not prepared when they get to college or get to careers to be productive."

"That's not teaching my kids integrity," says history teacher Travis Bouldin. "Low expectations are low expectations. I don't care how you cut it."

And all this tension is just a warmup for a much bigger debate that erupts over the second district policy: A student can fail three quarters out of four in, say, algebra, and still pass. All he has to do is get a C or better in one quarter.

"Are you being serious?" Greene asks at a staff meeting. "Like, students only have to pass for 25 percent of the year?"

The assistant principal, Leslie Edwards, replies, "That's policy."

Greene responds: "That's bull****."

For Greene, this is the last straw. He announces that he won't be returning for Ron Brown's second year because of his frustration over "egregiously" low academic expectations.

And this leads to a bitter divide at the school, with Greene and most teachers on one side and Principal Williams and the school's psychologist, Charles Curtis, on the other.

"A black male who drops out of high school is, at best, going to struggle from [pay]check to check," Curtis says, "and more likely, get incarcerated, hurt, or hurt somebody, and, worst case scenario, be dead."

Research shows that 1 in 4 young, black men who drop out of high school will be locked up by the time they're 24. And holding them back in ninth grade makes them much more likely to drop out.

"There is this indignant righteousness about what should be and what shouldn't be," Curtis says of Greene's insistence on high standards. "But this is their life ... Like, you're talking about letting [a student] fail. What happens when he fails for real, and he drops out, and we could have prevented it?"

Curtis and Principal Williams insist that academic progress will come in this dramatically different school, but that no one should expect it so soon, after what is still Ron Brown's first year.

"Don't judge me on one year," Williams says, "when we're fundamentally trying to build our young men from the ground up, breaking down every bad habit, every poor experience and giving them a space where they can believe in themselves."

But Greene argues that schools need to be less patient.

"I'm looking at the crisis that is affecting our young black men," Greene says. "It is a state of war. It is a state of emergency. If you're not attacking it like that, then you're essentially putting Band-Aids on gunshot wounds. And I don't wanna be a part of that."

While Greene is the only teacher who says he won't be coming back because of these district policies, every member of the Ron Brown faculty agrees with his opposition.

"I understand the statistics, that if a student fails ninth grade he is bound to drop out of high school," says Gudger, the English teacher. "I get it. However, it's like, 'So, if we pass him through, what can he do with his life? What have we prepared him for?' "

This debate is not unique to Ron Brown. It has roiled teachers' lounges and principals' offices across the country.

On one side: the belief that lowering standards is a betrayal of students who are constantly told "you're not good enough."

On the other: the fear that high standards, at any cost, will push at-risk students out of school.

The difficult truth for the passionate educators of Ron Brown is that both sides are right.
This is the last installment of our yearlong reporting project, "Raising Kings, A Year Of Love And Struggle At Ron Brown College Prep."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Episode 3: The Fierce Debate Over High Standards

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
subscribe to Code Switch podcast subscribe to Code Switch podcast This story contains language that some readers may find offensive. "I can't teach the book right now," says Shaka Greene, algebra teacher at Ron Brown College Preparatory High School. "Because my students are still learning to add 49 plus 17."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
At Ron Brown College Preparatory High School, students aren't kids or boys.

In the classrooms and cafeteria, they're kings.

That's just one of the many things that stand out in this new boys-only, public school in Washington, D.C. The school opened in August 2016 to a class of roughly 100 young men. All are freshmen. All are students of color. All are determined to change the narrative.

In Washington, and the rest of the country, that narrative says too many young black men are below-average readers. They're suspended from school at above-average rates and less likely to graduate than any other group.

Ron Brown College Prep is a radical effort to change that.

For the past year, NPR and Education Week have been reporting on the birth of this new school. Here are some of the adults who made it a reality:
Ben Williams, principal
Before the school opens, Principal Ben Williams has to recruit his freshman class, visiting middle schools around the city. To these packed auditoriums of teens, he spreads his message: This school will be different.
"Now, young men, I am excited about this. Excited about this! We're going to make history. My goal is: You walk in as young men, but you leave as men."
Williams says the Ron Brown approach to students is holistic:
"We're building [a school] where they feel loved, they feel like it's a safe space. They feel like it's a place where they can take chances, and where they can grow. Seeing that cultural shift is extremely exciting." The CARE Team
One of the many things that sets the school apart is its CARE Team, a group of roughly a half-dozen people, mostly men, including a psychologist, social worker and several counselors, who keep the students on track emotionally and academically. Their job is to get to know the students: strengths and weaknesses, who has a short fuse, who's living on a friend's couch.
Charles Curtis, CARE Team leader and school psychologist "We're at your house, we're in your face, we're in your business, we're caring about you, we're at your mama's funeral, in class when you're struggling."
In the U.S., schools often show zero tolerance for disruptive behavior. And suspensions hit black students especially hard. To change that, Ron Brown uses something called "restorative justice."
"Restorative justice restores me to the space that I should be. So, when we look at these young people, we're looking at them from a place of godliness, of kingliness, of royalty. And I don't mean that just in rhetoric. I truly mean it, like in their birthright. They deserve to be expected to be great." Shatane Porter, school counselor
Many of the students at Ron Brown come from poverty, explains counselor Shatane Porter:
"If [a student is] having a bad day, 'I haven't eaten, somebody got shot' - whatever the case may be - school is a safe zone for me. So this should be a place that I should be able to come and express my thoughts."
Even when that expression includes cursing in the classroom. Porter says teachers need to listen carefully and try to understand what the student is really trying to say and why he's saying it.

What teachers at Ron Brown need, Porter says, is balance: between toughness, structure and love for the students.
"It can't just be 'I want them to have order in the class.' Because you're asking them to do something that they don't even have at home. If there's no order at home, you're asking me now to come to the school every single day to do something that I'm not used to doing." Dawaine Cosey, CARE Team member "I tell the guys all the time, 'You're going to get love, and there's really nothing you can do about it.' ... They're like, 'Is this real? Why don't y'all suspend me?' And I think that blows their minds. 'Why y'all won't send me home?!' 'Cause we can just talk about it, and y'all be fine."
But that makes the early days at Ron Brown really hard. Some students don't like the school's approach. They don't want to talk about compliments or community, about their feelings or their poor choices.

But Cosey has faith they'll come around:
"Who plants a seed today and expects a harvest tomorrow? I don't. It's gonna be long. For most students, we're still tilling up the soil." Our yearlong reporting project, "Raising Kings, A Year Of Love And Struggle At Ron Brown College Prep," continues over the next two weeks on the Code Switch podcast and on npr.org.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Episode 1: A Year Of Love And Struggle In A New High School

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
At Ron Brown College Preparatory High School, students aren't kids or boys. In the classrooms and cafeteria, they're kings. That's just one of the many things that stand out in this new boys-only, public school in Washington, D.C. The school opened in August 2016 to a class of roughly 100 young men.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
subscribe to Code Switch podcast

subscribe to Code Switch podcast

"They can't just be average."

Charles Curtis is talking about the roughly 100 young, black men in the inaugural freshman class at Ron Brown College Prep, a radical new high school in Washington, D.C.

Curtis, the school psychologist, puts it simply: "There is no place in the world for an average black person."

So begins Part 2 in our series: Raising Kings: A Year of Love and Struggle at Ron Brown College Prep.

The school is devoted to restorative justice, forcing students into uncomfortable conversations and face-to-face apologies instead of suspension or detention.

There's also a high-expectations approach to academics, best told through the voices of two veteran teachers.
Schalette Gudger, English teacher
Gudger is a veteran teacher with 16 years of experience. Early in the year, she tells parents that she expects a lot from their young men:
"So, if I'm tough on them it's because I have high expectations for them. I'm going to be hard on them. Because I teach the language that helps them unlock the codes that we've been telling them to switch. ... And if they will allow me, I will give them what I have."
In the classroom, Gudger is always pushing her students to dig deeper. The vast majority of Ron Brown's faculty and staff are men. Ms. G, as she's known, thinks that gives her a unique perspective:
"What I have that works for me is, I'm Mom. So when they come in, they feel the same strict but loving environment that they feel at home. So it's like, 'OK, we can smile, we can laugh, we can joke, but we know this is serious business. We know that this is what is expected of our behavior.' It's the same thing with Mom. We may laugh and joke and play - we may even be disrespectful - but we know, at the end of the day, we need to bring it back in. We have a job to do."
Many of Gudger's students struggle with the daily challenges of poverty. Some have experienced violence and trauma. So she tries to be flexible. A student falling asleep, for example, shouldn't always be taken as an affront. It may indicate trouble at home:
"Some of them are so on edge that they literally do not sleep at night. So, if you need a break ... if you're comfortable enough here to put your head down, Baby, by all means rest." Shaka Greene, math teacher
Greene is also a veteran teacher who, like many of his students, grew up in poverty.
"I watched my mother work multiple jobs to make sure we ate. There were times I went to school with holes in my shoes. So I get it. That is why I am as hard on them as I am, because I know your circumstances don't matter as much as your will and desire to be successful."
Greene says he struggles sometimes to find the balance between showing his students love and preparing them for the world.
"If you leave high school and you still make a 600 on the SAT, nobody cares how much you were loved. Congratulations, you feel good about yourself. But you're still reading, writing and counting below average. And I am now a Google exec. And I don't want below average. I want the best of the best."
Greene's passion is chess. e runs the most popular after-school club at Ron Brown: chess club. And in the game, he sees a metaphor for these young men.
"The key to chess, really the soul of the game of chess, are your pawns. If I'm able to get my pawn all the way to your last rank, this pawn can become any piece on the board that I want it to become other than a king or another pawn. Once you learn to value your pawns, you really start to learn to understand and grow at the game of chess." Our yearlong reporting project, "Raising Kings, A Year Of Love And Struggle At Ron Brown College Prep," concludes next week on the Code Switch podcast and on npr.org.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
subscribe to Code Switch podcast subscribe to Code Switch podcast "They can't just be average." Charles Curtis is talking about the roughly 100 young, black men in the inaugural freshman class at Ron Brown College Prep, a radical new high school in Washington, D.C.

# data[].attributes.body
Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Mikaelsen In order to avoid going to prison, Cole agrees to participate in a sentencing alternative based on the native American Circle Justice.

# data[].attributes.headline
Resources: How to Implement  Restorative Practices in a Classroom                               

# data[].attributes.subject
Resources: How to Implement  Restorative Practices in a Classroom                               

# data[].attributes.body
Community Conferencing

Community Service

Peer Juries

Circles

Preventative and post-conflict resolution programs

Peer Mediation

Social Emotional Learning

# data[].attributes.body
Better than Carrots or Sticks by D. Smith, D. Fisher, N.Frey: An introduction to RJ and examples of it in practice.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Restorative justice: One high school’s path to reducing suspensions by half

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In one tough high school in Oakland, Calif., a restorative justice program has cut suspensions in half in just a year.

# data[].attributes.headline
                         RESTORATIVE JUSTICE

# data[].attributes.subject
                         RESTORATIVE JUSTICE

# data[].attributes.body
A type of restorative practice that serves as an alternative to the typical punish/ suspend Zero Tolerance methods of discipline that have been used in schools historically and found to disproportionately punish students of color.  Restorative justice (RJ) focuses on repairing harm through inclusive processes that engage all people involved.  RJ shifts the focus of discipline from punishment to learning and from the individual to the community.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
subscribe to Code Switch podcast

subscribe to Code Switch podcast

Ron Brown High School was built on a novel notion: a school for boys of color, based on a model of restorative justice. We visited the school last year for several episodes to follow its first-ever freshman class. This week, we're going back to see whether the school's unique approach to education is bearing fruit.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Is Ron Brown High School Working? : Code Switch

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Ron Brown High School was built on a novel notion: a school for boys of color, based on a model of restorative justice. We visited the school last year for several episodes to follow its first-ever freshman class. This week, we're going back to see whether the school's unique approach to education is bearing fruit.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Restorative Circles: Creating a Safe Environment for Students to Reflect

# data[].attributes.body
Teacher Jean Klasovsky shares how schools can improve climate and discipline by using restorative justice practices such as peace circles and peer juries

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Repairing our schools through restorative justice: Jean Klasovsky at TEDxWellsStreetED

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Restorative Justice in Oakland Schools: Tier One. Community Building Circle

# data[].attributes.headline
Zero-Tolerance vs. Restorative Practice                            in Education       

# data[].attributes.subject
Zero-Tolerance vs. Restorative Practice                            in Education       

# data[].attributes.body
Click for a larger view.

# data[].attributes.headline
A Year of Restorative Justice:  Ron Brown HS

# data[].attributes.subject
A Year of Restorative Justice:  Ron Brown HS

# data[].attributes.body
Follow the first-ever freshman class at a new school based on a model of RJ for boys of color.