Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS)

The PBIS HISTORY IN ACADIA PARISH SCHOOLS officially began with a February 20, 2004, letter to Acadia Parish School Superintendent John E. Bourque from the LA State Department of Education announcing PBIS training opportunities. The program is designed to reinforce positive behavior in order to correct discipline problems.

PBIS is a scientifically research-based systems approach to enhancing the capacity of schools to educate all students, including those with challenging social behaviors. PBIS is a proactive process whereby school leadership teams, in alignment with school improvement efforts 1) facilitate the school’s implementation of system-wide positive discipline procedures, 2) make ongoing data-based (JPAM) decisions about the effectiveness of their discipline procedures/interventions, and 3) make adjustments as needed throughout the year to enhance the success of both students and staff. Participation in this initiative can assist school systems in multiple ways, including:

Meeting the demands of Act 1225, The Education/Juvenile Partnership Act. This Act requires that, by March 2004, the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) recommends a master plan for improving behavior and discipline within schools. The PBIS model is recommended as the foundation for the model master plan.

Improving school climates so that students and faculty can focus on learning. Schools across the state are working hard to meet the performance demands of both Louisiana’s accountability system and the NCLB requirements. Schools that spend undue time on reactive and unsuccessful discipline matters will struggle to meet these requirements.

Interesting Concepts of PBIS

School administrators approve PBIS: Many research surveys indicate that principals have found it can be frustrating to continuously adopt new programs. However, PBIS is a process that works with an existing school’s discipline system. The PBIS process builds into a system of an already established discipline plan at any school. No established discipline system has to be discarded or replaced due to the implementation of PBIS. If a current discipline system is working…keep using it, the ideas and interventions may be borrowed and incorporated into the school plan.

Punishing behavior does not make it go away – it will return. Students learn better ways of behaving when taught directly and by having immediate feedback.

Teaching the proper behavior and use of incentives is the best way to handle discipline.

The first year of implementation will not be perfect.

PBIS is a process and it won’t happen overnight. It will be hard work. A process builds into a system. Each school will have an individual rate of progress. PBIS implementation takes most schools 3-5 years. School staffs must be patient.

Without literacy improvement in place, no improvements will occur in overall behavior.

A school faculty must be able to distinguish between major and minor student conduct offenses. This can save the school administration valuable time to be used for supervision of the school campus.

Accountability will be crucial. Principals, teachers, and central office administrators must work to maximize instruction to fit the needs of all students.

The PBIS Team Training Manual is a valuable source of new and old discipline ideas.

SET is the PBIS School Evaluation Tool provided by the state department. SET provides forms for school and state Facilitators to use in measuring the implementation and proper use of the Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports process.

Examples of School Wide Regulations

Staff Do's and Don'ts

Do!

Remember that we are to model the behavior that we expect from the students
Treat ALL staff and students with respect at all times
Be consistent and fair with your discipline to/for ALL students
Remember that social skills, like math or reading, are teachable/learning skills and must be approached as such

Don't!

Ever behave in a manner that you don’t want to see coming from your students
Ever use physical punishment for any student
Ever leave ANY student unattended
Ever discuss a child’s negative behavior in front of the class

PBIS in Acadia Parish

Every school has a Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports Team. The Team’s purpose is to assist the principal in implementing a school process by suggesting information, strategies, and interventions to be used by the school staff. The PBIS Team members are chosen by the principal or the school staff and may include parents and/or other members of the community. Each school has a designated PBIS Team Leader. Information about the PBIS Process is best acquired by visiting with the school principal, Team Leader, or Team Members.

Team Leader is available on a daily basis to the school and facilitates school team meetings.

Facilitator is a district-level individual with knowledge of basic behavioral principles and strategies and serves as the school’s main contact with the district contact person.

District Contact Person is a district-level individual who coordinates trainings and serves as the liaison between the Louisiana Department of Education, related projects and Facilitators.

Crisis Interventionists are the PBIS Training Facilitators in their assigned schools.

Each of the Acadia Parish Public Schools have implemented Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports.

Acadia Parish requires each PBIS school to submit Benchmarks of Quality (BoQ) to the PBS District Contact prior to a scheduled SET and in May of each year.

In May 2009, the Acadia Parish Office of Child Welfare and Attendance Supervisor of that time, Cal Simar, reported that all expulsions for 2008-2009 had decreased by 33 percent, compared to the 2007-2008 school year. For the next three school years (2006-2007, 2007-2008, and 2008-2009), all expulsions decreased by 42 percent.

PBIS Walkthrough Evaluations are planned for all Acadia Parish Schools annually, beginning in the 2012-2013 school year.

SET (The School-Wide Evaluation Tool) A Research Instrument for Assessing Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports

Schools throughout the country are now encouraged to implement positive behavioral interventions and supports (PBIS) procedures as a way to improve their behavioral climate, safety, and social culture. Research is needed to determine:

the extent to which schools already use PBIS,
if training and technical assistance efforts result in change in the use of PBIS procedures, and
if use of these procedures is related to valued change in safety, social culture, and behavior within schools.

To address these questions, researchers need a metric for assessing implementation of PBIS practices. The School-Wide Evaluation Tool (SET; Sugai, Lewis-Palmer, Todd, & Horner, 2001) was created to provide a rigorous measure of primary prevention practices within school-wide behavior support. The SET is a valid, reliable measure that can be used to assess the impact of school-wide training and technical assistance efforts. The SET should also be useful in formal analyses of the relationship between use of PBIS and changes in social and academic outcomes.

Interpreting and Summarizing SET Results

The SET produces a summary score and a subscale score for each of the seven feature areas of positive behavioral interventions and supports. The summary SET score is a general index of school-wide implementation, while each of the seven subscale scores provide a specific index of the implementation level for that feature area. Schools scoring 80% on the general index and 80% on the specific index for teaching behavioral expectations are implementing positive behavioral interventions and supports at a universal level and are Louisiana-Positive Behavior Support demonstration sites. A certificate has been mailed from the Louisiana PBIS Coordinator to each school with 80% on the general and specific indexes for their outstanding efforts.

The term, Demonstration Site, is used when a school is recognized by the state department as a site for other schools to observe successful implementation of the Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports process.

SET in Acadia

All Acadia Parish Schools have successfully completed SET and are recognized as demonstration sites:

Armstrong Middle
Branch Elementary
Central Rayne Kindergarten
Church Point Elementary
Church Point High
Church Point Middle
Crowley High
Crowley Kindergarten
Crowley Middle
Egan Elementary
Estherwood Elementary
Evangeline Elementary
Iota Elementary
Iota High
Iota Middle
Martin Petitjean Elementary
Mermentau Elementary
Midland High
Mire Elementary
Morse Elementary
North Crowley Elementary
Rayne High
Richard Elementary
Ross Elementary
South Crowley Elementary
South Rayne Elementary

Frequently Asked Questions

Shouldn't children at this age already know what is expected of them and how to behave? Behavior that is acknowledged is more likely to occur again. Behavior that is ignored is less likely to be repeated. No good behavior should be taken for granted or it may decline, regardless of the student's age.

Praising feels unnatural. Won't kids think that it is phony? If you are not used to praising, it will feel unnatural at first. But the more you praise, the more natural it will feel. If you praise good behavior that truly has happened, there is nothing phony about it. Students who get praise will tend to praise others too, so praise won't seem phony to them.

Isn't praise manipulative and coercive? The purpose of praise is to reinforce and increase positive behavior with the student's knowledge. Praise helps clearly describe expectations so that students can successfully meet them. Helping children succeed is a positive thing to do!

Isn't giving a reward like bribing students to do what you want them to do? A bribe attempts to influence or persuade someone to produce a desired behavior that hasn't yet happened, whereas a reward reinforces a desired behavior that has already happened. A reward is given after the behavior occurs.

Won't students come to depend on tangible rewards? Don't extrinsic rewards decrease intrinsic motivation? Tangible rewards should be accompanied by social rewards. When a message that recognizes a student's efforts as being responsible for success is given with a reward, internal motivation will actually be strengthened.

Shouldn't rewards be saved for special achievements? This gives students the message that everyday behaviors and efforts don't count. Small steps on the way to achievement (such as homework completion) also need to be recognized and rewarded.

Where will I get enough money to supply all these rewards? Tangible rewards need not be too expensive. As students learn the desired behavior, the tangible rewards can gradually be faded out. Rewards can be privileges too, such as being able to go to lunch first or getting extra computer time.

Do students in middle school and high school still need rewards? People of all ages, including adults, need to be recognized and rewarded for their efforts. Students of all ages do need recognition, praise, and rewards, particularly during the difficult transition to adolescence.

Acadia Parish PBIS Contact Information

For more information, please contact:
Stacy Rachal
783-3668 (ext: 265)
srachal@acadia.k12.la.us

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Links

Florida's Positive Behavior Support Project
http://flpbs.fmhi.usf.edu

Louisiana School-Wide Positive Behavior Support
https://www.louisianabelieves.com/resources/family-support-toolbox/positive-behavior-intervention-support-(pbis)

Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports
http://www.pbis.org

School-Wide Information System
https://www.pbisapps.org/Applications/Pages/SWIS-Suite.aspx

Google:
Positive Behavior Support Master Discipline Plan