Beyond Classroom Management: Implementing School-wide Positive Behavioral Supports George Sugai OSEP Center on Positive Behavioral Interventions & Supports.

Beyond Classroom Management: Implementing

School-wide Positive Behavioral Supports

George SugaiOSEP Center on Positive Behavioral

Interventions & Supports

Maryland February 2, 2001

www.PBIS.org

My job today…• To describe definition & features of

systems approach to positive behavioral interventions & supports…..moving beyond classroom & behavior management – Context

– Definition & elements

– Implementation features

Acknowledgements

• Students, Educators, administrators, staff, families

• Community of researchers, personnel preparers, staff developers,….

• Offices of Special Education Programs & Drug Free Schools, US Dept. of Ed.

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Themes….• Consider school as unit of analysis

• Emphasize behavior of educators individually & collectively

• Build multi-level behavioral supports

• Give priority to agenda of primary prevention

“Big Idea”

Goal is to establish host environments that support adoption & sustain use of evidence-based practices

(Zins & Ponte, 1990)

Schools are important & good!

• Regular, predictable, positive learning & teaching environments

• Positive adult & peer models

• Regular positive reinforcement

• Academic & social behavior development & success

However,..context examples….

• Intermediate/senior high school with 880 students reported over 5,100 office discipline referrals in one academic year.

• Elementary school principal reported that over 100% of her office discipline referrals came from 8.7% of her total school enrollment, & 2.9% had 3 or more.

• Middle school principal must teach classes when teachers are absent, because substitute teachers refuse to work in a school that is unsafe & lacks discipline.

• Middle school counselor spends nearly 15% of his day “counseling” staff members who feel helpless & defenseless in their classrooms because of a lack of discipline & support.

• Elementary school principal found that over 45% of their behavioral incident reports were coming from the playground.

• At beginning of year, 31% of entering 6th graders read at fluency levels significantly below grade level.

• In one school year, 13 year old Jason received 87 office discipline referrals.

• In one school year, a sixth grade teacher processed 273 office discipline referrals.

• A principal indicates that 40% of kindergarteners are at serious risk for reading failure because they lack knowledge of the alphabet & are unable to produce individual sounds that make up a word.

• In one school, family members are requesting school transfers because their children are being verbally harassed by other students.

• At an elementary school with 750, less than half of third graders could read at grade level.

What is our “common” response?

• Clamp down on rule violators.

• Review rules & sanctions

• Extend continuum of aversive consequences

• Improve consistency of use of punishments

• Establish “bottom line”

Reactive responses are predictable….

• We experience aversive situation

• So, we select interventions that – Produce immediate relief from aversive

– Modify physical environment

– Assign responsibility for change to student &/or others

But….false sense of safety/security!

• Zero tolerance policies

• Security guards, student uniforms, metal detectors, video cameras

• Suspension/expulsion

• Exclusionary options (e.g., alternative programs)

2001 Surgeon General’s Report

• Decreases in youth violence?– Yes, for homicide

– No, for assaults & other antisocial behavior

• Risk factors– Antisocial peer networks

– Reinforced deviancy

• Recommendations (rearrange contingencies)

– Break up antisocial networks

– Increase academic success

– Create positive school climates

– Adopt primary prevention agenda

Challenge…how do schools achieve capacity to…

• Respond effectively, efficiently, & relevantly to range of behavioral challenges observed in schools

• Engage in team-based problem solving

• Adopt, fit, & sustain research-based behavioral practices

• Give priority to unified agenda of prevention

“Positive Behavioral Interventions & Supports”

Systematic organization of school environments & routines so educators have increased capacity to adopt, use, & sustain effective behavioral practices & processes for all students.

3 Main PBIS Elements

SYSTEMS

PRACTICES

DATA

SupportingStaff Behavior

SupportingDecisionMaking

SupportingStudent Behavior

Positive Behavior Support

6 PBIS Goals

1. Select & adapt technologies that are more effective, efficient, & relevant than reactive practices

2. Arrange opportunities to teach & practice evidence-based technologies

3. Remove conditions that occasion & maintain undesirable practices

4. Increase conditions that occasion & maintain desirable practices

5. Remove aversives that inhibit desirable practices

6. Establish systems & routines that support continuum of positive behavior supports

Specialized Individual Interventions(Individual StudentSystem)

Continuum of Effective BehaviorSupport

Specialized GroupInterventions(At-Risk System)

Universal Interventions (School-Wide SystemClassroom System)

Studentswithout SeriousProblemBehaviors (80 -90%)

Students At-Risk for Problem Behavior(5-15%)

Students withChronic/IntenseProblem Behavior(1 - 7%)

Primary Prevention

Secondary Prevention

Tertiary Prevention

All Students in School

Implementation Features

1. Establish EBS leadership team

2. Secure SW agreements & supports

3. Establish data-based action plan

4. Arrange for high fidelity implementation

5. Conduct formative data-based monitoring

1. Establish EBS Leadership Team

• Establish membership that enhances– Behavioral capacity

– Efficient communications & staff development

– Opportunities for administrative leadership

– Data-based decision making & problem solving

2. Secure SW Agreements & Supports

• Agreements– Prioritized data-based need & action

– 3-4 year commitment

– Proactive instructional approach

• Supports– Administrative leadership

– Prioritized resources

• Materials, personnel, etc.

– Time

3. Establish Data-based Action Plan

• Review data– EBS Survey

– Behavioral incident data

• Consider multiple systems

• Adopt evidence-based practices

Systems ApproachSchool-Wide

Non-Classroom

Individual Student

Classroom

Community

Family

School

Child/Youth

School-wide & Classroom Systems

1.Common purpose & approach to discipline

2.Clear set of positive expectations & behaviors

3. Procedures for teaching expected behavior

4. Continuum of procedures for encouraging expected behavior

5. Continuum of procedures for discouraging inappropriate behavior

6. Procedures for on-going monitoring & evaluation

Effective Classroom Management

• Behavior management– Teaching routines

– Ratio of 6-8 positive to 1 negative adult-student interaction

• Instructional management– Curriculum & Instructional design

• Environmental management

Nonclassroom Systems

• Teaching expectations & routines

• Active supervision– Scan, move, interact

• Precorrections & reminders

• Positive reinforcement

Individual Student System

• Behavioral competence

• Function-based behavior support planning

• Comprehensive person-centered planning & wraparound processes

• Targeted social skills instruction– Self-management

• Individualized instructional & curricular accommodations

4. Arrange for High Fidelity Implementation

• Team-based leadership & implementation

• Use of research-validated practices

• Overt supports for staff implementation– Natural & systematic staff development

– Instructional scripts/prompts

– Positive reinforcement

5. Conduct formative data-based monitoring

• “Good” data for input

• Efficient data manipulation & summarization

– SWIS.org

• Guided data-based decision making

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Creating positive school climates: Some features

• Create continuum of behavior supports from a systems perspective

• Focus on behavior of adults in school as unit

• Establish behavioral competence

• Utilize effective, efficient, & relevant data-based decision making systems

• Give priority to academic success

• Invest in research validated practices

• Arrange environment for “working smarter”

“Working Smarter” means…

• Do less, but better

• Do it once, but for a long time

• Invest in clear outcomes

• Invest in sure thing

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PIBS Goals• Arrange opportunities to teach & practice

desirable technologies

• Remove discriminative stimuli that occasion & reinforcers that maintain undesirable practices

• Increase discriminative stimuli that occasion & reinforcers that maintain desirable practices

• Remove aversives that inhibit desirable practices

• Establish systems & routines that support continuum of behavior supports