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Conflict Management Programs in Ohio Elementary Schools:
Case Studies and Evaluation
February, 1997
A Joint Program of the Ohio Commission on Dispute Resolution and Conflict Management
and the Ohio Department of Education
The school conflict management initiative, a joint program of the Ohio Commission on Dispute Resolution and Conflict Management (OCDRCM) and the Department of Education (ODE), began three years ago and has resulted in the establishment of comprehensive conflict management programs in 283 elementary, middle, and high schools. This initiative has provided curricular materials and skills training for administrators, teachers, staff, students, and parents about how to manage conflicts in non- violent, cooperative ways. While there are growing numbers of school conflict management programs around the country, Ohio’s program, hailed by the National Association for Mediation in Education as "path- breaking," is the only one of its kind in the United States.
An innovative aspect of this initiative has been the development of resource materials and the delivery of programs to schools. OCDRCM has developed a variety of age- appropriate curricular materials designed to help teachers and administrators introduce conflict management concepts, and to provide teachers and students with tools for learning basic conflict resolution skills. The ready availability of these materials has been crucial to overcoming two major barriers to starting school conflict management programs: (1) lack of funds to purchase existing materials and (2) lack of time teachers have to review the wide range of existing materials in order to develop their own.
Program delivery begins with training teams of school staff members at one of 14 regional training centers in the state. They are introduced to key concepts in conflict management and the use of the OCDRCM Elementary School Conflict Management Resource Guide. School personnel then return to their sites and, in turn, train teachers, staff and students at their own schools. OCDRCM trainers serve as consultants during the first year of the program.
School programs vary considerably. They may or may not move directly to setting up peer mediation training for students. Some of them integrate or supplement the OCDRCM program with other programs aimed at drug prevention or behavior improvement. All the schools have made efforts to incorporate the conflict management material into core subjects.
In 1994- 1995, 132 Ohio elementary schools received small OCDRCM grants ($ 1,500) to begin building conflict resolution programs in their schools. In 1996, questionnaires were sent out to these schools to assess their progress. From 115 responses, the results reported are encouraging:
78% of respondents said they have seen improvement in classroom management.
65% report a decrease in the amount of time teachers spend dealing with student conflicts.
61% note a decrease in student fights.
59% report a decrease in office referrals.
This report presents more detailed findings from a dozen of the 132 elementary schools that received OCDRCM seed money. These case studies were selected to represent a range of geographical and sociological settings, diverse student populations, and different methodologies of implementation.
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Case Studies and Evaluations
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