Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports

System-wide Evaluation Tool (SET)

Sample School: May 2004

Purpose: The Systems-wide Evaluation Tool (SET) is designed to assess and evaluate the critical features of school-wide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) across each academic school year. Information necessary for this assessment tool is generated through multiple sources including review of permanent products, observations, and staff and student interviews or surveys. The information gathered from the SET can be used to:

1.  assess features that are in place

2.  determine annual goals for school-wide effective behavior supports

3.  evaluate on-going efforts toward school-wide behavior support

4.  design and revise procedures as needed, and

5.  compare efforts toward school-wide effective behavior support from year to year.

This writer spent approximately 3 hours at Sample School. Time was spent interviewing Joe Administrator, the principal, PBIS team members, touring the school building, interviewing staff and students and collecting PBIS related materials (products).

There are seven critical features of PBIS listed, defined and scored within SET.:

1.  Behavioral Expectations Defined

2.  Behavioral Expectations Taught

3.  On-Going System for Rewarding Behavioral Expectations

4.  System for Responding to Behavioral Violations

5.  Monitoring and Decision-Making

6.  Leadership

7.  District-Level Support

General Remarks:

1.  Office referral patterns can change dramatically especially during the first couple of years PBIS implementation. If overall systems are put in place, referrals could possibly increase. However, this pattern does not necessarily negatively impact school climate.

2.  SET does not capture the richness of the programming schools have incorporated as part of the PBIS initiative. Most schools have a variety of key successful ingredients that have been organized using the PBIS framework.

3.  Sample MS scored 91% placing them in Stage 4: Fluent and Sustaining. Staff at Sample is commended for their hard work and dedication to the PBIS initiative.


Key Elements

1.  A behavior support team representative of school staff is in place. They are meeting regularly, have administrator support, and the team has building level capacity.

2.  Positive Behavior Support is one of the top three school improvement goals.

3.  There are no more than 5 positively stated school-wide rules. Staff has agreed to the “Formula 4 Success” containing four rules:

Be Respectful, Responsible, And Ready-to-Learn and Rethink. These rules are posted in six out of 10 locations including hallways, classrooms and common areas throughout the building. 80% of staff could recite the entire Formula 4 Success and 93% could recite at least three of the four expectations. 73% of the students surveyed could recite at least three of the four expectations. Expectations have been taught directly at least once this school year.

4.  Students are acknowledged for demonstrating the expected behaviors by receiving yellow “Gotcha” slips.

5.  A system exists for responding to problem behaviors. Agreements between staff and administration are made about problem behaviors that are classroom managed and ones that are office managed. This “responding system” is well defined, structured for staff and promotes consistency.

6.  Sample is collecting and summarizing discipline referrals, using SWIS. Data are used to make informed decisions. The information is also shared with staff on a regular basis.

7.  Sample has district-level support. They have been assigned a behavior support coach, Susie Swindell.

Recommendations:

1.  Expectations defined: score 75%

a.  The Formula 4 Success is very clear and concise. The formula for success should be highly visible throughout the building (at least 8 out of 10 locations including special area classrooms and hallways).

2.  Behavioral expectations taught: score 100%

a.  93% of staff reported teaching the Formula 4 Success to students this year. Lesson plans exist to facilitate consistent teaching across staff.

3.  On-going reward system: score 83%

a.  80% of students reported receiving gotcha’s and 87% of staff reported delivering gotcha’s within the past two months. Staff should be encouraged, reminded and rewarded for using the gotcha system.

4.  System for responding to rule violations: score 88%

a.  There is clear written documentation of procedures for addressing rule violations. There was 100% agreement between administration and staff regarding what behaviors should be office managed. 4/7 locations had accessible crisis plans. 100% of staff was in agreement with the administration about what to do in extreme emergencies.

5.  Decision-making and monitoring: score 100%

a.  Sample is using SWIS to manage and summarize discipline referrals. The team should continue to actively evaluate the data and share that information with the faculty.

6.  Leadership: score 94%

a.  The PBIS committee actively addresses and supports school-wide discipline. The team is representative of the school staff and the team meets at least monthly. An administrator is a member of the committee, but attends inconsistently.

b.  100% of team members reported teaching the school-wide plan to staff this year. Each year brings a new group of students and staff. Consequently, an overview of the positive behavior support plan is needed and staff should recommit to its implementation and maintenance at the beginning of each school year.

7.  District-level support: score 100%

a.  Sample has a budget to support PBIS efforts including staff development and incentives. They have a PBIS coach actively supporting their efforts and should continue to access her support as needed.

Sample School has done a remarkable job PBIS school. With 91% of PBIS features in place (an improvement from 71.4% in April 2002), Sample can be very proud of the positive, nurturing atmosphere. We are excited for the school to continue as a PBIS school next year. The team will be meeting this summer to update the action plan as well as progress forward to the next level of implementation. As data fluctuates during the next couple of years, it may be helpful to look at a number of other factors that are indicators of school climate. Staff attendance, student attendance, and teacher retention are some climate indicators. Please feel free to contact me for further assistance. Once again, thank you for your time and commitment to PBIS.

Joe Assessor

Page 1 of 4