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Emphasizing the positives
Doug Flanagan/reporter@qvpr.com
Students at Monument Elementary School are awarded "soar cards" for displaying positive behavior.
When Don Francis took the principal position at Monument Elementary School several years ago, one of the first challenges that he had to face was the comportment of the students, which at the time wasn't very good.
The learning environment wasn't ideal, Francis knew; there was too much disorder for teachers as well as the students who didn't cause problems. There was no school-wide, consistent set of behavioral expectations for the students to follow.
"There was 25 sets of different rules in the building," Francis said. "The students would have to learn different expectations in the classroom and gymnasium and cafeteria, almost everywhere they went. When I was hired, one thing that was made clear to me by the interview panel and the community forum was that they were concerned about the behavior. The staff felt very strongly about that. We needed to find a way to get the kids instructed better with less distractions. It was pretty rough (for the staff) for awhile."
Francis knew something had to be done. In 2006, he gathered a leadership team and attended a clinic in Chelan, put on by the Educational Service District 171, that dealt with a new approach to classroom behavior that many school districts around the country had begun to embrace — Positive Behavior and Intervention Systems, or PBIS.
The week-long training workshops — presented by Flint Simonsen, a special education professor at Eastern Washington University — allowed Francis and his team to absorb the necessary knowledge to begin implementation of PBIS at Monument.
Fast forward to the present time, and PBIS is spreading rapidly through all of the buildings in the Quincy School District and is having exactly the impact that Francis wanted it to have.
"The root of the program is based on a positive behavior model," Francis said. "It shows the kids what we want them to do instead of what we don't want them to do."
PBIS is a systems approach to preventing and responding to classroom and school discipline problems. PBIS develops school-wide systems that support staff to teach and promote positive, appropriate behavior in all students. By reducing behavioral problems, PBIS aims to create and maintain safe learning environments where teachers can teach and students can learn.
"It's all about emphasizing the positive," Quincy School District superintendent Burton Dickerson said. "When expectations are being met, we want to try to recognize that and reinforce that rather than focus on the negative all the time. The vast majority of students are cooperative and on task. A smaller group of students does require intervention and corrective actions, and at the top of the pyramid is the small group that has serious behavioral issues. The idea is, let's highlight that 90 percent. When we find examples of positive behavior, we want to praise and reward it."
An example of a PBIS reward in the district is the student store at High Tech High, where students who are rewarded can exchange tickets for items of their choosing.
At Monument, cards are given to students who model those expectations. The teacher will write the example of sterling behavior on the card and turn the card into the office. Each week postcards are sent to the students' parents to let them know that their child has been "soaring."
The cards go into a bucket, and at the end of each week a drawing will be conducted for Walmart gift cards and other prizes.
At George, Mountain View and Pioneer elementary schools, the ROAR (responsible, on task, always safe, respect) system is in place. At George, kids are rewarded with stickers that are placed on a chart. Once a student has 10 stickers, he or she is entitled to "an incentive," such as school supplies, certain recess privileges or lunch with principal Nik Bergman.
"In essence, ROAR keeps things simple for the kids," Bergman said. "It's easy to get caught up in the day-to-day activities and take good behavior for granted, but PBIS focuses you to continually follow the expected behavior."
The system has been slowly implemented into the Quincy School District bit by bit over the last couple of years. Thanks in part to the efforts of Francis, the program started its life in Quincy in the elementary schools; indeed, that's where most of the progress has been made so far.
The junior high, high school and transportation departments began implementation this year.
"PBIS is a well-known approach to student behavior," Dickerson said. "It's used in a lot of places, and the Monument team was familiar with it, so it started there and spread to the other schools. We wanted to look at ways to be more consistent across the district. We wanted everyone to have more of a proactive approach. The principles of the program are pretty simple; that's why we were attracted to it."
The exact methods used at the elementary schools, however, vary a bit from those used with the older students.
"What feels like a reward to a younger child might be an embarrassment to an older student," Dickerson said. "The staff at each building comes up with the system that fits for each school. The implementation is further along at the lower levels; the secondary schools are just coming along. We learned that it's not an overnight thing; it's more of a three-year process. We're signing on for the long term."
According to the Web site, there are several outcomes associated with PBIS impelmentation. Schools that establish systems with the capacity to implement SWPBS with integrity and durability have teaching and learning environments that are less reactive, aversive, dangerous and exclusionary; more engaging, responsive, preventive, and productive; address classroom management and disciplinary issues (e.g., attendance, tardies, antisocial behavior); improve supports for students whose behaviors require more specialized assistance (e.g., emotional and behavioral disorders, mental health), and maximize academic engagement and achievement for all students.
"In the past, if a student did 'A,' then they would get 'B.' There was discipline and consequences," Francis said. "Now we figure out what motivates a student and what things the student can do to fix his or her behavior. We're giving the student the problem-solving tools they need. In the past it might have been a personal thing between the teacher and the student, or a power conflict. Now they have the opportunity to learn and grow and understand the expectations."
Dickerson said the direct results of the program has been seen in the reduced number of student office referrals in the district over the past year.
"Everyone is seeing positive results," he said. "We have evidence that change is occurring as a result of the program. The students seem to be accepting the program, and I don't think they've had too many problems with it."
Francis said that in the three years Monument Elementary has had the PBIS system in place, the total number of student office referrals has been cut in half.
"We have 600 kids in our school, and the majority of them have no referrals," he said. "We're able to look at the data and say we're doing an awesome job. This year our referrals are way down, but sometimes we notice that the referrals go up during the times we haven't re-taught the expectations. We'll remind them again, and the referrals will go way down."
At Mountain View Elementary School, there was only one major behavioral incident and 11 minor incidents recorded in December. In November, there was one major and 16 minor incidents recorded. The numbers were much higher during the start of the school year when the system hadn't fully taken affect — nine major and 28 minor incidents were reported in October, and 20 major and 52 minor in September.
At George Elementary School, there were 55 total referrals in January. In January 2009, there were 91 referrals. That's a 44 percent decrease.
Quincy Junior High School recorded 84 instances of disrespectful behavior and 222 episodes of uncooperative behavior in 2009; in 2010, the school projects the numbers to be 64 and 56, respectively.
"The data doesn't lie," Francis said.
Improving student academic and behavior outcomes is about ensuring all students have access to the most effective and accurately implemented instructional and behavioral practices and interventions possible, according to PBIS.org. The system provides an operational framework for achieving these outcomes.
School-wide Public Behavior Systems is a decision-making framework that guides selection, integration and implementation of the best evidence-based academic and behavioral practices for improving important academic and behavior outcomes for all students, according to the Web site.
"It's a simple, task-oriented approach that makes the expectations clear for a student," Dickerson said. "Those expectations are reduced to simple, easy-to-understand statements, and each school has its own set of PBIS acronyms that they use to help everyone remember those key statements. Areas of focus have included safety, responsibility and being on task. These things are intentionally taught to the students and re-taught. That's a critical part of it."
As part of the PBIS system, schools come up certain objectives they want to see their students attain on an everyday basis, and an acronym to summarize those goals. In the case of Monument Elementary, its objectives are safety, ownership, academics and respect — or SOAR, which, considering the fact that the school mascot is the Eagles, is very appropriate.
"Those four characteristics (embody) all of our expectations," Francis said. "We came up with expectations for every aspect of school. We made a matrix for hallway behavior, the cafeteria, recess, the classroom, the bus. We had pamphlets and brochures made up. Every staff member is able to teach the kids the lessons at the same time so all of the expectations are delivered really clearly. Then we remind them on a daily basis."
In general, SWPBS emphasizes four integrated elements: data for decision making; measurable outcomes supported and evaluated by data' practices with evidence that these outcomes are achievable; and systems that efficiently and effectively support implementation of these practices. The four elements are guided by six principles: develop a continuum of scientifically based behavior and academic interventions and supports; use data to make decisions and solve problems; arrange the environment to prevent the development and occurrence of problem behavior; teach and encourage prosocial skills and behaviors; implement evidence-based behavioral practices with fidelity and accountability; and screen universally and monitor student performance and progress continuously.
"Another part of the system is trying to figure out what motivates a student," Francis said. "Students who are struggling with their behavior, instead of going to handbook, we have to figure out what they want. Sometimes they want to escape the situation. At home, their parental situation isn't great, and they aren't learning. "
Francis said that in the second and third years of the PBIS system, a school will focus on students who receive multiple referrals during the school year and offer more intense instruction and support.
"We do a check-in, check-out plan where a student finds a mentor — it can be any adult in the school, someone they trust . The student will visit his or her mentor at the start of every day for five or 10 minutes and make a list of goals that he or she wants to accomplish. At the end of the day they'll go over their check sheet and turn it in to the office so it can be recorded with our data. We're able to sit down with the kids and look at the progress that they're making. The mentor helps with that process. We're able to tell parents that progress is being made."
The system had to emerge in the district's transportation department as well, because, as Francis said, "Kids didn't understand that those expectations don't end when they leave the classroom."
"That's where that started," he said. "(The bus) referrals have gone down significantly. They've done a phenomenal job of instituting PBIS. The high school and junior high are excited about it as well. The great thing about the system is that it's not a silver bullet. You just don't take it and plug it in. The school has to develop a system and get buy-in from the staff. The first team that gets together has to work on it, and from there the next team gets to tweak the system to make it work for the next school."
There is more work to be done to see the finalization of implementation into each building in the district; that's going to take a couple more years at least. But one thing appears to be certain: PBIS is here to stay.
"It's been tremendous to reiterate expectations and work together and have an attitude that says, 'It's not about my students, but our students,' " Francis said. "We've seen what a difference it makes. It's been huge. To have that change has been nice for the teachers, and the students like being recognized instead of being in trouble. But the group that's been most appreciative is the parents. I've heard comments from parents who've seen the huge turnaround at Monument. It's like night and day for them. Parents who otherwise wouldn't have sent their kids here are now sending their kids here. That's huge."
