What if school leaders didn’t have to choose between accountability and restorative practices?
In Episode 1 of The AscendED School, we tackle one of the most challenging issues facing schools today: student behavior, discipline, and the systems that support teachers and students.
Too often, schools are forced into a false choice: either use punitive discipline or embrace restorative practices. But what if effective schools need both accountability and restoration?
In this episode, Rebecca Burtram, Adam Howard, and Bruce MacBain explore what they call Restorative Accountability: a systems-based approach that maintains clear expectations and meaningful consequences while helping students repair harm, develop missing skills, and remain connected to their school community.
School leaders will learn how to:
* Move beyond the punitive vs. restorative debate
* Build a schoolwide culture where accountability and relationships work together
* Stop leaving teachers to manage persistent behavior challenges on their own
* Close the loop with teachers after disciplinary incidents
* Use consequences as opportunities for skill-building and student growth
* Create systems that protect the learning environment while maintaining relationships with students
* Think differently about behavior as a form of communication
* Identify whether your current discipline system is actually supporting teachers and students
The conversation also introduces the Whole School Restorative Accountability Program (WRAP), designed to help schools create consistent systems for behavior, communication, accountability, and restoration.
Three questions for school leaders
1. Have we created a false choice between discipline and restoration?
2. Do we have proactive systems for responding to behavior—or are we relying on individual teachers to solve the problem?
3. Are we closing the loop with teachers, students, and families after a behavioral incident?
If you're a principal, assistant principal, superintendent, instructional leader, or district administrator looking for practical ways to strengthen school culture, support teachers, and improve your approach to student behavior, this conversation is for you.
Learn more about AscendED and Restorative Accountability:
https://ascended-consulting.com
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What is The AscendED School?
Welcome to The AscendED School a podcast for school leaders, educators, and anyone committed to building schools that prepare students not just for graduation, but for life beyond the K–12 environment.
Hosted by experienced educators and school leaders Rebecca Burtram, Adam Howard, and Bruce MacBain, The AscendED School brings together decades of experience from the classroom, school administration, and educational leadership.
Our guiding belief is simple:
Students should be prepared, not just promoted.
We believe effective preparation requires schools to have systems in place to meet the needs of today.
We believe students deserve adults who expect great things from them and who provide the structures, relationships, instruction, and support necessary to help them meet those expectations.
On each episode, we explore the real challenges facing schools today, including:
* Student behavior and school culture
* Accountability and restorative practices
* Teacher support and retention
* School leadership and systems
* Student engagement and motivation
* Preparing students for life after graduation
* Building cultures of high expectations and high support
* Moving from individual solutions to schoolwide systems
* Creating schools where both adults and students can thrive
We don't believe there are easy answers. And we don't believe that schools should have to choose between relationships and accountability, support and expectations, or compassion and consequences.
Instead, we ask a different question:
What systems do schools need to help students become the people they need to be beyond K–12?
Join us as we challenge conventional thinking, share lessons from the field, and explore practical strategies that school leaders can put into action.
The goal isn't simply to get students across the graduation stage.
The goal is to make sure they're ready for what comes after it.