Positive Behavior Support in Education: Creating Equitable and Effective Learning Environments
Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS) is an evidence-based framework that schools utilize to foster positive behavior, improve school safety, and promote student well-being. It's not a curriculum but an ongoing commitment to system-wide change, supporting students, educators, and families. When implemented effectively, PBIS enhances behavioral, social, emotional, and academic outcomes, reduces exclusionary discipline practices, and cultivates a positive school climate.
What is Positive Behavior Support (PBS)?
Positive behavior support (PBS) is a systemic approach used to enhance educational and therapeutic settings. The broad purpose of PBIS is to improve the effectiveness, efficiency, and equity of schools and other agencies. Rather, PBIS focuses on preventing problems, teaching lifelong behavioral and social skills, and providing students with a safe, caring, and equitable learning environment. In addition, PBIS uses an instructional approach to correct behavior and applies logical consequences consistently and equitably.
PBIS is more than just a set of strategies; it's a framework that emphasizes prevention, teaching appropriate behaviors, and creating a positive and equitable learning environment. It shifts the focus from solely reacting to misbehavior to proactively creating a supportive school culture.
The Core Principles of PBIS
PBIS is not a curriculum but an ongoing commitment to supporting students, educators, and families through systems change. When you implement PBIS well, students experience improved behavioral, social, emotional, and academic outcomes; schools and programs reduce their use of exclusionary discipline practices and improve their overall climate.
Five inter-related elements are emphasized:
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- Systems: Foundational systems establish how schools and programs operate, including teaming structures, training, and coaching for educators. These systems support accurate and durable implementation of practices and data use to achieve better outcomes.
- Data: Schools generate vast amounts of data about students. Within PBIS, teams use data to select, monitor, and evaluate outcomes, practices, and systems across all three tiers.
- Practices: School and classroom practices are crucial for supporting students and creating a positive school climate. In PBIS, interventions and strategies are research-backed and target desired outcomes.
- Outcomes: The ultimate goal is to improve outcomes through data, systems, and practices. Outcomes may include behavioral, social, emotional, and academic growth, a positive school climate, or fewer office discipline referrals.
- Equity: PBIS fits seamlessly within any school context when implemented with fidelity. This requires focusing on connectedness and belonging, with leadership teams working with students, families, and community members to prioritize valued outcomes and high expectations for all students. Centering equity also means supporting educators’ roles in implementation, adapting practices to meet students’ individual needs, and disaggregating data by student group to ensure success for everyone.
The Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS) within PBIS
PBIS utilizes a multi-tiered system of support (MTSS) to provide varying levels of intervention based on student needs. This tiered approach ensures that all students receive the support they need to succeed. Within the multi-tiered system, students with disabilities receiving assistance from an Individualized Education Program (IEP) or special education programs have consistent guidance.
The Center on PBIS supports schools, districts, and states to build systems capacity for implementing a multi-tiered approach to social, emotional and behavior support.
The tiered framework includes:
Tier 1: Universal, Primary Prevention (All): This tier supports everyone - students, educators, and staff - across all school settings. It establishes a foundation for positive and proactive support. Tier 1 support is robust, differentiated, and enables most (80% or more) students to experience success. Prevention practices and behavioral instruction is for all students and should meet the needs of at least 80% of students.
- Collaborating with students, families, and educators to define positive school/program-wide expectations and prioritize appropriate social, emotional, and behavioral skills
- Aligning classroom expectations with school/program-wide expectations
- Explicitly teaching expectations and skills to set all students up for success
- Encouraging and acknowledging expected behavior
- Preventing and responding to unwanted behavior in a respectful, instructional manner
- Fostering school/program-family partnerships
Tier 2: Targeted, Secondary Prevention (Some): In addition to Tier 1, students receiving Tier 2 supports get an added layer of systems, data, and practices targeting their specific needs. On average, about 10-15% of students will need some type of Tier 2 support. Targeted interventions are for students needing additional behavioral support. The support provided at Tier 2 is more focused than at Tier 1 and less intensive than at Tier 3.
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- Providing additional instruction and practice for behavioral, social, emotional, and academic skills
- Increasing adult support and supervision
- Providing additional opportunities for positive reinforcement
- Increasing prompts or reminders
- Increasing access to academic supports
- Increasing school-family communication
Tier 3: Intensive and Individualized, Tertiary Prevention (Few): At most schools and programs, a small number (1-5%) of students require more intensive, individualized support. Tier three supports are in place for about 5% of students who may need intensive intervention. At Tier 3, students receive more intensive, individualized support to improve their outcomes. Intensive interventions are for individual students who are not responding to Tier 1 and Tier 2 intervention. Tier 3 supports are available to any student with intensive need, whether they receive special education services or not. This structure of interventions provides individualized support for students who have more robust behavioral needs.
- Engaging students, educators, and families in functional behavioral assessments and intervention planning
- Coordinating support through wraparound and person-centered planning
- Implementing individualized, comprehensive, and function-based support
The Role of Behavior Assessment in PBIS
Behavior assessment provides key data to inform effective PBIS. Teachers typically know their students very well and continue to learn more through observing challenging behaviors within their classroom. One standard format of observing and recording behavior uses the ABCs of behavior assessment. This method of data analysis is often used within special education programs to assess and respond to ongoing student needs. After using the ABC method to notice challenging behaviors, the next step is implementing the appropriate positive behavioral interventions to avoid misbehavior and build a warm, focused, and friendly school and classroom culture.
Practical Strategies for Implementing PBIS in the Classroom
Teachers play a vital role in implementing PBIS principles within their classrooms. Here are some practical strategies:
Establish Clear Routines: Set clear routines for everything you would like students to do in your classroom, rather than assuming that students know your expectations. Be sure to demonstrate how you would like things to be done. When building and executing classroom routines, remain explicit so that students clearly understand your expectations. A teacher can promote positive behavior in the classroom by using the ABA technique of establishing routines.
Provide Breaks for Self-Regulation: At times, students may become overwhelmed or overstimulated, leading to unregulated behavior choices. Students may benefit from a three- to five-minute break to reset and get focused. Use breaks as a time for self-management and self-regulation. Self-management allows students to pause, reflect, and adjust problematic behavior. Helping students build these skills will let you get back to teaching and learning as quickly as possible.
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Utilize Silent Signals: Create silent signals to remind your students to pay attention and remain on task. Silent signals are an effective intervention because they quickly reinforce behavioral expectations with minimal disruption. You can come up with signals for your class, or you all can create signals that work best for your community together.
Use Proximity Strategically: Proximity is another helpful silent intervention for teachers to redirect student behavior. Teachers can use the ABA technique of proximity to both visually and verbally engage with their students and support positive behavior. For example, they can move around the classroom to offer help when students raise their hands to ask for assistance.
Address Off-Task Behavior Discreetly: When students are off task, they often seek attention. Teachers need to remove the stage when addressing them. Quickly and quietly bend down and whisper to the student what you would like them to do and the consequences they will receive if they don’t meet that expectation, then move away.
Provide Opportunities for Resetting: If you notice a student has a behavioral challenge at a specific time of the day, consider giving them a task or errand to complete for you. Special tasks will give the student a chance to reset and come back and join the class. Consider ways to encourage leadership and peer interaction by pairing the student up with a classmate as a helper on an academic task.
Focus on Positive Reinforcement: As teachers, it’s easy to get into threatening students with statements like, “If you don’t…then I will….” This type of phrasing is negative reinforcement and often creates tension. Instead, positively reinforce the target behavior. Do this when establishing class rules. Here’s another example teachers can use if a student is not completing their homework. Simply state the appropriate behaviors you want to see or acknowledge students who meet expectations right away. For example, when students are lining up and all of them are not ready, you can quickly state the specific behavior that some students are doing correctly. In no time, other students will mimic that behavior to receive positive praise. Teachers act as behavioral role models for their students and should model the positive behavior they wish to see in their classrooms. By communicating through positive phrasing, teachers can establish a standard that students can use when speaking to one another and their teachers. When teachers need to correct undesired behavior, they can do so concisely and respectfully to cultivate safe, positive classroom environments.
Use Rewards Effectively: Rewards are an effective way to encourage positive behaviors. Rewards can be snacks, toys, or a fun activity. Many educators choose to give free or inexpensive rewards that can fit into tight budgets. Be sure that you set clear guidelines for how to earn rewards. Set realistic goals so students can earn the reward consistently and maintain motivation.
A quick trick to determine if rewards and prize programs are effective is to ask students how they received a point/ticket/prize, incentive, etc. If students are not able to communicate a specific behavior they performed to get that reward.
Task Assessment: This is a multifaceted example of positive behavior support in the classroom. Teachers can implement this ABA technique both before and after students work on a task. As they assign a task, teachers can provide guidelines of what behaviors are expected. For instance, teachers can tell their students to stay quiet while they complete a timed test and remind them to raise their hands if they have questions during the test. Teachers should also make sure that students fully understand the desired behavior as the task is assigned. After the students complete the task, the teacher can assess if students completed it with the correct behavior.
The Importance of School-Wide Implementation
PBIS is a school-wide framework for supporting behavioral health across all three tiers of instruction. Therefore, implementing PBIS principles and practices is the responsibility of all school staff, not just a small committee.
The Benefits of PBIS
According to research, PBIS leads to better student behavior. In many schools that use PBIS, students get fewer detentions and suspensions. They also earn better grades. The broad purpose of PBIS is to improve the effectiveness, efficiency, and equity of schools and other agencies. PBIS improves social, emotional, and academic outcomes for all students, including students with disabilities and students from underrepresented groups.
When implemented with fidelity, PBIS improves social emotional competence, academic success, and school climate. It also improves teacher health and wellbeing. It is a way to create positive, predictable, equitable and safe learning environments where everyone thrives.
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