If administrators personalize attacks, defend themselves, or argue with detractors, anger will escalate and the situation will degenerate further. This article explains why people attack and advises how to respond by using reflective listening, inviting criticism, focusing on the problem itself, exploring suggested solutions as legitimate options,…

Evaluates effectiveness of an intervention program for students with low self-concept and social relationship difficulties. The ABLE program (Attribution, Behavior, Life Skills Education) incorporates problem-solving, conflict resolution, and a multidimensional framework to investigate adolescents' self-concept formation. Improvements were made in…

Adversarial approaches perpetuate disciplinary problems without solving them. Conferencing is a group conflict-resolution process that focuses on repairing relationships when offenders admit wrongdoing. When kids take responsibility for their bad behavior, they realize they can control their actions-the foundation for developing self-efficacy and…

A recent study of Houston secondary schools shows that assistant principals' work centers on routine clerical tasks, custodial duties, and discipline. Daily activities are characterized by brevity, variety, and fragmentation. Assistant principals are seldom charged with instructional improvement activities, except for teacher appraisal. The…

Violence-prevention measures at railroad crossings may not work at schools! This special issue highlights three approaches to dealing with youth violence: prevention (peace building); intervention (peace making); and security (peace keeping). The problem stems from incivility, lack of respect, and unconstructive communication. Diverse perspectives…

This practicum was designed to explore the impact that exposure to conflict management had on emotionally and behaviorally disordered high school students. High school students who participated in this study were from the west coast of central Florida. The practicum objectives were for students to show a 25% increase in the use of conflict…

Examines the recent growth of interest in conflict studies as a dimension of peace education and explores various ways of developing workable approaches to conflict studies. (DB)

Introduces school counselors to the idea of addressing adolescent conflict situations through use of a standardized Taylor-Johnson Temperament Analysis (T-JTA) instrument. Concludes that the T-JTA can be an effective tool in helping adolescents begin to consider the impact their conflict resolution style has on others and on the escalation or…

Designed by a leading public health administrator, the Violence Prevention Curriculum for Adolescents tries to raise teens' violence threshold by creating a nonviolent classroom ethos and extending students' repertoire of responses to anger. An ideal schoolwide program teaches social skills and features peer-mentoring and conflict resolution…

Current efforts to create safe schools concentrate on peace-keeping and peace-making strategies (negative peace), that may enforce mutual mistrust and marginalize "suspicious" persons. Peace building tries to build beloved communities by providing nonviolent ways to empower students, model appropriate behaviors, and manage conflicts.…

An African-American student protest against a Hispanic-American celebration was resolved using mediation as a teachable moment. This scenario underscores "Leading for Diversity" study findings: proactive school leaders contain and prevent interethnic violence by building a strong foundation of respect and understanding across lines of…

This report evaluates the second and third years of conflict resolution programs that were established at both the elementary and secondary levels during the 1991-92 school year. The programs emphasized peer mediation, in which students in conflict meet with a pair of students trained in mediation skills. The mediators attempt to open…

The rush to establish conflict resolution strategies in the schools has created a maze of programs based on a number of models. By themselves, these programs are not sufficient to promote peace among youth, since they do not transcend the interpersonal level to consider the involvement of groups of students, the community, and families. Resolving…

Each of the 1989 dropout prevention programs funded under the New York City Attendance Improvement Dropout Prevention (AIDP) Demonstration and Replication Program was successful in meeting some of its objectives, and all of the programs were viewed as valuable by principals and teachers. The program encourages the design and implementation of…