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U.S. Department of Education’s Title IV requires certain violence prevention programming that uses Safe and Drug-Free Schools grants be research based and have demonstrate proven effectiveness. Peer mediation as a general practice, however, is exempted. Educators can confidently purchase Community Boards’ training publications or contract for its training services, while satisfying federal requirements and guidelines.
Program Evaluations
+ General
*The Possibility of Popular Justice, A Case Study of Community Mediation in the United States. Sally Engel Merry & Neil Milner, editors. The University of Michigan Press, 1995.
The theoretic bases for Community Boards’ programming, publications, and services for youth, educators and youth serving agencies, originated in the groundbreaking work of its parent organization, Community Boards of San Francisco (CBSF), founded in 1976. Scholars and researchers have recognized that CBSF made significant contributions to mediation and conflict resolution theory and practices in the United States.
In 1981 CBSF initiated the Community Board Center for Policy and Training. The Center took on the responsibility for adapting Community Boards' mediation principles and practices for a number of venues. The Center, in its years of existence, received substantial and on-going foundation support.
In the design of its programming for youth, the Center’s researchers adapted the recognized strengths of its own community-based mediation practices. Three key concepts informed their work: 1) empowerment is strengthened through the training of volunteers who mediate disputes as peers; 2) skill building to foster increased communication, self-confidence, empathy, cooperation, fairness, compromise, and assertiveness; and 3) expanding accepted mediation practices to include a multi-member panel process.
From the Centers dynamic work arose the Conflict Manager Program launched in 1982. This peer mediation program is supported by the training guides for implementing it.
+ Elementary
Clark County Social Service School Mediation Program Evaluation Report, Fiscal Year 1994
John N. Carpenter and Maureen A. Parco. Clark County, Nevada. "The peer mediators increased their mediation skills, self-esteem, and assertiveness. The principals and program coordinators reported that the program had a significant impact on reducing conflict on the school grounds and increasing the social skills and self-esteem of the peer mediators."
+ Secondary
Harder+Company Community Research, a research consulting firm located in San Francisco, was contracted by Community Boards and San Francisco Peer Resources to conduct an evaluation of the third year of a project—Whole Schools Conflict Resolution Project—aimed at implementing comprehensive conflict resolution programming into several San Francisco USD schools, of which the Conflict Manager Program was an integral part. This report evaluated the success in implementation and effectiveness of programs in two schools participating in the project, A.P. Giannini Middle School and Mission High School, during the 1996-97 school year.
Summaries of the above can be viewed or downloaded here: Elementary & Secondary Program Evaluations.
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Best Practices, Citations & References
+ East San Jose USD Safe School Healthy Students, Conflict Resolution Final Report. Resource Development Associates, Lafayette, CA. (2003) Read report here.
+ Creating a Positive Climate, Violence Prevention and Conflict Resolution Curricula. Safe & Responsive Schools Project. (2000) Read study here.
+ About Peer Mediation. Phi Delta Kappa International. (2000) Read article here.
+ Implementation of Community Board Conflict Managers in Six Rural Elementary and Middle Schools. WestEd Oakland. (1999) Read study here.
+ School Safety: Comprehensive Resolution Programs Help Prepare Schools for Conflicts. California State Auditor. (1999) Read study here.
+ Building Peaceful Schools. Thrust for Educational Leadership (1998) Read article here.
+ Running Ahead: School-Based Violence Prevention Journal of Adolescent Health. (1996) Read report here.
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