Written by Andy Jordan, Ed.S. School Administrator 8-23-20
Two years ago a student at Cosby High School in Richmond, Virginia was suspended for ten days because school security found a bottle of Advil in her car during a routine parking lot search. A kindergarten student at Deer Lakes Elementary School in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania was suspended for one day because the five inch plastic axe he carried as a part of his fireman Halloween costume was considered a weapon. When a first grade boy kissed a female classmate on the cheek, school officials suspended him.
Rather than having a common sense approach to discipline, the use of traditional zero tolerance discipline policies (ZT) is unfair, inequitable, ineffective, and detrimental. According to Principal Andy Jordan It destroys trust between educators, students, and parents and replaces a school’s ethic of care with an ethic of policing and punishment.
As a result, schools across the country have adopted better discipline practices aimed not for retribution, but for improving student behavior.
Cultivating a positive school culture requires educators to teach, model and reinforce desired social, emotional, and academic behaviors. One way to accomplish this task is through adopting and applying Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS). PBIS is a proactive strategy that creates a school culture conducive to student social and emotional learning and academic success. Principal Andy Jordan explains reading the announcements, highlighting positives, and having visual reinforcements are just a few strategies administrators can use for their building.
PBIS schools do not rely on reactive and inconsistent discipline strategies to manage misbehavior. Instead, they use a proactive approach to teach students desired behaviors for success in all facets of the school community before undesired behaviors occur.
PBIS uses three tiers of support to facilitate positive prosocial behavior.
The first tier of PBIS is implemented throughout the school community. At this tier, schools cultivate a culture of respect and care for both students and staff in all areas of the building both inside and outside of the classroom.
In order to establish desired behaviors, staff members throughout the building communicate clear expectations of respectful behavior and strive to model it in every interaction. From classroom teachers and administrators to the cafeteria staff and bus drivers, every member of the school community communicates and models desired behaviors in the successful implementation of PBIS. Principal Andy Jordan recommends having reward bucks that teachers, office staff, and bus drivers can pass out to students to reinforce the positive behaviors of students.
The second tier of PBIS targets the needs of at-risk students before problematic behavior starts. This level helps students develop skills needed to make the most out of their school experience. Students at this level meet in groups with adult mentors to discuss desired behaviors and strategies to achieve them.
The third tier centers on the needs of high risk students and addresses highly disruptive or dangerous behaviors. Schools provide high risk individuals with more intensive support and therapy to mitigate and change antisocial behaviors. School support members including psychologists, counselors, administrators and teachers, and behavior coaches, provide targeted individualized support to help students at this tier. According to Andy Jordan’s leadership blog monthly assemblies are a great way to target all students and reinforce expected behaviors.
Because PBIS is a proactive approach designed to teach and reinforce appropriate behavior, it forges positive relationships and engenders trust between educators and students. Social and emotional learning programs like PBIS have been found to improve school climate, increase academic engagement and success and decrease office referrals and suspensions. Principal Andy Jordan recommends buildings that are struggling in certain areas for behavior should review and practice appropriate behavior expectations with students.
About Andrew Jordan 