Beyond Classroom
Management: Implementing
School-wide Positive
Behavioral Supports
George Sugai
OSEP 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.
C
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
Positive Behavior Support
Supporting
Decision
Making
Supporting
Staff Behavior
SYSTEMS
PRACTICES
Supporting
Student Behavior
DATA
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
Continuum of Effective Behavior
Support
Students with
Chronic/Intense
Problem Behavior
(1 - 7%)
Tertiary Prevention
Secondary Prevention
Students At-Risk
for Problem
Behavior
(5-15%)
Students
without
Serious
Problem
Behaviors
(80 -90%)
Primary Prevention
All Students in School
Specialized Individual
Interventions
(Individual Student
System)
Specialized Group
Interventions
(At-Risk System)
Universal Interventions
(School-Wide System
Classroom System)
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 Approach
School-Wide
Individual Student
Non-Classroom
Classroom
Community
School
Child/Youth
Family
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 adultstudent 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 databased monitoring
• “Good” data for input
• Efficient data manipulation &
summarization
– SWIS.org
• Guided data-based decision
making
Pre- and Post- Scores from the School-wide Evaluation Tool (N = 7)
9/98 & 5/99
100
90
80
Percent of Means
70
60
Pre
50
Post
40
30
20
10
0
A
B
C
D
School
E
F
G
Percent Change in Discipline Referrals per Day per Student
(1997-98 versus 1998-99)
100
80
60
20
-20
-40
-60
School
l
k
j
I
h
g
f
e
d
c
b
0
a
Percent
40
# per Day
Gotchas & Level 1 per Day per Month
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Gotchas
Level 1
Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun
Months
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
C
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