An Educator's Guide to Schoolwide Positive Behavioral Inteventions and Supports. Jason E. Harlacher

you plant lettuce, if it does not grow well, you don’t blame the lettuce. You look for reasons it is not doing well. It may need fertilizer, or more water, or less sun.”

      —Thich Nhat Hanh, Buddhist monk, author, and peace activist

       Principle 2: Use of a Proactive and Preventative Approach to Discipline

      The use of SWPBIS focuses on a proactive and preventative approach to discipline and behavior management. Instead of assuming that students know the prosocial behaviors needed to succeed in school, school teams and staff using SWPBIS create core behavioral expectations that are applicable across the entire school and proactively teach the expected behaviors rather than waiting until misbehavior occurs. Instead of other service delivery models that provide support after an incident (Carr et al., 2002; Netzel & Eber, 2003), students are taught a reasonable number of expectations at the beginning of the school year to get all of them on the same page regarding how to be successful across school settings.

      The use of SWPBIS focuses on provisions of support early on to prevent problems from becoming more severe. In practice, school teams using SWPBIS will screen students throughout the year to identify those in need of support before their misbehavior becomes a chronic issue. School teams also analyze school-level data on a regular basis to identify problem areas and make environmental changes before they become larger problems. The overall approach is to provide support quickly and early, and to identify areas of concern in the school environment and adjust them immediately (George et al., 2009).

       Principle 3: Focus on Instruction and Matching Support to Student Need

      This principle behind SWPBIS is elegant: teach behavior in the same manner as academics (Darch & Kame’enui, 2004; Horner, Sugai, et al., 2005). Just as students learning academic skills need practice and opportunities to demonstrate those skills, so do they with behavioral skills (Darch & Kame’enui, 2004; Horner, Sugai, et al., 2005). To teach students expectations, school teams that use SWPBIS adopt an instructional approach that involves modeling, practice, and feedback. Accordingly, the staff make a conscious choice to shift from a reactive, punitive approach for discipline to a proactive, reinforcement-based approach (Carr et al., 2002; Netzel & Eber, 2003; Horner, Sugai, et al., 2005). The staff view misbehavior as an opportunity to reteach, not as a chance just to punish the student. Instead of using only punishment strategies to manage misbehavior, SWPBIS focuses on teaching and reinforcing behavioral expectations first. Punishment strategies (such as timeout or loss of privileges) are used second, and only when other options are exhausted and when data support their use. Misbehavior is an opportunity to reteach.

      Along with an instructional approach to social behavior, school teams that use SWPBIS focus on creating a match between a student’s current skills and corresponding level of support. A range of strategies to teach and encourage appropriate behavior is used to both mitigate the impact of misbehavior and avoid it altogether. The entire school is organized to create universal supports for all students (that is, Tier One), and increasingly intensive layers of instruction are used for students who require more support (that is, Tiers Two and Three). The range of supports ensures that each student’s needs are matched with an appropriate level of support, and data are used to monitor if each student’s support is effective. Bear in mind that students who need additional support receive Tier Two or Three in addition to Tier One and do not receive Tier Two or Tier Three instead of Tier One. The tiers are layers of support that are added on top of each other. The provision of Tier Two or Three does not supplant a lower tier; instead, it supplements it.

       Principle 4: Use of Evidence-Based Practices

      SWPBIS places a premium on strategies and approaches that have evidence supporting their effectiveness. It does this to ensure that students have the best chance at making progress and reaching identified goals. Practices that have documented evidence of their impact are used, and practices that do not have evidence or are shown to be ineffective are discarded. However, even though there is evidence to support the use of certain practices, educators do not assume they will be effective for every student and situation. Instead, implementation of SWPBIS involves regularly gathering and analyzing data to ensure that the practices are implemented as intended and that they are in fact having an impact in any given school context (George et al., 2009).

       Principle 5: Use of Data-Based Decision Making

      Too often educators make decisions with limited data, don’t have the necessary data needed, or ignore the data available (Mandinach, 2012; Merrell et al., 2012; Reschly, 2008). To avoid these situations, SWPBIS involves regularly collecting and analyzing data for decisions. The focus on data creates a continuous-improvement cycle in which practices are implemented, information is gathered, and formative and summative decisions are made to ensure the practices are achieving the desired results (Newton, Horner, et al., 2009; Shinn, 2008a). This creates an iterative process within SWPBIS in which school teams monitor both the implementation and its impact.

      “It’s amazing to watch schools and districts learn to use their data and apply evidence-based practices with high fidelity. Nevada schools went from a designated week of respect to a year of respect!”

      —Ashley Greenwald, director of Nevada PBIS, research assistant professor, University of Nevada,

      Reno, Nevada (personal communication, January 9, 2017)

       Principle 6: Focus on a Schoolwide Perspective

      A schoolwide perspective means that SWPBIS is used throughout the entire school and that the whole staff work collaboratively to support it. Instead of each teacher managing behavior or issues by him- or herself, the faculty takes a team-based approach. The practices and systems associated with SWPBIS are used in every setting and classroom, and the staff work akin to a pit crew coordinating services to achieve a goal (George, 2009).

      A schoolwide perspective also means that issues are considered from a systemic perspective. Whereas school teams will monitor implementation and the impact of supports for individual students, they will also monitor implementation and impact of the entire model, including the collective needs of groups of students (Newton, Horner, et al., 2009). When issues arise or when a student needs support, school teams consider whether the identified problem is indicative of a larger, systemic issue or if it’s an isolated problem. Additionally, the school teams create systems that provide efficiency, coherency, and consistency with student discipline. This means that the totality of factors and structures within a school, such as resource allocation, leadership, and processes for accessing support, are aligned to support SWPBIS.

      As an example, one team at an elementary school we worked with reviewed its office discipline referral data and identified a large increase in referrals from a handful of students in the afternoon (Harlacher, 2011). Before deciding upon a solution, the team examined additional data and discovered that a lot of sixth-grade students were receiving referrals for behavior during specials time (for example, music). Instead of singling out certain students and developing behavior plans, the sixth-grade staff simply retaught the schoolwide expectations to all sixth-grade students for behavior during music and increased reinforcement during that time. As a result, the number of referrals decreased as the expected behavior during music improved. This team-based approach illustrates the systemic perspective that school teams use with SWPBIS (Sugai & Horner, 2006). Had the team implemented individual plans without considering the system or context, it would not have efficiently or effectively addressed the issue.

      The six aforementioned principles comprise the conceptual background of SWPBIS in which the overall goal is to achieve sustainability (McIntosh, Filter, Bennett, Ryan, & Sugai, 2010) and improve the social and academic functioning of all students and the overall climate of the school. These principles highlight the difference between SWPBIS and other behavioral initiatives in schools. SWPBIS is a school reform framework that emphasizes evidence-based practices and uses data to help staff make decisions that will prepare students to be productive members of society (George et al., 2009; Horner, Sugai, et al., 2005). See table 1.3 for a list of what SWPBIS is and is not.