Using PBIS to Transform High School Culture and Climate

First Presenter's Institution

Road to Awesome, LLC

First Presenter's Brief Biography

Dr. Darrin Peppard is an author, speaker, and consultant focused on what matters most in leadership and education. Darrin is an expert in school culture and climate, as well as coaching and growing emerging leaders, and is the author of the best selling book Road to Awesome: Empower, Lead, Change the Game. Darrin was named the 2016 Wyoming Secondary School Principal of the Year by WASSP/NASSP and was the 2015 Jostens Renaissance Educator of the Year. In 2017, Darrin earned his Doctorate Degree in Educational Leadership from the University of Wyoming. Darrin was inducted into the Jostens Renaissance Hall of Fame in 2019. Darrin now shares his experiences from over 25 years in education, specifically those learned as an education leader during the past 13 years. As a ‘recovering’ high school principal, Darrin shares lessons learned and effective strategies from over 25 years in public education to help leaders (both adults and students) to become more effective and positively impact the world around them.

Document Type

Event

Primary Strand

Positive Behavior Interventions and Support

Relevance to Primary Strand

The core premise of this proposal is moving from cultures where we 'catch them doing it wrong' to catching them doing it right. High school cultures are among the most challenging, but this presentation tells the story, and shares the steps used, to transform a toxic high school culture through a PBIS framework into a high-performing school with improved attendance, achievement, and graduation rates.

Brief Program Description

Two questions were asked that changed the course of a high school, and my career. Why does it always have to be about what they do wrong? Why can't it be about what they do right? This presentation is a deep dive into transforming a high school from toxic to high performing using a PBIS framework and shifting the mindset of educators.

Summary

What happens when we shift our focus from what they are doing wrong to what they are doing right? At the high-school level, PBIS initiatives can be difficult, with many educators holding one of two fundamentally flawed beliefs: 1) students are old enough to ‘know how’ to behave, and 2) students should not be rewarded for behaving correctly. This presentation is centered around making a significant shift in the culture of a southwest Wyoming high school. At the core of that shift was the PBIS framework, changing the mindset of staff to focus on positives rather than negatives, and having a collective ownership of the success of all students. In a few short years, the school moved from poor attendance, academic performance, low graduation rates, and toxic culture to a school performing well in all areas. This resulted in an increase in student connections to school, improved culture, and lower staff turnover. The process began with establishing clear, collective values and a focus on keeping students in the classroom. This grew into strong tier 1 and 2 interventions, a partnership with the local juvenile court and probation programs, and reduced discipline referrals by over 50% in just one year. We called this our ‘Road to Awesome’, our time when two roads split and we took the road less traveled.

Evidence

In year one of our work, the school reduced discipline referrals (just over 1000 students) from nearly 2000 referrals the previous year to just over 700. In two years, attendance moved from 84.2% ADA to 91.6% ADA and to 94.3% in year 3. Graduation rate over a ten year period moved from 69% to over 84%. All while increasing student enrollment to over 1400 students.

Learning Objective 1

Identify key steps in shifting high school culture through the a PBIS framework.

Learning Objective 2

Overcome and address pushback by staff who do not want to participate in a PBIS framework in their classroom

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Using PBIS to Transform High School Culture and Climate

What happens when we shift our focus from what they are doing wrong to what they are doing right? At the high-school level, PBIS initiatives can be difficult, with many educators holding one of two fundamentally flawed beliefs: 1) students are old enough to ‘know how’ to behave, and 2) students should not be rewarded for behaving correctly. This presentation is centered around making a significant shift in the culture of a southwest Wyoming high school. At the core of that shift was the PBIS framework, changing the mindset of staff to focus on positives rather than negatives, and having a collective ownership of the success of all students. In a few short years, the school moved from poor attendance, academic performance, low graduation rates, and toxic culture to a school performing well in all areas. This resulted in an increase in student connections to school, improved culture, and lower staff turnover. The process began with establishing clear, collective values and a focus on keeping students in the classroom. This grew into strong tier 1 and 2 interventions, a partnership with the local juvenile court and probation programs, and reduced discipline referrals by over 50% in just one year. We called this our ‘Road to Awesome’, our time when two roads split and we took the road less traveled.