School-wide Positive Behavior Supports

1. School-wide Positive Behavior Supports Tim Lewis, Ph.D. University of Missouri OSEP Center on Positive Behavioral Intervention & Supports www.pbis.org

2. The Challenge • Students with the most challenging behaviors in school need pro-active comprehensive and consistent systems of support • School-wide discipline systems are typically unclear and inconsistently implemented • Educators often lack specialized skills to address severe problem behavior • Pressure on schools to incorporate national and state initiatives such as Values Education, Anti-Bullying efforts, and Safe Schools. Many often have clear defined outcomes but fail to provide structures to reach outcomes or a framework for deciding what should be implemented when, for whom, and to what degree

3. Typical responses to students • Increase monitoring for future problem behavior • Re-review rules & sanctions • Extend continuum of aversive consequences • Improve consistency of use of punishments • Establish “bottom line” • Zero tolerance policies • Security guards, student uniforms, metal detectors, video cameras • Suspension/expulsion • Exclusionary options (e.g., alternative programs)

4. The Danger…. “Punishing” problem behaviors (without a proactive support system) is associated with increases in (a) aggression, (b) vandalism, (c) truancy, and (d) dropping out. (Mayer, 1995, Mayer & Sulzar-Azaroff, 1991, Skiba & Peterson, 1999)

5. The Good News… Research reviews indicate that the most effective responses to school violence are (Elliot, Hamburg, & Williams, 1998;Gottfredson, 1997; Lipsey, 1991, 1992; Tolan & Guerra, 1994): • Social Skills Training • Academic Restructuring • Behavioral Interventions

6. Toward a Solution The answer is not the invention of new solutions, but the enhancement of the school’s organizational capacity to: • Accurately adopt and efficiently sustain their use of research-validated practices • Provide a Seamless continuum of behavioral and academic support for all students • Be part of a district wide system of behavior support • Increased focus, teacher training, community training, and funding for early intervention

7. School-wide Positive Behavior Support PBS is a broad range of systemic and individualized strategies for achieving important social and learning outcomes while preventing problem behavior OSEP Center on PBIS

8. PBS is not... • Not specific practice or curriculum…it’s a general approach to preventing problem behavior • Not limited to any particular group of students…it’s for all students • Not new…its based on long history of behavioral practices & effective instructional design & strategies

9. Tertiary Prevention: Specialized Individualized Systems for Students with High-Risk Behavior CONTINUUM OF 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 ~80% of Students

10. Social Competence & Academic Achievement Positive Behavior Support OUTCOMES Supporting Decision Making Supporting Staff Behavior DATA SYSTEMS PRACTICES Supporting Student Behavior

11. School-wide Positive Behavioral Support • Incorporate best practice in professional development and system change (teams) • Emphasizes the use of assessment information to guide intervention and management decisions • Focus on the use of a continuum of behavioral supports • Focus on increasing the contextual fit between problem context and what we know works • Focus on establishing school environments that support long term success of effective practices {3-5 years}

12. School-wide Positive Behavioral Support • Expectations for student behavior are defined by a building based team with all staff input • Effective behavioral support is implemented consistently by staff and administration • Appropriate student behavior is taught • Positive behaviors are publicly acknowledged • Problem behaviors have clear consequences • Student behavior is monitored and staff receive regular feedback • Effective Behavioral Support strategies are implemented at the school-wide, specific setting, classroom, and individualstudent level • Effective Behavioral Support strategies are designed to meet the needs of all students

13. Themes • Focus on positive proactive programming • Emphasis on clearly defined working structures • Teacher/school takes ownership of student learning & behavioral challenges • Problem behavior = learning error

14. Universal Strategies: School-Wide Essential Features • Statement of purpose • Clearly define expected behaviors (Rules) • Procedures for teaching & practicing expected behaviors • Procedures for encouraging expected behaviors • Procedures for discouraging problem behaviors • Procedures for record-keeping and decision making

15. Benton

16. Universal Strategies: Non- Classroom Settings • Identify Setting Specific Behaviors • Develop Teaching Strategies • Develop Practice Opportunities and Consequences • Assess the Physical Characteristics • Establish Setting Routines • Identify Needed Support Structures • Data collection strategies

17. Universal Strategies:Classroom Needed at the classroom level... • Use of school-wide expectations/rules • Effective Classroom Management • Behavior management • Instructional management • Environmental management • Support for teachers who deal with students who display high rates of problem behavior

18. Implementation Examples

20. Alton High SchoolAverage Referrals per Day

22. Maryland PBS Initiative

25. Group Cost Benefit Office Referral Reduction Across 12 PBIS schools= 5,606 If one Office Referral=15 minutes of administrator time, then 5,606 x 15= 84,090 minutes 1401.15 hours or 233 days of administrator time recovered and reinvested.

26. Group Cost Benefit Office Referral Reduction Across 12 PBIS Schools =5,606 If students miss 45 minutes of instruction for each Office Referral, 5,606 X 45= 252,270 minutes 4204.50 hours or 700 days of instructional time recovered!!!!!

29. Prevention & Supports For Identified and At-risk Students Social Behavior

30. A&D = Alcohol and Drug; ABS = Anti-social Behavior Scale

31. Small Group and Individual Interventions

32. Small Group / Targeted • Part of a continuum: Must link to school-wide PBS system • Efficient and effective way to identify students • Assessment = simple sort • Intervention matched to presenting problem but not highly individualized

33. Small Group / Targeted Practices • Social Skill Training • Self-Management • Mentors/Check-in • Peer tutoring / Peer Network • Academic support

37. Individual Students • Part of a continuum: Must link to school-wide PBS system • Quick supportive response to teacher • Plans based on a Functional Behavior Assessment • Clear process in place • Behavioral expertise available • All in school understand basic logic of FBA and PBS

38. Summary Investing in SW-PBS results in: • Change in school discipline systems creates an environment that promotes appropriate behavior • Reduction in problem behavior resulting in less staff time dealing with problems, more student time in the classroom • Improved perception of school safety, mental health • Improved academic performance • Improved social behavior performance • Less recidivism to more restrictive placements • Improved effectiveness and acceptability of individual interventions

41. On school reform… Kauffman states “…attempts to reform education will make little difference until reformers understand that schools must exist as much for teachers as for student. Put another way, schools will be successful in nurturing the intellectual, social, and moral development of children only to the extent that they also nurture such development of teachers.” (1993, p. 7).

42. School-wide Positive Behavior Supports Tim Lewis, Ph.D. University of Missouri OSEP Center on Positive Behavioral Intervention & Supports www.pbis.org