Schoolwide positive behavior support plans are designed to promote a positive school climate that supports universal supports for all students such as character development training. Additional supports such as conflict resolution and social skills training are taught to fifteen percent of students requiring secondary intervention support. Wrap around and team building offers supports to students with chronic problems.
The question is then, how does a school know that the schoolwide positive behavior support program is working? The theory behind the program is that if overall behavior is improved, then academic achievement will improve also. A school needs a way to measure the overall effectiveness of the SWPBS program by examining achievement data and a Schoolwide Evaluation Guide. Both of these issues are discussed further.
Academic Achievement as Evaluation Tool
Sailor, Stowe, Turnbull III, and Kleinhammer-Tramill (2007) in their article recommend that schools introduce a school-wide positive behavior support (SWPBS) strategy to provide the means for incorporating necessary social-behavioral development standards into current curricular and instructional programs to produce higher academic achievement for all students.
Focus on standards-based education provides an approach to student achievement that can be used to adopt a social and behavioral standard for holding schools accountable for providing an environment that facilitates learning. Previous efforts to align special and general education systems provide a reference in which a social-behavioral standard and its indicators can be addressed.
Sailor, Stowe, Turnbull III, and Kleinhammer-Tramill (2007) go on to report that recent efforts in educational reform have received a plethora of criticism due to the neglect of incorporating social-behavioral standards that are at least conceptually related to improved academic achievement and desired adult outcomes, including employment (Blackorby & Wagner, 1996) community participation, individual wages and income, crime prevention, social cohesion, technological innovations, intergenerational benefit, and overall performance of the economy.
School-Wide Positive Behavior Evaluation Tool
Horner et al. (2004) and Sugai et al. (2001) report on how School-wide evaluation tool or SET provides a way to evaluate primary prevention programs as outlined in SWPBS. “Schools utilizing the SET conduct document reviews, evaluate student interviews and observations. Twenty eight items are included in the SET across seven subscales:
- School-wide behavioral expectations are defined.
- Expectations are taught.
- Rewards are provided for following behavioral expectations.
- A continuum of consequences for problem behavior is in place.
- Data on problem behavior are collected and used for decision making.
- An administrator actively supports SWPBS.
Each item on the SET is scored as “in place” (2 points), “partially in place” (1 point), or “not in place” (0 point), and scores are summarized as an overall percentage scores, and individual subscale percentage scores. For evaluation purposes, schools are said to be implementing SWPBS when the score on the overall summary for a school is 80% or higher, and the score on the individual subscale “expectations taught” is over 80% according to Horner et al. (2004). Sugai et al., (2001) further supports that SET observations, interviews, and record reviews include information on:
- How and when students are taught positive social behaviors.
- Whether staff indicates that positive social behaviors are taught.
- The extent to which school team members report that students are taught positive social behaviors every year.
- If directly asked, 70% of 15 or more students can state 67% of the school rules
- When interviewed, 90% or more of the staff asked can list 67% of the school rules.
Schoolwide Positive Support Programs in Action
In order for schools to measure success of their SWPBS programs, schools need an effective tool to measure their growth. Data obtained from declining office referrals would be one way to measure the decline in discipline problems at the school.
Another way to measure progress in SWPBS programs is to use the SET or schoolwide Evaluation Tool and to compare data from the standardized tests. Academic achievement should rise with steady and effective implementation of an effective schoolwide positive behavior support program.
References
Blackorby, J., & Wagner, M. “Longitudinal Post School Outcomes of youth with Disabilities: Findings from the national Longtitudinal Transition Study.” Exceptional Children, 62 (1996): 399-413.
Horner, R. H., Sugai, G., Todd, A. W., & Lewis-Palmer, T. (2005). “Schoolwide Positive Behavior Support.” in L. M. Bambara & L. Kern (Eds.). In Individualized Supports for Students with Problem Behaviors. New York: Guildford Press. (2005): 359-390.
Sailor, M., Stowe, M. J., Turnbull, Iii, R., & Kleinhammer-Tramill, P. J. “A Case for Adding a Socila-Behavioral Standard to Standards-Based Education with Schoolwide Positive Beharior Support as Its Basis.” Remedial and Special Education, 28-6 (2007): 366-377.
Sugai, G., Lewis-Palmer, T., Todd, A., & Horner, R. H. School-wide evaluation tool. Eugene, OR. University of Oregon. 2001.
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