by Dr. Timothy (Tim) Grivois, Executive Director
In many respects, PBIS (Positive Behavior Interventions and Support) is the longest-running educational research project ever. The systems and practices that PBIS advocates have been part of the fabric of schools throughout the United States for over 60 years.
However, while much of PBIS is almost relentlessly logical (and comes with a stubborn inflexibility, at least among many trainers), what we know about how children and youth learn and grow has changed tremendously in the last 60 years.
Examples from currently common PBIS practices:
Most PBIS implementation begins with a small team creating the “PBIS stuff” and bringing it back to schools for feedback. What if we began with the whole school community first?
Many schools use points, tickets, and incentives to motivate students to demonstrate expected behaviors. What if the ticket was simply a symbol of a positive interaction…and nothing more?
Virtually every PBIS trainer uses a color-coded triangle to represent tiers of support, employing a variety of mental gymnastics to explain how the colors represent “services” and not “students participating in those services.” What if we ditched the triangle and just helped students as they communicate and as we discover their needs?
Virtually every PBIS trainer believes that Tier 2 and Tier 3 interventions are about the conversations, not the point cards. So why do we insist on tracking point cards when we’re already tracking other behavior data? Couldn’t we place at least as much emphasis on the adult behaviors required to make an intervention successful?
For those of us in the PBIS community, it’s past time that we acknowledged that as our understanding of students’ needs grows, so must our systems and practices. Click here for a free overview of PBIS at all tiers, without triangles, incentives, or even a registration fee.