Restorative Practices: Pulse Check
The purpose of the Restorative Practices Pulse Check is to provide a way for teams at various stages in their restorative practices implementation to reflect on their progress and plan for next steps. While individuals may complete the survey of questions individually, it is the discussions an collaboration in a team or group setting that will provide the most informative reflection. The Restorative Practices Pulse Check is designed for all community partners to work collaboratively to identify strengths, challenges, priorities, and growth areas in how they are incorporating restorative practices. Authentic use of the Pulse Check will help teams determine next steps to create long-lasting innovative solutions for school community members to engage with one another to provide all students a safe, welcoming, and effective learning environment that will result in systems-level change.
Who is this tool designed for?
A pulse check is a quick, initial check of where a group is at on a particular topic or initiative. The responses and reflections provide a snapshot overview on team members’ perceived areas of strength and growth. This Restorative Practices Pulse Check explores people’s perceptions on the shared beliefs and vision, level of commitment to the process, and overall school culture.
How might you use this?
This tool helps facilitate team conversations and guide next steps. During a meeting focused on restorative practices, all participants individually complete the pulse check. Share out responses (perhaps projecting responses on a single list that is visually shared). Then identify areas of both strong and weak alignment and discuss why these discrepancies and connections may exist. Based on the identified strengths and areas for growth, end th conversation with next steps for moving the work forward.
| BELIEFS AND VISION | Not At All | Somewhat | Mostly | Completely | Unsure |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| To what degree does the administration or leadership team understand the principles, purpose, and benefits of embracing restorative approach? | |||||
| How universal is the belief that all members of the community are worthy and have value? | |||||
| How universal is the belief that all members of the community are connected? | |||||
| How universal is the belief that all members of the community are learning and growing? | |||||
| How shared is the vision on what a restorative approach would look like, sound like, feel like across the school community? | |||||
| How well do faculty and staff understand why it is important to implement restorative practices? |
| COMMITMENT | Not At All | Somewhat | Mostly | Completely | Unsure |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| How engaged is the school administration and/or leadership in shifting from a punitive to a restorative approach? | |||||
| How engaged are the school’s faculty and staff in both supporting and living a restorative approach? | |||||
| How engaged are students in the restorative practices? | |||||
| How engaged are families and community partners in shifting from a punitive to a restorative approach? | |||||
| How committed is the school board or funding body to investing time, resources, and money in building and sustaining the school community’s restorative capacity? | |||||
| Has the school board engaged or shown commitment to supporting restorative practices work? |
| CULTURE | Not At All | Somewhat | Mostly | Completely | Unsure |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| How universally felt is a sense of belonging across the school community (consider ALL administration, teachers, staff, students, and families)? | |||||
| How collaborative, responsive, and restorative is the collective approach to addressing harm? | |||||
| How well does the school community foster and nurture healthy relationships between all community members? | |||||
| How well does the administration, faculty and staff create just and equitable learning environments for all students? |
- Restorative Practices Pulse Check Informed by: Evans, K. R., & Vaandering, D. (2022). The little book of restorative justice in education, 2nd ed. New York: Skyhorse Publishing.
This resource was produced by the Great Schools Partnership and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
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