HOW PEACE GAMES IS HELPING TO PROMOTE A CULTURE OF PEACEMAKING:
Highlights from a Three-Year Evaluation of Partnerships in Boston and Los Angeles

Steven Brion-Meisels, Ph.D./Director of Research, Evaluation and Learning
Casey Corcoran, M.Ed./Program Specialist

Creating and sustaining a culture of peace takes time and collaborative effort. Our evaluation data suggests that the labor of students, school staff, families, community volunteers, and Peace Games staff has begun to bear rich fruit. In April 2001, Peace Games initiated three-year collaborations with six elementary schools in Boston and Los Angeles, involving more than 3,000 students and 200 teachers annually. Each year we gathered and analyzed data from a sample of 600 students in first through sixth grade, and 40 staff members across five Peace Games schools. To evaluate how students and teachers have improved their peacemaking skills, and to what extent Peace Games has helped the school create and sustain a culture of peace, we utilized written surveys, classroom conversations, individual interviews, focus groups, and children’s writing.

Our evaluation examined peacemaking skills and behavior (communication, cooperation, conflict resolution and engagement) as well as peace-breaking behavior (fighting, teasing and pushing). We focused on three broad questions related to outcomes and implementation: (1) How are students peacemakers? (2) How does the school support peacemaking? (3) How has Peace Games helped the school in its efforts? Data from our most recent (2004) evaluation tells us the following:

• 96% of students reported that they now include peers in their recess and classroom groups and know how to work well together on cooperative teams
• 95% of students reported that Peace Games improved their empathy
• 94% of students reported that Peace Games helped improve their peacemaking skills (communication, cooperation, conflict resolution and engagement)
• 94% of students reported that Peace Games helped them become positively engaged in civic engagement and service learning projects
• 91% of students reported that Peace Games helped them improve their academics
• 91% of students rated the Peace Games program as excellent or good
• 84% reported that their involvement helped improve their school attendance.

This data aligns with the results of a similar survey in the spring of 2003, suggesting both consistent progress and positive changes in the school’s culture.

In the spring of 2004, we compared student and teacher reports about peacemaking behavior with baseline data from the spring of 2001 (when we began the partnerships). This data also suggests continued and sustained progress in key areas:

• Students in all schools reported reduced levels of teasing, fighting, and pushing
• 83% of students reported that they seldom tease others and 68% reported that they are seldom teased by others – both of which were improvements from 2001
• 82% of students reported that they are seldom pushed threatened or pushed by others – a 12% improvement from 2001
• 78% of students reported that they are more likely to walk away from a fight without thinking of themselves as cowards – an 11% improvement from 2001
• 73% of students said that it is important to help others at recess – a 13% improvement from 2001
• 64% of students reported that they fight or argue less than before Peace Games
• Teachers in all schools reported improvements in students’ ability to communicate, cooperate and resolve conflicts without violence
• 60% of teachers reported reduced levels of student fights and arguments
• Principals in all schools reported positive changes not only in students’ behavior, but also in the school’s peacemaking programs and strategies.

Interviews and focus groups with 40 students and 40 teachers helped to expand and deepen the quantitative data. Here are some sample comments:

• “[Peace Games] changed me as a person. I would not be as respectful as I am now without Peace Games… It brought peace to my life.” (7^th grade student)
• “Now we get along better, and even though there are new students they will stay together and we join the students together as one family.” (4^th grade student)
• “The first year, students learned what it is to be a peacemaker. The second and third years have made all the difference in the world because now they actually have the vocabulary and understanding and you can build on that.” (teacher)
• “When I was in school, everyone just watched a fight. Here sometimes kids get themselves in the middle but it’s because they are trying to stop it.” (teacher)
• “As teachers, there is not much training in social justice. Peace Games gives you that. You are learning it along with the students. Then it gives you tools to deal with it.” (teacher)
• “I have been here for 14 years. Peace Games really helped me with how to talk about these issues.” (teacher)

At the same time, there is much work to be done. Many students reported that they continue to be challenged when trying to use their new peacemaking skills on the playground. For example, while 94% of students reported improved peacemaking skills, only 64% of them reported that they get involved in fewer fights or arguments, and only 78% say they feel they can walk away from a fight without being called a coward or chicken. Children continue to struggle with contradictory messages of adult society: don’t fight but don’t back down either! In the coming years, Peace Games will continue to focus on promoting and sustaining a culture of peace. The results of our current evaluation study also suggest that our evaluation strategies and tools are useful and effective, so we will continue to pursue this direction as well as to develop more rigorous comparison school studies.