The Roots curriculum, for student-driven positive school climate.
Designed for middle schools, grades 5-8. Princeton University, 2013
This curriculum is open access: Free for all interested parties
Evidence demonstrating the positive effect of this curriculum on students' perceived norms of social conflict and on student behavior is described in the following peer-reviewed publication, based on a 56-school randomized controlled trial run in public middle schools, grades 5-8, in the state of New Jersey in 2012-2013.
"Despite a surge in policy and research attention to conflict and
bullying among adolescents, there is little evidence to suggest
that current interventions reduce school conflict. Using a large scale
field experiment, we show that it is possible to reduce
conflict with a student-driven intervention. By encouraging a
small set of students to take a public stance against typical
forms of conflict at their school, our intervention reduced
overall levels of conflict by an estimated 30%. Network analyses
reveal that certain kinds of students (called “social referents”)
have an outsized influence over social norms and
behavior at the school. The study demonstrates the power of
peer influence for changing climates of conflict, and suggests
which students to involve in those efforts."
from: Paluck, E.L. Shepherd, H. R., & Aronow, P. M. (2016). Changing climates of conflict: A social network driven experiment in 56 schools. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Open access here, and at: http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2016/01/02/1514483113.full.pdf
Curriculum designed and written by Laura Spence-Ash, Ariel Domlyn, Jennifer Dannals, and Allison Bland,* with
technical support from David Mackenzie, and led by Dr. Betsy Levy Paluck and Dr. Hana Shepherd. *reverse alphabetical order.
Download curriculum and all supporting materials below:
Full curriculum guide (PDF) (three parts merged into one large file)
Guiding Principles of Roots (PDF)
Meeting materials:
Meeting 1 (ZIP)
Meeting 2 (ZIP)
Meeting 3 (ZIP)
Meeting 4 (ZIP)
Meeting 5 (ZIP)
Meeting 6 (ZIP)
Meeting 7 (ZIP)
Meeting 8 (ZIP)
Meeting 9 - Roots Day (ZIP)
Meeting 10 (ZIP)
Assorted Activity Bank (ZIP)
Website (ZIP)