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Why have a program like PBIS when the students are already well behaved? That's my biggest issue with it. In my district, every school has to have either PBIS or Responsive Classroom. It takes up a lot of time, as marie5v stated. Any "issues" we had before were very minor. The students are behaving well, just as they were before, except now it is part of the School Improvement Plan. that equals more meetings and data collection for something that wasn't broken in the first place.
I'm glad that it works at your school. In our district, however, the positive rewards that are meaningful to our students do go to people who have bad behavior. When it is the parents who are glorifying thug life, it's very difficult to reach their children and teach them that the world at large isn't like the world they know.
This video is based on life in our town, and the rewards it offers are immediate and tangible. I've hesitated since the beginning of the thread to post it, because of its explicit nature, but I think it puts the question to the PBIS philosophy of what really matters to the students. Growing up in an environment of drugs, sex, and violence makes it, in my opinion, unrealistic to teach children that those behaviors are not rewarded, when every day, the students see that they are, and abundantly.
You have a larger issue, beyond PBIS. Your town needs an intervention, it seems, although won't happen. When the parents glorify ghetto-fabulousness and thuglife you have a crisis and it is of an immediate and different level. No school program is going to help en masse although you can make a difference with individual students. That's about all that you can hope for. Unfortunately, when things get this bad the good folks usually give up and move away and what is left eats each other. Jackson, Miss. is a disaster zone.
You have a larger issue, beyond PBIS. Your town needs an intervention, it seems, although won't happen. When the parents glorify ghetto-fabulousness and thuglife you have a crisis and it is of an immediate and different level. No school program is going to help en masse although you can make a difference with individual students. That's about all that you can hope for. Unfortunately, when things get this bad the good folks usually give up and move away and what is left eats each other. Jackson, Miss. is a disaster zone.
One of the most frustrating aspects of the succession of programs like PBIS is that they always take attention away from the systemic problems. They tell us that the program works with all populations, and that we can't prevent the behaviors in the community, but we can prevent them at school.
Call me a skeptic more than a naysayer, but I think you're right about it being a larger issue.
The problem is not the program, its with the implementation. The basics of PBIS are common sense. The main aspect of the program that has helped my school tremendously is that we have to treat behavior like any other subject, meaning we have to explicitly teach our students what we want them to know. Many students come to school without any of the behavioral teachings we seem to expect - being respectful, fulfilling responsibilities, being helpful, to name a few. We have to teach them these things if they have any hope of being successful in school.
As far as taking away from the academics, I disagree wholeheartedly. Our on task times has increased tremendously since implementing PBIS. Instead of stopping all the time to deal with behavior problems, we cut it off at the beginning of the year by teaching the behaviors. Its time well spent.
It seems like your school has not done a good job implementing the program. We have a student committee that helps us come up with the rewards. Like the OP said, if the students don't care about the reward, then its not really a motivator. But the rewards such a small part of the program. PBIS is a systematic approach to teaching behaviors, meeting the needs of students with severe problems, and ensuring instructional time is not wasted or interrupted.
Finally, for the poster who asked why have a program like PBIS when the kids were already well behaved? If you take away PBIS, then that leaves teachers with forcing students to do right. Students behave because they are scared of the consequence. As soon as the teacher isn't watching, the kids will do wrong, because we have never taught them to do right.
Finally, for the poster who asked why have a program like PBIS when the kids were already well behaved? If you take away PBIS, then that leaves teachers with forcing students to do right. Students behave because they are scared of the consequence. As soon as the teacher isn't watching, the kids will do wrong, because we have never taught them to do right.
I'll have to disagree with this. Before PBIS, my students didn't behave because they were scared of the consequences. They behaved because...well, they behaved. It's what was expected from the teachers and their parents. In 20 years I can probably count on one hand the number of students adjacent had to take to the office. For the most part my students have been taught to do right at home before I ever see them. These kids shape up when I say, "I am so disappointed". They hate to think they are disappointing their teacher and will turn it around very quickly.
Our PBIS is implemented half-a$$ed anyhow and is "used" to reinforce things like silence while waiting for kiss and ride or positive cafeteria behavior. These are things students used to do anyhow, so we keep rewarding every class, every time. PBIS just serves to make more meetings for another committee to collect more data that can be reported to district admin.
Actually, true positive reinforcement, correctly applied, is the only thing that DOES change behavior in the long-term, in or out of a classroom context. I can't speak to this particular system, but that in and of itself is a data-proven reality.
However, most school settings are not equipped to correctly apply the principles of true positive reinforcement in a meaningful or effective way. So you get bad application of sound principles...and, subsequently, people who say, "Hey, see, this doesn't work!" When, in fact, they haven't actually experienced or seen it being done properly or effectively.
I work in a community program that is cooperated with the school district, so it's a before and after school program. PBIS was introduce to my work place a month ago and most people seem to like it. I haven't tried it so I don't have an opinion, but I agree that awards don't work for my grade age (4-6th grade).
My only question is how do you work with a student who is a bully and has EBD? His parents are divorced. Dad thinks "boys will be boys" and mom gives him medicine when he's with her. I believe in positive reinforcement but this boy doesn't listen, talks back, and pick on other kids. There are days when he behaves, listens, and got your back. He likes to ask questions about your life, is a math wizard, can be nice and say nice things when you least expect it. I do believe that building a relationship with him will help and improve on the long run (which I see this with my youth facilitator), but in my case, I work with him every day. He is influencing other students to act like him (ignoring and causing trouble).
My group staff had a meeting with the supervisor and the youth facilitator, and I just found out that I was hired for this specific reason when I was never told during my interview. Honestly, I feel kind of cheated, maybe, I don't know.
Suspensions and other reportable problems went down drastically in my school. The reason? They simply renamed them. Bullying turned into "oppositional defiance" and was the teacher's fault. Teacher is reprimanded and told to get more training, student is not punished. Gang beating of student after school was ignored on basis that it was not during school hours and there were no witnesses. Every time a kid did something really bad that required some kind of response, teachers had to fill out a really long form before anything could be done - including removing child from classroom. So as a kid is having a meltdown throwing tables teacher has to fill out the form. Then the forms go into a big box in the office. Then they magically disappear. Completely disappear. It's a joke. It's just an official way to throw paper at a problem and look like they're doing something - busy work, really - while not actually doing anything about it.
OMG I HATE PBIS!!!!!!!!!! We have had it in all our elementary schools for 2 years with nothing but increased violent and disprespectful behavior with no consequences. No suspensions or ISS after big major Safe Schools Act violations. The principals have been told not to suspend kids especially if they are not white and have an IEP. This program has turned a wonderful school system into a dangerous place to work. PBIS does what good classroom mangagement and a good principal can do without all this money spent. It is ridiculous to reward a child for following the rules and doing what is expected of any student. After so much "Fake" praise, a child ignores them. It waters down "real" praise and makes it ineffective. I have taught elem. school for 25 years and PBIS is not needed .
As a school mental health worker, I'm very supportive of PBIS. There is a lot of research behind it and it's been great for our district. The issues that I've seen presented here seem to have more to do with faulty implementation than issues with the program itself.
I like the matrix because it's easy to follow, visually appealing, and utilizes common language that makes it easier to understand. Its presence doesn't mean that you can't also communicate expectations verbally or via supplemental visual means as well. Just have a little adaptability. It's also not the fault of PBIS if you have an ineffective incentive system. Simply work to devise a better one. It's not like it's in the PBIS by-laws that X number of positive behaviors must be rewarded with X brand of candy bar. There's quite a bit of creative flexibility that can and should go into this implementation process.
When you're using the term "true positive reinforcement" you really mean "reward." There is reward, and there is punishment.
They are both reinforcements. Adding something makes it positive; removing something makes it negative.
If you are rewarding someone by adding praise, it is positive reinforcement.
If you are punishing someone by adding spankings, it is positive reinforcement.
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