Unfortunately, many schools have disruptive students. Kicking them out of the classrooms, school detention or suspension is not the solution. Teachers should try to find new ways to get these disruptive students involved in quality learning. They need to learn how to handle behavior problems that might occur in the classrooms. PBIS (positive behavioral interventions supports) is an approach that is grounded in research regarding behavior in the context of the settings in which it occurs. There is a need of these types of supports in elementary classrooms, in particular Sprague Elementary school, to eliminate behavior problems.
Thus, implementation of school-wide positive behavioral interventions and supports (PBIS) in elementary schools is a topic that interested me. I decided to research this topic for the Capstone Project because of my concentration in Individualized Studies with a focus on Education/Psychology, my work experience, and my ambitions for my future career as a teacher. This capstone project will provide me with the opportunity to apply and integrate key concepts from some courses in my program of study.
It will also prepare me with necessary discipline tools that I will need in the future. Furthermore, other new teachers will benefit from this research. They will learn about PBIS strategies, how PBIS promote a positive school environment, how they affect directly the discipline on the different classrooms and how these strategies work according to school and student’s needs. The objective of this study is to explore the current studies about the implementation of PBIS on elementary schools, and specifically the effectiveness in Sprague Elementary School.
I will collaborate with Sprague Elementary School at Waterbury, where I currently work as a paraprofessional to complete my research study. I will work with the staff members of this school, to explain, to clarify and answer questions about my research in the effectiveness of PBIS in Sprague Elementary School. Next, this research paper will describe the effectiveness of PBIS in elementary schools all over the country and it will evaluate how PBIS strategies are applied on Sprague Elementary School.
My paper will examine the positive effects of implementation of PBIS in Sprague Elementary School, regarding the quality of this implementation, and students’ outcomes such as students’ achievements, students’ behaviors, suspensions, or referrals. Reviewing the existing research will help me to define what PBIS means, why elementary schools use this practice, and how the implementation of this practice improves students’ behaviors and students’ achievements.
The research questions are as follows: 1. Does PBIS increase the awareness of the teachers about the need of students with behavior problems? . How can teachers identify behavior problems and reduce them? 3. Do teachers have challenges using PBIS strategies? Are they effective for most of the students? 4. What new strategies teachers use to improve their students behavior or their academic performance? To meet my goals, I will need different resources. I intend to find some of my sources in the library, print books or educational journals. Also, I will use the electronic library provided by Charter Oak College. All my sources should be reliable websites.
Furthermore, I will need time to evaluate the implementation of PBIS in Sprague Elementary School. From the beginning of the school year, I will take notes in different classrooms; I will follow some students’ behaviors, and their academic achievement, during September 2015. In addition, I will interview teachers of different classrooms, and I will participate on PBIS team’s meetings. I will provide examples from my school, photos, interview statistics or bar graphs. The main methodology will be interviews and observations.
Timeline for Project: August 26- September 11 Observe teachers to set classroom rules • Take pictures of expectations in different classrooms. September 14-September 30 • Observe students how they improved their behavior and their academic performance • Observe PBIS team and their collaborative work • Observe how students’ academic and behavior problems are related • Identify some challenges of implementing PBIS in Sprague Elementary school October 15-October 25 • Interviews with different classroom teachers • Interviews with PBIS team member November 1, 2015 I will finish writing this paper because it is the deadline of this capstone project.
Summary of my materials will be presented in my bibliography. High fidelity implementation of school-wide PBIS has been linked with improvements in student and staff behavior, but less is known about which aspects of the model may be present in schools prior to training, and whether some features of PBIS are implemented faster than others. The present study examines the progression of school-wide PBIS implementation using School-wide Evaluation Tool data collected across three years from 21 schools randomly assigned to receive training in PBIS and 16 schools not trained in PBIS.
Trained schools evidenced significantly higher levels of implementation fidelity. Non-trained schools showed some increases, but lagged behind trained schools on all subscales except Systems for Responding to Violations. Findings suggest that program trainers and behavior support coaches should concentrate initial efforts on strategies for Defining and Teaching Expectations, whereas less time may be needed for developing Systems for Responding to Violations.
Recommendations for high-fidelity implementation of school-wide PBIS are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] In this article, we report the results from a randomized evaluation of the Safe and Civil Schools (SCS) model for school-wide positive behavioral interventions and supports. Thirty-two elementary schools in a large urban school district were randomly assigned to an initial training cohort or a wait-list control group. Results suggested that SCS training positively affected school policies and student behavior.
Surveys administered after the commencement of SCS training found large improvements in staff perceptions of school behavior policies and student behavior at schools receiving SCS training that were not observed at wait-list schools. Similarly, we observed reductions in student suspensions at schools implementing SCS that were not observed at control schools. The observed improvements persisted through the second year of trainings, and once the wait-list control schools commenced SCS training, they experienced similar improvements in school policies and student behavior.
More than 10,000 schools in the United States have adopted the multi-tiered model of behavioral as a school-wide positive behavior interventions and supports (PBIS). Schools and districts adopting, implementing, and sustaining PBIS are charged with collecting and disseminating data generated by and related to students, parents, teachers, and administrators. Additionally, researchers and technical assistance providers collect school- and district-level measures to measure outcomes related to PBIS implementation.
The interests and needs of this broad range of stakeholders impact the usefulness of each piece of data that is collected for each stakeholder group. This paper presents a construct called stakeholder utility, driven by stakeholder role and purpose, which may help stakeholders design and appraise measures to be used for assessment, evaluation, and research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] This case study describes the leadership of a school counselor in implementing positive behavioral interventions and supports (PBIS) in a low-income, diverse elementary school with a modest level of external supports.
After initiating a grade-level pilot program, the school counselor partnered with university-based consultants to expand the PBIS initiative to all grades. This article presents data from multiple measures of implementation fidelity to illustrate the 5-year process of bringing school wide PBIS to scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] This paper presents preliminary assessment data on initial training and implementation of a statewide system of positive behavioral interventions and supports (PBIS) in New Hampshire.
PBIS is the systematic organization of school environments and routines that enable educators to increase the capacity to adopt, use, and sustain effective behavioral practices and processes for all students. Preliminary results indicate that schools can be trained and supported in developing effective school wide approaches through a statewide initiative as 15 of the 28 schools (54%) in Cohort 1 achieved implementation of school wide discipline procedures. Broken down by level, 75% of the multi-level schools, 62% of the elementary schools, 50% of the middle schools, and none of the high schools met the criterion.
Implications for policy, practice, and research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Educators and psychologists are concerned about problem behavior. Fortunately, effective interventions and practices have been documented for addressing this problem behavior. However, sustained and expanded uses of these interventions and practices have not been consistent or widespread. One promising approach to the systemic and sustained implementation of these practices is school-wide positive behavior support (SWPBS).
The SWPBS effort emphasizes an integration of measurable outcomes, data-based decision making, evidence-based practices, and overt support systems for implementers. This behaviorally based comprehensive systems approach is suggested as a means of achieving durable implementation of effective school-based interventions. Although the SWPBS approach is conceptually sound and comprised of supportable behavioral practices, further systems-level demonstrations and validations of efficacy, effectiveness, and expansion are recommended.