School Violence and Safety - Using the PBIS Online Tools and Data to Improve School Safety
First Presenter's Institution
University of SC
First Presenter's Brief Biography
Robert N. Stevens Received his BS from The Citadel, MS from University of Oklahoma and PhD from Florida State University with an emphasis in research statistics and program evaluation. He has 40 years of experience in education as a teacher, coach, principal, college administrator and professor. His current initiatives include: Consultant to SC Department of Education’s AWARE initiative; Co-PI of the SC Department of Mental Health’s CoIIN initiative; investigator for PCORnet’s STAR Clinical Research Network; and Co-chair of the Southeastern School Behavioral Health Conference. He is currently participating on the stakeholder advisory teams of three PCORI Awards. Previous initiatives include: Creation of an At-Risk Alert Reporting System (ARAS) to prevent student dropout and improve evidence-based school interventions; Steering Committee Chair of the SC-DOE School Climate Initiative, and School Mental Health Sub-Committee Chair for the SC Behavioral Health Coalition. He has recently been the editor of the "Journal for Emotional and Behavioral Disabilities in Youth", and has authored and co-edited the book, “School Behavioral Health-Interconnecting Comprehensive School Mental Health and Positive Behavior Support.”
Document Type
Event
Primary Strand
School Safety
Relevance to Primary Strand
This presentation assists PBIS and MTSS Teams in reviewing data that impacts school safety. Analysis of violence risk and protective factors, will help school teams develop effective action plans to improve school safety and school climate.
Brief Program Description
This session is designed to introduce PBIS and MTSS Teams to the use of several PBIS and related tools that will assist the school in action planning to reduce school violence. This includes reviewing risk and protective factors.
Summary
Creating and maintaining a safe and healthy school environment, an environment where all students are free from violence, is important to everyone. Though rare, mass school shootings like those at Sandy Hook Elementary and Parkland High School heighten and intensify our fears and concerns. We search for the most reliable information available, trying to find ways to make schools safer and more conducive to learning.
The number of students killed at school each year, relative to the number of students in k-12 schools, is small. Unfortunately, other forms of violence are much more prevalent in schools. Research states that 6% of students fear suffering an attack or harm at school and a small but significant number of students (1%) report being a victim of violent crime. While we cannot guarantee a violent incident will never occur in our schools or in our community, there are measures we can take to reduce the probability.
During this session we will discuss two data tools: 1) Attendees will receive and review the School Climate Survey. Results will give you a better idea of how safe students feel when they’re at school. 2) Attendees will also receive and review the online School Safety Survey assessment. It includes items specifically related risk and protective factors in schools. This assessment can be used to guide your school safety implementation efforts, by establishing goals for improving those risk factors and monitor your progress.
Attendees will spend time completing the two assessments and discuss how to use them in their schools to improve safety. All surveys are free to PBIS schools and are evidence based.
Evidence
Research asked questions about school safety concerns and intervention programs.(Sprague, Colvin, & Irvin, 1995, 2000) Compared the results of the present survey with those found from administering the same survey in 1995. Results indicate that protective factors were rated higher than risk factors in 1995 and 2000. Bullying and harassment, poverty, and transiency were top rated risk factors in 2000 and these were different from results found in 1995. Principals rated response to conflict, suicide prevention, and staff training as top protective factors in 2000 and these also differed from the 1995 ratings. Regarding priorities for change, principals rated improvement of the academic program as their highest priority, followed by school safety and discipline improvement.
Learning Objective 1
Audience will become familiar with instruments that measure students feeling of safety and climate in their schools.
Learning Objective 2
District staff who attend gain an understanding of how to use the on-line school safety/violence tool. Attendees will practice with this evidence based tool to determine risk and protective factors in their buildings.
Learning Objective 3
Participants will understand the need for surveys that measure family, staff and community view of a schools safety. How these surveys can assist in school safety planning and activities.
Recommended Citation
Stevens, Bob N. PhD, "School Violence and Safety - Using the PBIS Online Tools and Data to Improve School Safety" (2022). Southeast Conference on School Climate. 8.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/secsc/2022/2022/8
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
School Violence and Safety - Using the PBIS Online Tools and Data to Improve School Safety
Creating and maintaining a safe and healthy school environment, an environment where all students are free from violence, is important to everyone. Though rare, mass school shootings like those at Sandy Hook Elementary and Parkland High School heighten and intensify our fears and concerns. We search for the most reliable information available, trying to find ways to make schools safer and more conducive to learning.
The number of students killed at school each year, relative to the number of students in k-12 schools, is small. Unfortunately, other forms of violence are much more prevalent in schools. Research states that 6% of students fear suffering an attack or harm at school and a small but significant number of students (1%) report being a victim of violent crime. While we cannot guarantee a violent incident will never occur in our schools or in our community, there are measures we can take to reduce the probability.
During this session we will discuss two data tools: 1) Attendees will receive and review the School Climate Survey. Results will give you a better idea of how safe students feel when they’re at school. 2) Attendees will also receive and review the online School Safety Survey assessment. It includes items specifically related risk and protective factors in schools. This assessment can be used to guide your school safety implementation efforts, by establishing goals for improving those risk factors and monitor your progress.
Attendees will spend time completing the two assessments and discuss how to use them in their schools to improve safety. All surveys are free to PBIS schools and are evidence based.
