Policymakers and Administrators
Welcome to the Conflict Resolution Education Connection’s resources for policymakers and administrators. Our goal is to provide information that will support administrators interested in promoting or extending conflict resolution work within education. The sidebar menu to your right provides a listing of the content areas we focus on at this site.

CRE Conference Presentations
Restorative Measures for School Connectedness & Alternatives to Suspension
- Presented by: Nancy Riestenberg
- View Presentation and Abstract: Click Here
Macro Models of Implementation: Policy to Practice
- Presented by: Terry Pickeral-Cascade Educational Consultants, USA
- View Presentation and Abstract: Click Here
The Organization of American States: 100 Years of Building Bridges in the Americas
- Presented by: Presented By: Pablo Zuniga, Romina Giselle Kasman, and Marcia Bebianno Simoes
- View Presentation and Abstract: Click Here
CRETE Web Resources
- Presented by: Bill Warters
- View Presentation and Abstract: Click Here
Strategies for Teaching Peace and CR in U.S. Undergraduate Environments
- Presented by: David Smith
- View Presentation and Abstract: Click Here
Peer Mediation Partnerships: Linking University with Community
- Presented by: Lisa E. Shaw, Program Advisor and Interns: Rebecca Newman, Roxanne Libby, William Still and Jared Schmidt
- View Presentation and Abstract: Click Here
Sample Catalog Resources
Below you'll find a randomized listing of up to 20 related items (we may have more...) drawn from our Resource Catalog.
| Resource Title | Description | Links |
|---|---|---|
| VOV activities: Taking responsibility for the violence in your environment, grades 7-12 | 1-page PDF activity sheet for 7-12 graders to "reinforce the idea that one person can make a difference in challenging the root causes for violence." | |
| Cyberconflict: The role of email communication | Pdf article from Conflict Management in Higher Education Report, Volume 3, Number 2, (February 2003), discusses email communication and its relationship to conflict. | |
| 40 cases: Restorative justice and victim-offender mediation | 86-page book in PDF format which, "provides a diverse range of first hand accounts from mediators and facilitators offering some means of communication between victims and offenders. Through the authentic voices of practitioners, the cases unfold to reveal how communication was facilitated and the outcomes that followed. This publication aims to provide practitioners, policy makers and interested professionals with: - Opportunities to compare practice - An examination of the appropriateness of offering access to Restorative Justice - An understanding of the subtleties of facilitated victim-offender communication - An opportunity to see beyond our own preconceptions of victims and offenders - Clarity and inspiration." | |
| Multiple Responses, Promising Results: Evidence-Based, Nonpunitive Alternatives To Zero Tolerance | Research brief by Child Trends that finds that zero tolerance school discipline policies have not been proven effective by research and may have negative effects, making students more likely to drop out and less likely to graduate on time. Instead, the brief recommends the use of nonpunitive disciplinary action, such as behavior interventions, social skills classes, and character education. | |
| Summary - The Positive impact of social & emotional learning kindergarten to eighth grade students | 12-page PDF report which, "summarizes results from three large-scale reviews of research on the impact of social and emotional learning (SEL) programs on elementary and middle-school students — that is, programs that seek to promote various aocial and emotional skills. Collectively the three reviews included 317 studies and involved 324,303 children. SEL programs yielded multiple benefits in each review and were effective in both school and after-school settings and for students with and without behavioral and emotional problems. They were also effective across the K-8 grade range and for racially and ethnically diverse students from urban, rural, and suburban settings. SEL programs improved students’ social-emotional skills, attitudes about self and others, connection to school, positive social behavior, and academic performance; they also reduced students’ conduct problems and emotional distress. Comparing results from these reviews to findings obtained in reviews of interventions by other research teams suggests that SEL programs are among the most successful youth-development programs offered to school-age youth. Furthermore, school staff (e.g., teachers, student support staff) carried out SEL programs effectively, indicating that they can be incorporated into routine educational practice. In addition, SEL programming improved students’ academic performance by 11 to 17 percentile points across the three reviews, indicating that they offer students a practical educational benefit. Given these positive findings, we recommend that federal, state, and local policies and practices encourage the broad implementation of well-designed, evidence-based SEL programs during and after school." | |
| Teaching global and local conflict in the classroom | 24-page pdf document that accompanied a professional development program hosted by the World Affairs Council. Document consists of a list (with web addresses) of resources that relate to confict and conflict resolution. Recommend sites and sites that include lesson plans are noted. | |
| How to run a student mediation conference | 22-slide Powerpoint presentation given at the Sustaining Conflict Resolution Education: Building Bridges to the Future conference in Fairfax, VA, which provided "an overview of the conference planning and offer the nuts and bolts information on how to organize and run a successful conference in your community." | |
| Companion: A campaign guide about education and learning for change in diversity, human rights ... | 80-page PDF manual, "designed to help those involved in learning for democracy and learning for change. The issues it raises and the methods which are proposed have been developed as a part of the campaign, but the manual can and should be used after the formal end of the campaign ... This is not a campaign for young people. It is a campaign by young people. The slogan of the campaign "All different, All equal" combines the freedom of diversity and the equality of rights, and it reflects the Council of Europe philosophy in tackling all forms of discrimination and exclusion." | |
| Researching campus conflict management culture(s): A role for ombuds? | Pdf article from Conflict Management in Higher Education Report, Volume 3, Number 1, (Oct 2002), whose "purpose in this article is to briefly explore a somewhat expanded role set for the ombuds, one that includes the ombuds as researcher ... I suggest here that the ombuds is in a unique position to serve as a guide or "primary informant" ... to researchers interested in campus organizational culture and subculture, especially as it relates to conflict-related behaviors and beliefs." Includes bibliography. | |
| What's in a name?: Capturing the essence of campus mediation | Pdf article reprinted from the February/March 1995 Issue (Vol 55) of The Fourth R, The Newsletter of the National Association for Mediation in Education which describes the comprehensive set of activities offered by Campus Mediation Center at Syracuse University. | |
| Peace education curriculum: Programa pendidiken damai (pdf) | 84-page pdf translation of the Indonesian "Kurikulum Pendidikan Damai" which "was the first of its kind to be developed in Indonesia, representing peace education from an Islamic and Acehnese perspective. It promotes a positive, comprehensive peace encompassing peaceful relations with God the Creator, with oneself, with one's fellow humans, and with the environment. The curriculum teaches communal peace in accordance with the positive Islamic approach, namely the absence of war and discrimination and the necessity of justice in society. This manual emphasizes that peace is neither a subjugation to situations nor a passive acceptance of injustice, discrimination, and war, but rather a recognition of these problems and addressing them in a peaceful manner. The curriculum also stresses the importance of process and ends, since peace is both process and results, as reflected in active involvement of students in a system of learning by doing ... The materials and learning activities were authored in such a manner to allow the students dominant roles in the learning process. The students are guided to observe, analyze, and seek for solutions to existing conflicts. We feel that this strategy can better improve the students' knowledge on conflict and peace, build their skills in managing conflicts without violence, and actualize them all in their real life." | |
| CRETE Project Overview (April 2010) | An overview of the Conflict Resolution Education in Teacher Education (CRETE) initiative as of April 2010. The document reviews the need for CRETE and provides a list of current partners and a history of funding support for the initiative. | |
| Tolerance Stories Booklet | 55-page collection of stories, "to teach tolerance because stories are the first and most enduring literary form and they have the power to shape people’s understanding of the world and to change their lives ... it is our hope that this resource booklet will facilitate educators in elementary and secondary schools to introduce discussions of tolerance by supplying a wide array of narratives that illustrate principles of tolerance, and by so doing, enable their students to be leaders of tolerance in their homes, neighborhoods, and communities." | |
| Quick Guide to Implementing a Peer Mediation Program | A 7-page pdf providing a series of annotated questions designed to help a school plan for the implementation of a peer mediation program. Draws on the many years of experience gained at School Mediation Associates, a long-standing peer mediation advocacy and training organization. | |
| Intake hints | Pdf article from Conflict Management in Higher Education Report, Volume 2, Number 2, (Feb 2002), which examines intake procedures and scheduling issues for community mediation, based on work done by "Neighborhood Dispute Settlement Program of Dauphin County (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania), ... a community mediation program which receives referrals from criminal justice entities." | |
| How We Can Fix School Discipline Toolkit | The 77-page 'How We Can Fix School Discipline Toolkit' contains step-by-step tools and real-life stories about implementing the alternatives to suspension and expulsion that are proven to keep students in school and learning, improve school climate and student behavior, allow teachers to teach more effectively, help administrators meet benchmarks, and keep communities from seeing many of their children ending up in the juvenile justice system. Alternative approaches featured include School-Wide Positive Behavioral Intervention and Support (SWPBIS), Restorative Justice or Restorative Practices, and Social Emotional Learning. The document is structured as follows: 1. Know the problem (pages 4-10) 2. Learn about alternatives from real-life examples (pages 11-48) 3. Advocate for Change (page 63) 4. Monitor progress (pages 68-70) 5. Get the word out (pages 64-67) 6. Contacts (pages 71-78) A companion website is available at http://www.fixschooldiscipline.org. A video archive of a webinar introducing the toolkit is available at http://youtu.be/6PrCh0MiRZc | |
| Evaluation of the Truancy Prevention through Mediation Program (Ohio) | 12-page pdf presents an evaluation of the Truancy Prevention through Mediation Program developed in Ohio. "Although the Truancy Prevention through Mediation Program (TPMP) has consistently demonstrated positive results in the effort to combat truancy, absent from these evaluations has been an examination of the impact of the program on the academic performance and behavior of the children whose families participate in the program. To fill this void, the Ohio Commission on Dispute Resolution and the Supreme Court of Ohio collaborated to commission an independent evaluation to ascertain answers to these questions." This report summarizes the findings from this study. | |
| Partnership paradigm, A: A case study in research assistant and faculty interaction | Pdf article from Conflict Management in Higher Education Report, Volume 2, Number 1, (Oct 2001), which "offer[s] a case study of our intentional effort to change the typical power relationship between most RAs [research assistants] and faculty members, we believe this approach, which we call the partnership paradigm, provides an opportunity for effective and mutually enriching experiences for both faculty and students serving as research assistants." | |
| Emergence of campus mediation systems, The: History in the making | Pdf article from Conflict Management in Higher Education Report, Volume 2, Number 1, (Oct 2001), which "explore[s] historical changes in the campus context as it relates to mediation and conflict resolution, and make[s] note of apparent trends in the writing and research on campus conflicts and conflict resolution." Includes bibliography | |
| Social emotional learning scenario | Web-based interactive resource which introduces social emotional learning which "refers to knowledge, habits, skills and ideals that are at the heart of a child's academic, personal, social, and civic development ... this type of learning enables individuals to recognize and manage emotions, develop caring and concern for others, make responsible decisions, establish and maintain positive relationships, and handle challenging situations effectively." |