Academy for Restorative Education

The Academy for Restorative Education is a leader in innovative, transformative and restorative education models.

VISION/MISSION STATEMENT

The Academy for Restorative Education seeks to reinvigorate young minds. Our mission is to aid in the development and support of specific, proven and meaningful educational models to close the academic and economic achievement gaps in our country. We believe that effective and targeted education as a remedy for under resourced children and their families can transform entire communities and be a bridge to economic opportunities previously out of reach. Broadening the menu of strategies to help all students achieve excellence, especially among underperforming African American children, is crucial in helping students achieve their full potential.

GOALS

Guided by our Mission, we pursue the following goals through our fundraising, research and advocacy:

• Address the particular educational needs of traditionally under resourced communities, particularly those of African American children, by supporting and strengthening our innovative partner SILE schools and our training and research institute.
• Promote progressive educational research and best practices for culturally literate, effective teaching within those vulnerable communities
• Highlight strategies to deconstruct the obstacles that institutionalized racism has created to disable transformative teaching and equitable learning.
• Recognize and encourage leaders who are working to increase educational achievement within those communities
• Inform policymakers and opinion leaders about important issues surrounding the education of vulnerable learners. 

PHILOSOPHY: 

Education is the Great Liberator.  Restorative education is a purposeful strategy that helps build healthy communities, increases social capital, repairs harm and restores relationships.

There is a wealth of research showing that current educational models are not optimal to the learning styles of African American students, and that those students don’t perform as well on standardized assessments of learning. Further research shows that current discipline models in education disproportionately affect those students in negative, often catastrophic ways.   Historically, educational models in the United States discount the role that prior institutionalized abuse, neglect and cultural disrespect, and the resultant trauma and harmed caused by such experiences have on learning.

Restorative education seeks to acknowledge the historical neglect those vulnerable students and families have endured in traditional education models, seeks to discover effective, targeted, innovative models of education for those students and thereby reversing the historic trend of bias in education. Restorative education disrupts the U.S. school-to-prison pipeline.  It emphasizes repairing the harm done by educational institutions to people, relationships and communities.

Restorative education can:

reduce social barriers to learning

engage more students

create a context for understanding and valuing diversity

nurture a sense of belonging

promote positive mental health

Whether you are donating funds, sponsoring an event or providing student scholarships, we welcome you to our cause!