Ways Your Team Can Support Your Staff

1. Ways Your Team Can Support Your Staff Teri Lewis-Palmer University of Oregon

2. Today • Focus on classroom component of PBS - how to support teachers • Describe current status of classrooms (student-teacher interactions) • Discuss several types of teacher support

3. Implementation Levels State District School Classroom Student

4. Classroom Management Systems • Behavior & classroom management • Classroom-wide positive expectations taught & encouraged • Teaching classroom routines & cues taught & encouraged • Ratio of 6-8 positive to 1 negative adult-student interaction • Active supervision • Redirections for minor, infrequent behavior errors • Frequent precorrections for chronic errors

5. Instructional management • Selection • Modification & design • Presentation & delivery • Environmental management

6. School Environment • Lack of discipline is viewed as one of the most serious challenges facing public schools • National Education Goals Report (1995) • U.S. Surgeon General’s Report (2002) • Teachers report that problem behavior is increasing and is a threat to effective learning • Skiba and Peterson, (2000)

7. Discipline(Charles, 1996) • What teachers do to help students behave acceptably in schools • Goal is to reduce the need for teacher intervention over time by teaching students to manage their own behavior

8. Current Status • Lack of discipline is viewed as one of the most serious challenges facing public schools • National Education Goals Report (1995) • U.S. Surgeon General’s Report (2002) • Teachers report that “uncivil” behavior is increasing and is a threat to effective learning • Skiba and Peterson, (2000) • There is a link between general level of disruptive behavior and more extreme acts of violence • Skiba and Peterson, (2000)

9. Summary of Descriptive Research(e.g., Wehby, Shores, Symmons, etc.) • Low rates of instructional interactions. • Extremely low rates of praise. • When interactions occur, most often around non-academic issues. • Most academic activities consist of independent seatwork. • Inconsistent distribution of attention. • Compliance to a command generally resulted in the delivery of another command • Correct academic responses by a student did not occasion teacher praise above chance levels.

10. What Effect Do These Interactions Have On Teacher Behavior (Wehby, 2000) • Increased levels of inappropriate student behavior appears to lead to fewer instructional interactions with students. • Teachers attend more consistently to students’ inappropriate behavior and less consistently to appropriate behavior. • Over time, teachers are getting more opportunities to practice less than effective teaching practices.

11. Current Issues within the Field • Establishing and sustaining instructional rates that match the effective teaching literature • Ratio of attention (app:inapp) • Opportunities to respond • Correct academic responding • Assessing classroom and instructional management • Supporting teachers

12. Social Competence & Academic Achievement Positive Behavior Support OUTCOMES Supporting Decision Making Supporting Staff Behavior DATA SYSTEMS PRACTICES Supporting Student Behavior

13. Academic Systems Behavioral Systems • Intensive, Individual Interventions • Individual Students • Assessment-based • High Intensity • Intensive, Individual Interventions • Individual Students • Assessment-based • Intense, durable procedures • Targeted Group Interventions • Some students (at-risk) • High efficiency • Rapid response • Targeted Group Interventions • Some students (at-risk) • High efficiency • Rapid response • Universal Interventions • All students • Preventive, proactive • Universal Interventions • All settings, all students • Preventive, proactive Designing School-Wide Systems for Student Success 1-5% 1-5% 5-10% 5-10% 80-90% 80-90%

14. Teacher Support • School culture (systems) • Policies (systems) • Acknowledging staff (practices) • Classroom support (practices) • Assessment (data) • Performance feedback (data)

15. School Culture - Focus on adults Buckingham & Coffman 2002, Gallup poll1 million workers, 80,000 managers, in 400 companies • Create working environments where employees: • Know what is expected • Have the materials and equipment to do the job correctly • Receive recognition each week for good work

16. Have a supervisor who cares, and pays attention • Receive encouragement to contribute and improve • Can identify a person at work who is a “best friend.” • Feel the mission of the organization makes them feel like their jobs are important

17. See the people around them committed to doing a good job • Feel like they are learning new things gaining skills/professional development) • Have the opportunity to do their job well. • Practices: Establishing collegial environment • Golden Plunger, ODR processed in class, ??? • Mentor teachers, Buddy classrooms, ???

18. PBIS School Culture • Proactive Behavior Support for All • Common language • Agreements about expectations • Consistent and predictable environments • Three Tiered Model • Universal (all students, all times, all locations) • Targeted (efficient interventions for at-risk students) • Intensive (individualized interventions for those students with the most intense problem behavior)

19. Arrange Environments • Establish the policies, systems, tools and documentation to make implementation • Adoption/implementation easier in subsequent years • Continuous process of adaptation and improvement • Process driven, not person dependent Example: School PBIS handbook, Job descriptionsRequest for Assistance, SST/TAT/BST

20. On-going Support • Systems • Feedback • External (peer, counselor, school psych) • Self- management

21. Effective Teaching PracticesBrophy and Good (1986) • Prioritizing and allocating time in academic instruction • Classroom organization and management (academic engagement, opportunities to respond/pacing) • Acknowledging correct academic responses • Use of praise

22. Sanders and Horn (1998) indicate, regardless of risk factors found among students in schools today, “the single biggest factor affecting the academic growth of any population of youngsters is the effectiveness of the individual classroom” (p. 2).

23. Impact of Classroom • Sanders and Rivers (1996) reporting up to a difference of 50 percentile point on standardized tests among student who experienced successive years of poor instruction at the elementary level have been reported

24. However… • Need to look at the educational systems (preservice training an inservice support) not at the classroom teachers

25. Monitoring Teacher Behaviors • Self-management for teachers has produced temporary increases in the use of effective instruction strategies • Performance feedback used for temporarily increasing staff/teacher behavior

26. Performance Feedback • Provides information and knowledge of processes and results in an effort to promote transfer or maintenance of skills and behavior • Results in more consistent intervention effects • A “performance feedback package” may result in more optimal results

27. Peer Mentoring • Non-evaluative, reciprocal observations • Performance feedback aimed at improving use of effective instruction • However, research is limited and primarily descriptive

28. Systems Support • Move to school-based teams and not rely on “outside experts” • As with SW-PBIS the systems guide the implementation of effective practices

29. Working Example: Classroom • Brown Elementary • Suburban • 450 students, k-5th grades • PBS Team • Approached by veteran 3rd grade teacher for assistance • 28 students • High rates of ODRs and detention • Thinking of early retirment • Parents unhappy with situation

30. Objectives • Provide support to teachers and classrooms as part of an overall team based systems approach to discipline. • Create a process for teachers to request assistance from the team for classroom specific social behavioral needs. • Incorporate strategies to assess specific classroom needs and develop and implement support plans to address those needs.

31. Prerequisites • Team based systems approach to discipline • Proactive • School-wide • Top three priority in school • Teacher and students provided confidentiality • Focus on process • Focus on strengths and needs • Collaboration with teacher and selected members at all phases • Assessment • Data collection • Plan development, implementation and evaluation

32. Assessment • The assessment focused on five students from the classroom who served as representatives for the students with behavior challenges. • Students were assessed for high and low risk times across daily routines (e.g., getting organized, sharpening pencil) and scheduled activities (e.g., math, library). • Information from all students was used to identify common low and high risk times.

34. Low Risk Activities: Homework distribution and discussion Star of Week/Super Scientist recognition Story Computer Low Risk Routines: Getting organized to go home High Risk Activities Morning routine Recess Library Clean-up/Dismissal High Risk Routines Group work Listening and Following directions Respect-adults and peers Working independently Taking of personal needs Getting organized for the day Assessment Summary

40. Teaching Plan • Social Skills Lessons • By comparing high risk routines with activities several areas/skills of focus were identified. These areas of focus were then used to generate examples and non-examples for future teaching. Three lessons, one for each of the school-wide expectation were developed. • Specific Routines • The majority of problem behaviors occurred at the beginning of activities (first 5-10 minutes). Second, organization skills were mentioned as a concern for several of students. Therefore, two specific routines (beginning activities, and end of the day organization) were defined and taught to the students.