While many public schools struggle with funding and allocation of the limited resources that are received, it is still important for schools to incorporate positive behavior and intervention in schools for students and their families. Money that is allocated to these positive interventions in public schooling for students in Kindergarten through 12th grade can be considered an investment into the future members of society who are greatly contributing to the economy.
What Are Positive Behavior Interventions in Public Schooling?
Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports, otherwise referred to as PBIS within the school administration platform, is a way for school administrators to use evidence based practices to encourage students within the system to exercise good behavior so that they can focus on learning. The goal of PSIS for students is to prevent poor behavior the distractions that naturally come along with it by being proactive and promoting positive behavior by offering struggling students forms of behavior support.
What Are the Guiding Principles?
To truly assess whether or not you agree that an educational strategy works it is important to learn about the guiding principles of that strategy first. The educational strategy that is topic at hand today is Positive Behavioral and Interventions Support. This is not necessarily a type of therapeutic treatment but rather a framework that teachers can follow when they are working with all of the students within their student body, including kids with existing 504 and IEP plans.
The Three Tiers of Support
Studies show that schools who follow all of the guiding principles of PBIS have lower detention and suspension rates than schools that do not which supports the fact that it is an important strategy to enforce as a requirement by all teaching staff. Schools that use this form of support follow the three tier system:
- Tier 1 – All students within the school learn expectations for respect and students are praised for good behaviors with small rewards or prizes
- Tier 2 – Extra support to students who struggle with their behaviors by entering kids into social skills clubs to learn better peer interactions
- Tier 3 – Intensive level of support for kids who need more focused and individualized support using PBIS principles instead of traditional discipline
Managing Behavior Issues to Flex a Strategy
The primary difference in a school using the PBIS strategy rather than a traditional discipline focused strategy may be confused by the difference between the two. While many believe discipline is needed to teach responsibility and taking accountability, people often mistake PBIS for not using discipline but this is not the case.
Discipline is part of the PBIS strategy. The primary difference is that the focus of PBIS focused schools are on prevention rather than resolving the issue once it arises. Schools offer rewards to students to praise for positive behaviors and to redirect students who are historically struggling in a school setting. The approach to education and discipline is so highly supported that the United States Department of Education even has a center dedicated to PBIS approach training.
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The tiered framework of Positive Behavior and Interventions Supports has proven to improve the learning outcomes for all students at any tier. If you are a teacher or you work in administration and plan the mission of a school, you should learn about the key components of matching interventions to meet the needs of students so that they can progress in the classroom.
