Abstract:
Positive Behavioral Support (PBS) is an effective practice for decreasing student misbehavior, as measured through lower office disciplinary referral rates and increased academic achievement (Lewis & Sugai, 1999). An elementary-school PBS team was developed to implement a systematic, problem-solving approach with early intervention techniques in order to reduce office referral rates and increase student achievement. Goals included teaching behavioral expectations, developing consistent behavior lesson plans for teachers, defining and reinforcing appropriate behavioral expectations, and implementing a reward system for students exhibiting socially acceptable behavior. Disciplinary data from the PBS school showed a strong decrease in the number of disciplinary office referrals following implementation of the support program when compared to a non-PBS school. Additionally, for students with three or more disciplinary office referrals (repeat offenders), there was no significant difference for the first year referral rates, indicating the two study groups, PBS and non-PBS, were similar in respect to incidents prior to program implementation. After implementation of PBS, statistical differences, and large effect-size estimates of this 3-year analysis, were found between groups. No statistical differences or differences in effect-size estimates of any significance were found regarding implementation of PBS and reading performance. Qualitative analysis from staff surveys produced three general themes: PBS positively impacted the overall climate of the school; PBS positively impacted school discipline records by reducing office referral rates; and, PBS did not appear to impact student reading achievement.