Schools stress positivity to enhance student behavior

Kelcy Dolan
Posted 9/22/15

Although it will still be three or four years before all public elementary schools in the district have completed PBIS training, Warwick is well on its way to implementing the good behavior …

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Schools stress positivity to enhance student behavior

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Although it will still be three or four years before all public elementary schools in the district have completed PBIS training, Warwick is well on its way to implementing the good behavior reinforcement initiative district-wide.

PBIS (Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports) is a framework through which teachers and administrators can encourage good behavior among students by acknowledging and/or rewarding a well-behaved student rather than providing consequences for those who aren’t.

According to Melissa Gill, a school psychologist and district-wide facilitator for PBIS, research finds that children are more receptive to positive experiences than negative ones.

“That positive interaction between teacher and student is not only going to ensure that individual child continues their good behavior, but it will also better encourage other students to emulate that same behavior, rather than punishing a student for acting out,” she said.

For example, imagine a line of children walking through the hallway of a school; the majority of students are behaving properly, with a few acting out. With PBIS, a teacher would recognize and point out those students with the acceptable behavior rather than singling out those misbehaving. Those students misbehaving will want similar praise and begin behaving themselves.

PBIS was first introduced to the Warwick Public School System in 2006 when teams from three elementary schools, Sherman, Greenwood and Holliman, attended training at the Paul V. Sherlock Center on Disabilities from Rhode Island College led by the creator of PBIS, Dr. George Sugai.

After two years of implementing the initiative and seeing positive change in those schools, Gill and Kristin Murray, an elementary school counselor and fellow district facilitator, began district-wide training focusing on three expectations for students: respect, responsibility and readiness.

It takes about three years for a school to be completely trained in PBIS with a year each of universal, targeted and tertiary training. Schools only implement the system after completing the universal training.

Currently, six elementary schools have completed all levels: Sherman, Oakland Beach, Warwick Neck, Lippitt, Holliman and Wickes. The other 10 are at some other level of training. Holden, Park and Norwood will begin their universal training this year, but John Brown Francis, Cedar Hill, Robertson and Scott Elementary schools will be launching PBIS in their schools this year.

Brian Dillon, principal at Robertson, said, “One of my core beliefs is recognizing the good in what kids do, and that is at the crux of PBIS.”

By introducing PBIS, the school can take what Dillon believes teachers were already doing and standardize reactions to good and bad behaviors to be as consistent with students throughout their educational careers as possible.

Murray says by introducing PBIS to all elementary schools, that universality isn’t just within a school but district-wide.

“It’s creating a common language,” Murray said. “Students transfer and move through grades, teachers switch schools. With PBIS both can know how they are expected to behave at all times.”

Lynn Dambruch, director of elementary education, loves the consistency of PBIS for students, teachers and administrators. She has seen the benefits PBIS has had in individual schools and believes that once fully implemented the initiative will have a successful positive cultural shift throughout the district.

“What’s great is that rather than [reacting to] consequences schools will be taking a proactive approach to student behavior, instilling good behavior as the norm,” she said.

Dillon said, “Focusing on the positive helps our students continue to behave even outside of the school setting, becoming a constructive member of society and having a better educational experience overall.”

Gill said that PBIS has helped to change the entire climate of a school, and those teachers that go from one school with PBIS to one without can see an immediate difference in atmosphere.

“Teachers can really see the benefit,” Gill said. “It’s exciting to see success on an individual level and be able to bring that district-wide.”

The hope is to eventually bring a PBIS system to the middle and high schools by bringing it together with the Response to Intervention (RTI) initiative.

Because both are data driven, Dambruch, Gill and Murray see them working well together. PBIS’ data can generate reports for an individual student as well as a whole school, which allows teachers and administrators to focus and “tweak” problem areas to see improvements in behavior.

Dambruch said, “With PBIS you can almost be a detective and really problem-solve for a student. Say you see a student acts out every Monday, well then you start to take a look at what’s happening the Sunday before.”

By being district-wide teachers will also have a support system in place for PBIS.

“Once a school has completed training, we don’t disappear,” Gills said. “We are only a phone call or email away.”

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