Tyrone Area High School

BE GOLDEN

Tyrone Area High School

School-Wide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports Description (Or in short, PBIS)

The following is taken from the SWPBIS national program description:

“PBIS is a universal, schoolwide prevention strategy that is currently implemented in over 9,000 schools across the nation to reduce disruptive behavior problems through the application of behavioral, social learning, and organizational behavioral principles. PBIS aims to alter school environments by creating improved systems and procedures that promote positive change in student behavior by targeting staff and student behaviors.”

“PBIS is a proactive approach to discipline that promotes appropriate student behavior and increased learning. Traditionally, models of school discipline tend to be reactive (i.e., student misbehavior results in punitive consequences). The word “approach” is key in that SWPBIS provides direction, not a canned program, for developing a comprehensive system of behavior support tailored to individual school needs. The system is based upon a three-tiered model. The first tier (universal) serves as the foundation upon which the other two tiers are built. This tier provides a system of supports to all students in a school based on preventative practices that emphasize teaching and reinforcing expected student behaviors. Tier two (secondary) provides targeted interventions to support students classified as “at risk,” who require more intervention than is typically provided within tier one universal support. Supports offered in tier three require the most intensive level of intervention for students with the most significant behavioral/ emotional support needs.”

Now, here is how we handle it at TAHS:

The staff of the TAHS has long understood that a positive school environment can have a profound impact on every one of our students.  Almost ten years ago we created a school Climate Committee to begin making improvements on many different levels.  We addressed concerns of both our student body and staff.  Our efforts have evolved over the years and have been absorbed by what we call SWPBIS today.  The TASD implemented SWPBIS in the Elementary School a few years ago, this was then followed by the Middle School, and two years ago the High School began to merge it with our Climate Committee.  Today we have both staff and student committees that work together for the overall good of the high school.

To accomplish this work we have implemented many changes.  We first created a set of “Be Golden” behavioral expectations for everyone on campus.  Be Golden stands for: Genuine, Optimistic, Leadership, Driven, Engaged and Neighborly.  Students and staff have teamed up to create lessons and videos showing what we expect of each other in and out of the classroom.  We also have instituted a number of new and exciting activities.  For example, the student committee (Golden Revolution) asked if they could start the year off differently by having a time of celebration and comradery.  They believe it helps improve our environment and we agree with them!  We are glad to announce that August 30 will be our second year for this celebration. In the Spring we spend half the day completing community service projects all over town.  And in the afternoon, we have a reward day for our student body to celebrate the successful completion of school-wide testing.  Our student group, the Golden Revolution, has designed a wonderful system to recognize exemplary student behavior through our Golden Nomination program.  Teachers recognize individual students for their behavior when it matches any of the existing Be Golden standards listed above.  This is behaviorally driven, not an academic reward system.  We currently have over 40 events/programs in place for our campus community. For a list of all of our activities you can go through our District/High School website. 

This year we are working toward developing greater fidelity with our Tier 2 & 3 programs, with many of these elements already in place.

Why would a school want to implement SWPBIS?

• Excessive discipline referrals
• Lack of student motivation
• Truancy or attendance issues
• High drop-out rates
• Negative school climate
• Parents & community have negative perception of school
• Too much administrative time spent reacting to crisis or behavioral issues
• Lack of engagement during academic instruction

How does SWPBIS help students?

What is SWPBIS?
-A systems approach for establishing the social culture and behavioral supports needed for a school to be an effective learning environment for all students.
Evidence-based features of SWPBIS:
-Prevention
-Define and teach positive social expectations
-Acknowledge positive behavior
-Arrange consistent consequences for problem behavior
-On-going collection and use of data for decision-making
-Continuum of intensive, individual intervention supports.
-Implementation of the systems that support effective practices

A systems approach for establishing the social culture and behavioral supports needed for a school to be an effective learning environment for all students.

• Evidence-based features of SWPBIS:
• Prevention
• Define and teach positive social expectations
• Acknowledge positive behavior
• Arrange consistent consequences for problem behavior                              
• On-going collection and use of data for decision -making
• Continuum of intensive, individual intervention supports.
• Implementation of the systems that support effective practices

What’s in it for me?

 How does SWPBIS benefit our school and community?

SWPBIS Implementation

- It is important for all staff to model, teach, and reinforce the school’s core social and behavioral expectations. This consistency is one of the elements that helps SWPBIS to be effective. Faculty and staff will be provided with tools to help promote positive behavior. 

 -Acknowledgement is an important evidence-based feature of SWPBIS.  All staff will have the opportunity to acknowledge positive behavior.  This may be verbally telling students what they have done right, giving students a ticket acknowledging their positive behavior, or nominating students for special privileges. 

 -Faculty and staff will be informed of school-wide discipline data several times per year to see how SWPBIS is working in your school. Generally, faculty and staff see an improvement in overall student behavior which results in a reduction in the number of class disruptions, time spent intervening with problem behavior, and more time for academic engagement to occur.  

-You may have more fun at school! You may be asked to volunteer to participate in pep rallies, staff vs. student games, flash mobs and more! You may even earn rewards for your positive behavior. 

 For more information on SWPBIS implementation in Pennsylvania, please visit the Pennsylvania Positive Behavior Support Network website at:  www.papbs.org