Creating Connections: Healthy Schools, Successful Students March 18, 2014

1. Creating Connections: Healthy Schools, Successful StudentsMarch 18, 2014 Delaware Positive Behavior Support Debby Boyer Center for Disabilities Studies University of Delaware

2. For our Time Together • Overview of DE-PBSand important data • What is PBS? • What are the elements of implementing SW-PBS • Integration with SEL • Bullying Prevention • Action Steps

3. The Delaware Positive Behavior Support Project (DE-PBS) is a collaboration between the DE Department of Education, the University of Delaware’s Center for Disabilities Studies, and Delaware Public Schools

4. 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 skills to address significant problem behavior • Pressure on schools to incorporate multiple initiatives. Many often have clear defined outcomes without structures to reach or a framework for deciding what should be implemented when, for whom, and to what degree Typical school response to problem behavior = “punishment” of misbehavior and/or seek out alternative placements.

5. 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)

6. 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

7. “If a child doesn’t know how to read, we teach.” “If a child doesn’t know how to swim, we teach.” “If a child doesn’t know how to multiply, we teach.” “If a child doesn’t know how to drive, we teach.” “If a child doesn’t know how to behave, we… ...teach? …punish?” “Why can’t we finish the last sentence as automatically as we do the others?” Tom Herner (NASDE President ) Counterpoint 1998, p.2

8. School-wide Positive Behavior Support SW-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

9. Delaware PBS Project Vision The vision of the project is to create safe and caring learning environments that promote the social-emotional and academic development of all children.

10. Key Features of PBS in Delaware • Recognize that a positive and safeschool climate promotes not only positive behavior, but also academic, social, and emotional development. • Recognize that ALL students benefit from positive behavioral supports. This includes students with and without behavior problems or disabilities, and requires sensitivity to individual and cultural differences. • Recognize the critical importance of developing self-discipline. • Schools teach such social and emotional competencies as positive peer relations, empathy, resisting peer pressure, conflict resolution, and social and moral responsibility.

11. Positive Behavior Supports: Multi-tiered Model of Support Tier 1/School-wide/Universal School-Wide Assessment School-Wide Prevention Systems ODRs,Credits, Attendance, Tardies, Grades, DIBELS, etc. Tier 2/Secondary Tier 3/ Tertiary Check-in Check-out (CICO) Intervention Assessment Relationship and Skill Building Groups Daily Progress Report (DPR)(Behavior and Academic Goals) Groups with Individualized Features Functional Assessment Interviews or checklists Brief Functional Behavior Assessment/ Behavior Intervention Planning(FBA/BSP) Individual Student Data collection Full FBA/BSP Person Centered Planning Adapted from Illinois PBIS Network, Revised Aug. 2013 Adapted from T. Scott, 2004

12. DE-PBS SW Implementation • Program Development & Evaluation • Problem-Solving/Leadership Team • Data • Professional Development & Resources • Developing SW and Classroom Systems to Prevent Problem Behavior • Expectations, Recognition and Teaching • Positive relationships • Correcting Problem Behaviors • Consistent and clear procedures • Disciplinary encounters used as learning opportunities to teach problem solving strategies • Developing Self-Discipline

13. SWPBSis

14. Why Use SW-PBS? • Research has demonstrated: • Reduction of problem behavior, discipline referrals, and suspensions • Increase in math and reading scores • Improvements in overall school climate (Lassen, Steele, & Sailor, 2006; Lewis et al., 2002; Luiselli, Putnam, and Sunderland, 2002; Todd et al., 1999)

15. System Development is Key! Dean Fixsen, Karen Blase, Robert Horner, George Sugai, (2008) • To scale up interventions we must first scale up implementation capacity • Building implementation capacityis essential to maximizing the use of Positive Behavior Support and other innovations Adapted from the Illinois PBIS Network

16. + If many students are making same mistake, consider changing systems...not students +START by teaching, monitoring & recognizing success …before increasing PUNISHMENT

17. Why is School Climate Important? • School Climate is linked to a wide range of academic, behavioral, and social-emotional outcomes for students, including: • Increased academic achievement • Increased academic motivation and positive personal attitudes • Higher attendance and decreased school avoidance • Lower rates of behavior problems, delinquency, victimization • Greater sense of emotional well-being

18. School Climate is also important to Bully Prevention Problematic school climate contributes to negative outcomes including: • Bullying victimization • Attendance and school avoidance • Depression and self-esteem NASP, 2/19/14

19. And School Climate is a federal focus • USDOE Released in January 2014: “Guiding Principles: A Resource Guide for Improving School Climate and Discipline from U.S. Department of Education” http://www2.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/school-discipline/index.html

20. High Suspension and Expulsion RatesDriven By Ineffective School Policies and Practices, not “Bad Kids” “Far from making our schools safer or improving student behavior, the steadily increasing use of suspension and expulsion puts students – especially students of color and other targeted groups – at an increased risk of academic disengagement, dropout and contact with juvenile justice,” Russell J. Skiba, director of Discipline Disparities Research-to-Practice Collaborative

21. Recommendation to eradicate disparities in school discipline • Problem-solving approach to discipline • Understanding the context • Why the student is engaging in behavior and understanding the teachers response • Providing opportunity for reflection and restoration • Providing additional interventions or services for students with complex support needs

22. Our Data Sources • School Climate • Suspension • ODR • Self-assessment • External Evaluation • Achievement

25. Summary of School Climate Results • In general, school climate is viewed favorably by students, teachers/staff, and parents, but especially teachers/staff and parents. And school climate improved statewide from 2012-2013. • Survey results also indicated some areas of concern: • Student perceptions of school climate decrease markedly from elementary to middle school. For example, whereas 3/4ths of elementary school students like school, only half of middle school students and less than half of high school students like school. • This decrease coincides with student perceptions of teachers/staff using more punitive techniques and fewer positive and SEL techniques.

26. Summary Continued • Relations among students is an area of particular concern. Over half of all students report that bullying is a problem in their school and less than half agree that students get along with one another. Perceptions of student relations are most negative among African Americans. • Perceived fairness of rules is another concern, especially among middle school and high school students.

27. Positive Behavior Supports • Application and extension of basic elements of applied behavior analysis • Three-Tiered Prevention Model: • Universal (all students in the environment) • 3-5 positively stated rules that are actively taught – applies to all students in non-classroom areas • Targeted (for students for which tier one was not adequate to address their behavior needs) • Group based supports, e.g., social skills instruction, check-in/check-out • Goal to prevent student’s behavior from becoming disruptive to the learning environment • Intensive (students whose behavior is chronic) • Functional behavior assessment maybe conducted • Implement a function-based intervention • May provide wrap around services

28. Emphasis on PreventionatEachLevel • School-wide • Reduce new cases of problem behavior • Targeted • Reduce current cases of problem behavior • Intensive • Reduce complications, intensity, severity of current cases

29. Tier 2Overview • Interventions are efficient • Continuously available so students can receive support quickly (optimally-within 2-3 days) • Minimal time commitment required from classroom teachers • Required skill sets needed by teachers easily learned • Aligned with school-wide expectations • Emphasis on intervention designed to support multiple students simultaneously (e.g. Check-In/Check-Out, Social Skills Groups, etc.) • Consistently implemented with most students, some flexibility • Intervention selected matched to function of student behavior • Adapted from Rose Iovannone, Brief PTR

30. Tier 3 Overview • Team formed which include those who have knowledge of the student • Systematic problem solving process is foundation • Target behaviors identified and defined • Antecedents (predictors) of problem behavior occurrence • Consequences/responses of others following problem behavior • Hypothesis generated by data • Function-based understanding of behavior • Multi-component intervention plan built and linked with hypothesis • Progress monitoring plan established • Fidelity measurement of intervention implementation developed and scheduled • Follow-up meeting to make data-based decisions

31. Reflecting on your school tiers • Data and Support Staff • Tiered Supports / Practices • Tier 3/Tertiary Interventions 1-5% • _____________________ • _____________________ • _____________________ • 1-5% Tier 3/Tertiary Interventions • ___________________________ • ___________________________ • ___________________________ • 5-15% Tier 2/Secondary Interventions • ____________________________ • ____________________________ • ____________________________ • ____________________________ • ____________________________ • ____________________________ • Tier 2/Secondary Interventions 5-15% • ___________________________ • ___________________________ • ___________________________ • ___________________________ • ___________________________ • ___________________________ • Tier 1/Universal Interventions 80-90% • ________________________ • ________________________ • ________________________ • ________________________ • 80-90% Tier 1/Universal Interventions • ____________________________ • ____________________________ • ____________________________ • ____________________________ • ____________________________ • Adapted from Illinois PBIS Network, Revised May 15, 2008. Adapted from “What is school-wide PBS?” OSEP Technical Assistance Center on Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports. Accessed at http://pbis.org/school-wide.htm

32. Reflecting on your school tiers

33. Strategic Use of Praise and Rewards • Use strategically to recognize and reinforce social and emotional competencies that underlie prosocial behavior • E.g., students routinely recognized with praise and rewards for demonstrating empathy, caring, responsibility, and respect • Pair reward with verbally labeled praise • Shoot for 3 to 1 ratio of positive to corrective feedback

34. Effective Praise: • is delivered immediately after the display of positive behavior; • specifies the particulars of the accomplishment (e.g., Thank you for cleaning off your desk right away after I asked you); • provides information to the child about the value of the accomplishment (e.g., When you get ready for the first activity quickly, it makes the morning go so smoothly!); • lets the child know that he worked hard to accomplish the task (e.g., I saw you working hard to control your temper!); and • orients the child to better appreciate their own task-related behavior and thinking about problem-solving (e.g., I like the way you thought about that and figured out a good solution to the problem). Peg Dawson, Ed.D.

35. Use incentives to augment instruction. Incentives make both the effort of learning a skill and the effort of performing a task less aversive. Furthermore, putting an incentive after a task teaches delayed gratification. Peg Dawson, Ed.D.

36. Simple Incentives • Give the child something to look forward to doing when the effortful task is done (we call that Grandma’s Law). • Alternate between preferred and non-preferred activities (use simple language: First…then, e.g., First work, then play). • Build in frequent, short breaks (depending on the child’s attention span, breaks could come every 10 minutes and last 5 minutes). • Use specific praise to reinforce the use of executive skills. Peg Dawson, Ed.D.

37. Positive Behavior Referral

38. Positive Relationships Recognize the critical importance of preventing behavior problems. This is evident throughout school policies and evidence-based practices, especially in preventive classroom management, clear school-wide expectations, and school-wide teaching and recognition of positive behaviors. It also is seen in • positive teacher-student, • student-student, and • school-family relations.

39. The Research on Positive Relationships • Teachers with a more relational approach to discipline have less defiant behavior in their classrooms – which is explained by adolescent’s trust in authority (Gregory & Ripski, 2008) • Teachers who show sensitivity, empathy and praise are most likely to establish strong relationships with students (Rey et al., 2007)

40. Relationship Building Reduces Problem Behaviors • “teachers … trained using precorrection, reinforcement (catch them being goods) for appropriate behaviors, and active supervison … resulted in a 42% reduction in problem behaviors” (Oswald et al., 2005).

41. Activities for staff and student relationship building • Supporting everyday relationship building: • Finding/asking about student interests/extracurricular activities • Students providing 1-minute reports on areas of their interest (i.e. sports, drama) • Attending extracurricular events • Highlighting student talents (i.e. bulletin board with newspaper articles)

42. Activities for staff and student relationship building • Community and service learning activities • Pep rallies • Students earn the chance for staff to do silly things • Staff and student team challenges • Fund raisers • Hallway decorating • Sporting event attendance

43. Disciplinary encounters: 2-part problem solving process • Part 1 focuses how the student might think and act differently • Student centered: Guided by problem solving with student. • Part 2 focuses on what the teacher or school should do, beyond punishment, to prevent the problem behavior from recurring and to foster self-discipline. • Teacher (or school) centered: Guided by changes in the student’s environment.

44. PBS Key Feature • Schools recognize the importance of developing self- discipline, implementing evidence based programs in character education and social and emotional learning, and/or infuse lessons throughout the curriculum that teach social-emotional competencies

46. What does the research say regarding integrating the two approaches, providing a more comprehensive approach? • Best for achieving compliance • Best for promoting self-discipline and resilience • Best for effective prevention and correction • Best for school climate • Best for preventing bullying

47. What is Self-Discipline? Consists of 5 key Social and Emotional Learning skills: Self-management skills Social awareness and empathy Social connectedness and relationship skills Responsible decision making Positive sense of self Self-Discipline and School Climate, Part I, 11/08/11

48. Points to Ponder Easy to change moral knowledge - - - - difficult to change moral conduct • To change moral conduct . . . • Adults must model moral behavior • Students must experience academic success • Students must be taught social skills for success (PBIS.org)

49. Incorporating Self-Discipline in Your SW PBS Program • Relationship building • Schoolwide policies and activities • Student decision making • Social and Emotional Curriculum • Executive Functioning Skills

50. Self-Discipline & Expectations Self-discipline is emphasized in behavioral expectations and rules. At the schoolwide and classroom levels, the importance of self-discipline is highlighted, such as the importance of regulating and accepting responsibility for one’s actions, respecting others, helping others, and exerting one’s best effort.