West Jay Middle School

1. West Jay Middle School Bullying Prevention - Positive Behavior Support

2. Getting Started • What is School-Wide Positive Behavior Support? • What is Bullying Prevention – Positive Behavior Support? • Current trends in discipline referrals • “Needs Assessment” • Why is parent and community involvement so important? • Bullying Prevention – Positive Behavior Support • How to make BP-PBS a success

3. School-wide PBS and Bullying • SW-PBS is: • A systems approach for establishing the social culture and behavioral supports needed for a school to be an effective learning environment for all students. • Evidence-based features of SW-PBS • Prevention • Define and teach positive social expectations • Acknowledge positive behavior • Arrange consistent consequences for problem behaviors • On-going collection and use of data for decision-making • Ongoing intensive, individual intervention supports • Implementation of the systems that support effective practices

4. Tertiary Prevention: Specialized Individualized Systems for Students with High-Risk Behavior The Infamous RTI: SCHOOL-WIDE INSTRUCTIONAL & POSITIVE BEHAVIOR SUPPORT ~5% Secondary Prevention: Specialized Group Systems for Students with At-Risk Behavior ~15% Primary Prevention: School-/Classroom- Wide Systems for All Students, Staff, & Settings A plan Proposed for Grissom Elementary School – Muncie, IN ~80% of Students

5. Bullying Prevention - PBS • BP-PBS was designed to fit within a system of Positive Behavior Support (PBS), a prevention-focused alternative to student support that blends socially valuable outcomes, research-based procedures, behavioral science, and a systems approach to reduce problem behavior and improve school climate (Horner, Sugai, Todd, & Lewis-Palmer, 2005).

6. Bully Prevention - PBS • A tier 1 or primary intervention in BP-PBS will allow West Jay to focus it’s efforts on teaching these appropriate, positive behaviors to all students, leading to a decrease in overall disruptive/negative behaviors and bullying instances. This program not only provides prevention services for all students, but also intervention services for 6th-8th graders.

7. Needs Assessment Data • Dates: 8/17/2009 – 6/15/2010 • Total Students – 312 • Male – 165 • Female – 147 • Total Tardies • Male – 400 • Female - 443

8. Needs Assessment • Breakdown of Tardies per grade level • 6th grade – 206 tardies • 7th grade – 240 tardies • 8th grade – 397 tardies

9. Needs Assessment- Office Discipline Referrals

10. Needs Assessment • Bullying was increased in 6th grade. This may be due to different passing periods for 6th, 7th, and 8th graders. 6th graders go to their locker after every passing period; whereas, 7th and 8th graders go every passing period. 6th graders had a total of 20 bullying/intimidation ODR’s for the 09/10 school year. • This is a specific area of need according to Mr. Crull, the principal of West Jay. Further assessment will be needed in the form of surveys, interviews, and focus groups with teachers, students, and parents.

11. Needs Assessment and Justification • Disruptive/Poor Behaviors decreased from 6th grade to 7th grade, but tripled from 7th grade to 8th grade. • According to teacher and principal interviews, the bullying instances are factors in an increase in disruptive/poor behaviors. These behaviors seem to correlate with one another. As one increases, the other increases.

12. Research • Research suggests that bullying behavior is frequently followed by and reinforced by peer attention or tangibles (Salmivalli, 2002). Through the explicit teaching of a 3-step response to problem behavior, students learn to eliminate the reinforcement for bullying. • Inconsistent staff procedures for dealing with reported incidents of bullying can lead to an increased likelihood of its display in certain settings.

13. Surveys for Needs Assessment • Overall school safety survey • Family Engagement Checklist • Teacher and staff survey for BP-PBS • Student Survey

14. Steps for Bullying Prevention • Administer a survey to all students to determine whether they have been bullied or witnessed someone being bullied at school. Through the survey, identify the “hot spots” where bullying may occur. (e.g., hallways, lunch, restrooms) • Create student focus groups to generate communication with trusted adults. • Consider the inclusion of student representatives on the Bullying Committee. • Continue to develop bullying prevention activities which support “best practices” in bullying prevention and intervention.

15. Needs Assessment • It is important to address parent and community involvement in the needs assessment. • A family engagement checklist should be completed by the school to assess the climate of the school and it’s relationship with parents and families, communication with parents, parent involvement at school (volunteering, assisting), and parent involvement in decision-making.

16. BP-PBS • An empirically based option is suggested for implementation to help address referrals to the office, underlying disruptive behaviors, and bullying. • Bully Prevention in Positive Behavior Support in Middle Schools

17. Bullying Prevention PBS in Middle Schools - Stop, Walk, Talk • Why is this good for West Jay? • Has been proven effective throughout the country to help students learn effective tools to reduce bullying behavior. • Based on empirically-based research • Answers teachers’ and administrators’ concerns about office discipline referrals and bullying instances.

18. Steps for Stop, Walk, Talk • Part 2 • Reviews the social responsibility skills (Stop, Walk, Talk), teaches students how to reply when someone uses “Stop, Walk, Talk” and combines group practice. • Part 3 • Reviews the social responsibility skills, teaches how to use “Stop, Walk, Talk” with gossip, and combines group practice. • Part 4 • Uses “Stop, Walk, Talk” with inappropriate remarks. • Part 5 • Combines “Stop, Walk, Talk” with cyber-bullying. • Part 6 • Discusses supervising behavior and includes objectives such as pre-correction, rewarding use of the 3-step response, and responding to reports of problem behavior. • Part 7 • Discusses faculty follow-up and includes the BP-PBS effectiveness survey and the BP-PBS decision-making flow chart.

19. Objectives for Bullying Prevention • Objective: Students will demonstrate an understanding of bullying and its effects on their learning environment. Students in all grade levels(6-8) will participate in bullying prevention activities which foster positive peer relationships that ensure a supportive learning community built on mutual respect. • To implement bullying prevention principles with students, parents and educational staff. • To establish, where absent, consistent, enforceable rules pertaining to bullying. • To integrate the bullying prevention principles in class room instruction where possible. • To provide skills for students to deal with bullying.

20. Assessment and Evaluation • # of Office Discipline Referrals (Baseline, Intervention, Post-Intervention) • Teacher and Staff Surveys • Survey students concerning prevalence and severity of bullying. • Students in all grades will complete a situational writing task to demonstrate their ability to identify a bullying problem and provide solutions which will positively affect their learning environment. A 6 point rubric will be developed to assess student comprehension of prevention and intervention strategies. By the end of the year all sixth grade students will demonstrate an understanding of bullying and its effects on their learning environment by receiving a score of 4 or higher on the assessment rubric.

21. How do we know it’s working? • Monthly evaluations will be completed to check progress. These can be done using Office Discipline Referral Data. A decrease in overall Office Discipline Referrals, a decrease in Bullying referrals, and a decrease in Disruptive Behavior referrals is the objective. • Student and Teacher surveys will be completed every 6 months to evaluate if the total number of bullying instances has decreased and whether students and teachers feel “safe” in their school.

22. What does the research say? • Three elementary schools implemented the Stop, Talk, and Walk method. All staff was taught with the BP in PBIS manual that includes this method. All students were taught by the staff and all playground personnel received implementation support. Data was then collected by graduate students. • The data found the following: • Recipients of bullying said “stop” 30 % of the time, a 28% increase. • Bystanders of bullying said “stop” 22% of the time, a 21% increase. • There was also an overall 22% decrease in positive response (laughing, cheering) when the bullying occurred. • Stop, talk, and walk can be used with gossip, inappropriate remarks, and cyber bullying. All of these are at-risk behaviors for middle school students.

23. Training • Teachers will be trained in groups and on an individual basis. • Students are trained in groups through role-playing activities by BP-PBS trained teachers and support staff. Students can be taught skills in the classroom setting, possibly during homeroom. • Techniques and skills learned from the skillstreaming program can be integrated in the Bully Prevention program.

24. Cost of Program • Program is free. Teacher trainings can be done in small groups or large groups before or after school.

25. Stakeholders • It is important to increase support for everyone involved. This includes teachers, parents, and students. • Reinforcers for teachers and parents for their involvement in the plan is very crucial to the effective implementation of the plan. • Be creative • Provide Lunch during Trainings • Assistance in the classroom • Extra prep time while students are supervised by fellow teacher/staff

26. Questions • Questions or comments?? • Please feel free to contact the principal or a BP-PBS team member with questions if they come up. A plan Proposed for Grissom Elementary School – Muncie, IN