Focused Area

Improving School Climate for Youth-At-Risk

Relevance to Focused Area

Nevada's Positive Behavior Interventions and Support (PBIS) Technical Assistance Center provides training and technical assistance across the state using a multi-tiered behavior framework of School-wide PBS. The School Climate Transformation Project of Nevada's PBIS Technical Assistance Center is currently working with more than 1/3 of the districts in Nevada to provide training on systems level behavior support to improve school climate and prevent challenging behavior for all students, with targeted supports provided to students at risk, as identified by data collection systems.

Primary Strand

Social & Emotional Skills

Relevance to Primary Strand

SWPBS teaches and reinforces prosocial behaviors and school expectations to all students through school-wide trainings and imbedded lesson plans. Students that demonstrate a need for more targeted and intensive services will participate in group social skills trainings as well as individualized behavior plans focused around teaching appropriate replacement behaviors.

Brief Program Description

This workshop will describe the core features of School-wide Positive Behavior Support (SWPBS). Implementation and data-based decision making will be highlighted. Participants will learn the importance and benefit of a multi-tiered behavior framework at each of three tiers of support. The primary target audience for this workshop is administrators, however the content is relevant to educators and parents.

Summary

School-wide Positive Behavior Support (SWPBS) emphasizes systems change through a three-tiered behavioral framework, characterized by increasingly individualized interventions at each tier (Horner, Sugai, & Anderson, 2010). At Tier I, the primary level of intervention, evidence-based prevention practices are implemented across the entire school, for all students and staff across all settings. Universal strategies at Tier I include developing school-wide expectations, teaching school-wide expectations, developing systems to reinforce appropriate behavior and discourage inappropriate behavior, and establishing a comprehensive data collection system. Secondary (Tier II) supports are provided to students who are not responding to Tier I efforts. These supports include targeted interventions around specific skill deficits. Tertiary (or Tier III) interventions are individualized to the unique needs of individual students. Tier III focuses on reducing the intensity and/or complexity of problem behavior and providing function-based individualized support to teach new skills and reinforce prosocial behaviors. SWPBS has been used to support prosocial behavior of all students from a variety of backgrounds and with a wide range of characteristics including developmental disabilities, autism, and emotional and behavioral disorders (Horner & Sugai, 2014). Additionally, SWPBS has been demonstrated to be effective in both urban and rural communities (http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/osers/osep/index.html).

Participants in this workshop can expect to learn the foundations of SWPBS and the importance and benefit of using a multi-tiered behavior framework. This presentation will highlight the prevention of challenging behavior and data-based decision making to ensure adequate behavior support for all students. Time commitment, resources and other important topics for implementation will be addressed. Four important steps to implementation will be addressed: (1) build the SEA capacity for supporting the sustained and broad-scale implementation of SWPBS in the LEAs, (2) enhance LEA capacity for implementing and sustaining SWPBS, (3) develop capacity and usefulness of statewide data collection, and (4) to coordinate SEA efforts in this area with appropriate resources. Each goal and outcome is observable and measurable and will be assessed directly through specific SWPBS evaluation tools discussed in Section 4.

Evidence

Research indicates that when SWPBS is implemented with fidelity, the results include significant reductions in office discipline referrals, suspensions, teacher ratings of classroom problem behavior, concentration problems, emotion regulation problems, bullying and peer rejection (Bradshaw, Mitchell, & Leaf, 2010; Bradshaw, Waasdorp, & Leaf, 2012; Horner et al., 2009; Waasdorp, Bradshaw, & Leaf, 2012). Research has also documented increases in teacher ratings of students’ prosocial behavior, student reports of school climate, staff reports of their school’s organizational health, teacher self-efficacy, and academic achievement (Bradshaw, Koth, Bevans, Ialongo, & Leaf, 2008; Bradshaw, Koth, Thornton, & Leaf, 2009; Bradshaw, Waasdorp, & Leaf, 2012; Horner et al., 2009; Bradshaw, Pas, Goldweber, Rosenberg, & Leaf, 2012). Further, the positive improvements following implementation of SWPBS appears to enhance the implementation quality of other, more intensive preventive interventions (Bradshaw et al., 2009), and reduce the need for more intensive school-based services (Bradshaw et al., 2012).

Format

Individual Presentation

Biographical Sketch

Kathryn Roose is the Evaluation and Data Manager for Nevada’s PBIS Technical Assistance Center. Previously, she worked at Positive Behavior Support-Nevada as a Training and Consultation Specialist, providing support to families and school teams addressing challenging behavior, as a Behavior Interventionist and Case Manager working with children and adults with intellectual disorders, and as a Certified Alcohol and Drug Counselor. Mrs. Roose holds a Bachelor of Science degree in psychology from the University of California, San Diego, and a Master of Arts degree in behavior analysis from the University of Nevada, Reno, and is working towards Board Certification in Behavior Analysis.

Jodie Soracco has been working with Positive Behavior Support-Nevada since 2008 as the Northwest Training Coordinator. In 2012 she took on an additional role as state coordinator for School-wide Positive Behavior Support. Mrs. Soracco previously worked for the Washoe County School District as a teacher, with experience teaching in elementary and special education classrooms. Mrs. Soracco currently is the state coordinator for the School Climate Transformation Project with Nevada’s PBIS Technical Assistance Center. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Elementary and Special Education, and a Master’s Degree in Special Education with a focus on Emotional and Behavior disorders, with an endorsement in autism. Mrs. Soracco is working towards her Board Certification in Behavior Analysis and is a mother of two young boys.

Kaci Fleetwood has been working with Positive Behavior Support-Nevada since 2012 as a school-wide trainer. Prior to that, Mrs. Fleetwood worked for the Washoe County School District as a teacher, with experience teaching in elementary and high school, in general and special education settings. Following her teaching experience, she worked as an Implementation Specialist implementing Positive Behavior Supports in alternative education settings, and subsequently as an Implementation Specialist for WCSD’s Student Support Services behavior department. Currently, Mrs. Fleetwood is a state coordinator for the School Climate Transformation Project with Nevada’s PBIS Technical Assistance Center. She earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Elementary and Special Education, a Master’s degree in Literacy with Endorsements in Teaching English as a Second Language and Instructional Coaching. Mrs. Fleetwood is currently working towards her Board Certification in Behavior analysis and is the mother of two sons with autism.

Ashley Greenwald is the Project Director of Nevada’s PBIS Technical Assistance Center. Previously, she was the Administrative and Clinical Director for Positive Behavior Support-Nevada. Mrs. Greenwald assisted in writing the School Climate Transformation Grant and the SAMHSA Project Aware Grant, which were both awarded to the state of Nevada in 2014. Mrs. Greenwald has years of experience working with children and adults with intellectual disabilities and challenging behavior. Mrs. Greenwald is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst, holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Florida and a master’s degree in behavior analysis from the University of Nevada, Reno. Mrs. Greenwald is expecting to graduate with a Ph.D. in behavior analysis from the University of Nevada, Reno in May 2015.

Start Date

11-6-2015 11:45 AM

End Date

11-6-2015 1:00 PM

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Nov 6th, 11:45 AM Nov 6th, 1:00 PM

Positive Behavior Interventions and Support: Addressing Challenging Behaviors through a Multi-tiered Model of Prevention

This workshop will describe the core features of School-wide Positive Behavior Support (SWPBS). Implementation and data-based decision making will be highlighted. Participants will learn the importance and benefit of a multi-tiered behavior framework at each of three tiers of support. The primary target audience for this workshop is administrators, however the content is relevant to educators and parents.