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.

A very young administrator working at desk

CRE Conference Presentations

Changing the World – Youth Mediators Across the Globe

  • Presented by: Tricia Jones
  • View Presentation and Abstract: Click Here

Connected and Respected: Lessons from Resolving Conflict Creatively

  • Presented by: Larry Dieringer
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Creating and Promoting Positive School Climate in Ohio’s Schools

  • Presented by: Ohio Department of Education
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CRE Resource Creation and Discovery via CREducation.org

  • Presented by: Bill Warters
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Connecting Schools, Communities, and Families through SEL

  • Presented by: Linda Lantieri, Collaborative for Academic Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL)
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From the Ground Up: Lessons in Growing the Central Michigan Restorative Justice Initiative (CMRJI)

  • Presented by: Nancy Schertzing, Michigan State University
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View More Presentations 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
Current trends in graduate ADR programs: Preliminary findings Pdf article from Conflict Management in Higher Education Report, Volume 1, Number 2, (March/April 2000), which "presents a few preliminary findings from a two-year study of all graduate ADR (Alternative Dispute Resolution) and CR (Conflict Resolution) programs in the United States, the study concentrates on 45 areas of inquiry utilizing semi-structured interviews of program directors and coordinators concerning issues such as the growth and direction of their programs."
Collegiate mediation programs: A critical review Pdf article reprinted from April/May 1994 issue (Vol. 50 pp. 36-37) of The Fourth R, the Newsletter of the National Association for Mediation in Education discussing mediation programs at colleges and universities. Although these types of programs, like community medation, can be helpful in solving problems the author worries that mediation centers can become a controlling arm of university administration rather than a "meaningful way for the issues to be confronted by the community," remedies for overcoming this challenge are suggested.
Documenting bullying at your school: tips for school administrators Pdf document which introduces the idea of assessing and tracking bullying behavior at school for administrators.
Changing the world: Youth mediators across the globe 17-page Powerpoint presentation given to middle school mediators at the Sustaining Conflict Resolution Education: Building Bridges to the Future conference in Fairfax, VA, which discussed peer mediation programs around the world.
Culture of power, The Pdf article from Conflict Management in Higher Education Report, Volume 5, Number 1, (Sept 2004), which examines the culture of power particularly within educational institutions.
Evaluation report on progress made through the OSCE's efforts to unify the Gymnasium Mostar: Summer 51-page Word evaluation "of the unification of the Gymnasium Mostar in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), as commissioned by the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Mission to BiH ... the Gymnasium Mostar was an historic and premier secondary school prior to the war of 1992-1995. It was completely destroyed during the war and had become the centre of an effort to revitalize the historic Mostar downtown. An initiative to restore the multinational and high-quality nature of the school was viewed as an opportunity to use this divided school in this divided city as a model or beacon for potential reform efforts throughout the country."
Inter-agency P.E.P.: Skills for constructive living: Manual for training of facilitators 2 50-page pdf manual which "is one of the components of the “Inter-Agency Peace Education Programme, the programme is designed for education managers of ministries dealing with both formal and non-formal education and for agencies which implement education activities on behalf of the government ... this manual has been written for you as a trainer of facilitators, it looks at “effective facilitation” and the skills required to develop effective facilitation, these skills are useful not just for a Peace Education Programme but also for all aspects of the professional life of the facilitators whom you are training."
Ohio Commission on Dispute Resolution and Conflict Management Powerpoint presentation about the Ohio Commission on Dispute Resolution, its mission, goals and programs.
Lessons and activities for Florida's fourth annual mediation celebration 41-page pdf manual which can be used "as a general guide to activities that can be easily incorporated in your classroom to make everyone aware of measures that help ensure peaceful schools ... mediation skills and other methods of conflict resolution are life-long skills that help promote positive interactions among all people ... the intention of this booklet is to help peak your interest and awareness in the area of mediation, and let you see how easily and subtly these concepts can be integrated into the existing curriculum." Includes bibliography.
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
National policies on education for democratic citizenship in the Americas: Analytic report 48-page PDF report with the goal of "address[ing] the gap in the literature on national policies in citizenship education in the Americas, providing an initial “mapping” of these policies, at the formal and non-formal levels. To that end, the analysis focuses on national policies and standards, the school curriculum within which citizenship education is embedded, places and age levels where citizenship education occurs, and the extent to which citizenship programs are evaluated. Twenty-five countries participated in this study. Selected demographic characteristics of the countries are reported in Appendix 1."
Peer mediation partnerships: Linking university with community 22-page Powerpoint presentation given at the Sustaining Conflict Resolution Education: Building Bridges to the Future conference in Fairfax, VA, which highlighted "best practices pertaining to peer mediation partnership initiatives between undergraduates and high school peer mediation programs ... issues addressed include[d] team-building and motivation, skills-sharing and training, program assessment, and leadership and guidance."
Building effective peer mentoring programs in schools: An introductory guide 54-page PDF guide which, "provides a framework for designing a peer mentoring program, where older youth (typically high school students) mentor younger students (elementary or middle school) in a school setting. The guide incorporates the latest research on peer mentoring, and provides solutions to the common challenges faced in implementing a peer mentoring model."
Developing and Assessing School Culture: A New Level of Accountability for Schools This 8-page CEP position paper argues that education in our nation is at a defining moment, one with the potential to reshape our national conversation about school improvement. Successful schools--ones that foster both academic excellence and ethics--have positive school cultures (or "climates"). CEP defines a positive school culture broadly to include all aspects of school life, including a safe and caring environment, a powerful pedagogy and curriculum, student motivation and engagement, professional faculty culture and relational trust, parent partnerships, and community collaboration. The paper presents case studies and educational research showing the impact of school culture on students' academic achievement and social behavior. Because a positive school culture is central to student success, the authors argue we must address how to help all schools develop effective cultures. Since what gets measured matters, schools must also be held accountable for having positive school cultures and must have tools for assessing their culture. If we are to prepare students to be lifelong learners and 21st century ethical citizens, we must develop a new "school report card" that includes not only test scores but also concrete indicators of the quality of school culture.
Social and emotional learning (SEL) and student benefits 12-page pdf document brief which "shares the latest research on the effects of social and emotional learning SEL) on students and includes strategies for implementing SEL, it explains how SEL works, elaborates on how SEL can be an integrative prevention framework that addresses the Safe Schools/Healthy Students (SS/HS) core elements, and spells out implications of the research for SS/HS grantees."
Graduate peace & conflict studies programs: reconsidering their problems & prospects Pdf article from Conflict Management in Higher Education Report, Volume 5, Number 1, (Sept 2004), which discusses the proliferation of graduate coursework in peace and conflict studies to, "consider how peace and conflict type programs are created and developed, reflect on their prospects and problems, and introduce topics that I believe will have to be dealt with in the future."
Lessons for helping students develop emotional awareness to support CRE 20-page Powerpoint presentation given at the Second International Summit on Conflict Resolution education, in which "participants will learn multiple, developmentally appropriate, lowcost activities that can be used in classroom or counseling settings to develop emotion foundation abilities, in students grades K-8, adaptations that would suit students with cognitive, behavioral and emotional challenges."
Conflict resolution education in teacher education: Expanding CRE programs and resources 22-page Powerpoint panel discussion presented at the Sustaining Conflict Resolution Education: Building Bridges to the Future conference in Fairfax, VA, which "provided an overview of the CRETE (Conflict Resolution Education in Teacher Education) project ... [a] program to provide pre-service teachers and school-based teaching mentors with critical skills and knowledge of conflict resolution education and class room management necessary for cultivating constructive learning environments for children, enhancing student learning and bolstering teacher retention."
Pre-Service Teacher Curriculum A 247-page pdf document containing a four module curriculum designed to provide pre-service teachers opportunities for analyzing the impact of self as an individual teacher in the classroom. This includes information on pursuing self- assessment, developing communication skills through active and reflective listening, rapport, and trust building, and defining the processes used in managing conflict. The curriculum is also designed to help pre-service teachers identify and strengthen skills used in effective communication to better manage conflicts, especially those in classrooms. Finally, the curriculum is intended to assist pre-service teachers with skills that will be developed through the use of conflict management strategies.
Promoting better resolution of conflict with "learn for free!" Pdf article from Conflict Management in Higher Education Report, Volume 5, Number 1, (Sept 2004), which presents a project at Dalhousie University College of Continuing Education in Halifax, Nova Scotia called "Learn for Free! ... a day of one-hour sessions -- each of which provides a glimpse into the content of our workshops, the expertise of our instructors, and the skills we seek to develop, the objectives of Learn for Free! are to expand our reach with an alternative approach to handling conflict, to boost our profile within the community, to provide a service to the community in which we live, and to attract new workshop registrants."