How to identify your behavior needs and build a system that will benefit your students.
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Just like the rest of the country, they are attempting to meet needs that have heightened due to Covid. Larry Williams, or L, is the Culture and Climate Coordinator for Dulles. He and the staff of Dulles identified a priority for positive behavior interventions and a need for social-emotional learning supports for students.
They required Dulles to do much more than deliver content. Dulles had to equip students with the social-emotional skills they needed to succeed. They searched for a way to keep students engaged.
It was essential that they reduce in-school suspensions (ISS) and out-of-school suspensions (OSS) to maximize class time for students struggling with learning loss over the last 2 years. This demanded a system that emphasized positive behavior in a way that students would respond to.
So they got busy building a points system built around a PBIS behavior plan and SEL. And it worked. Dulles teachers have recognized 35,000 positive interactions this year alone. That's around 50 positive interactions logged per student.
This is HUGE.
They have achieved a 12 to 1 positive to negative ratio with points awarded vs points taken. These 700 students have earned 500,000 positive behavior points this school year. All are powered by 100% teacher fidelity.
This isn’t to say Dulles didn’t have challenges to overcome. For the program to succeed, they needed to have plans for multiple potential pain points.
At first glance, your school may or may not have many obvious commonalities with Dulles. But I want you to think about the potential hurdles your school would face in improving student behavior and school culture...still thinking……ok now I want you to compare with Dulles's pain points:
Those are very common issues in all schools. Even pre-pandemic we all saw similar problems. As a Dean in another state, I saw similar issues.
According to our School Culture Report, the number 1 priority for administrators is improving school culture. Let’s talk about how Dulles is conquering these issues and setting its students up for success.
By tying a PBIS-based points system to behaviors they are reinforcing the behaviors they need to see present in the school. So what is positive behavior? How do you define it? How do you teach it? That is where they incorporated social-emotional learning.
Specifically, they emphasized mindfulness. They recognized as many of us have, that students were behind in their social interactions and they were struggling to deal with emotions as a result of those interactions. By tying these things together and incentivizing student participation they developed a positive feedback loop that is building a strong community at Dulles.
That said, Mr. L recognizes that there is always going to be a set of students who won’t immediately respond to these programs. Stay with it. Stick to the plan. Reward them for doing right and they’ll show improvement along the way.
At Dulles, they have made a commitment to participate in the program. The data is used for rewards and school improvement as well as in staff meetings. The House Points standings are always displayed in the main office. Staff will participate if they know the program is useful to students and to the school.
The transparency with points has led to a big increase in teacher integrity within the program as staff knows the data needs to be accurate to be useful. Points are instant and in the moment for Dulles. They do not add or subtract after school hours so the data is useful not only in a report but also on the day of.
Understanding where students come from is important. Understanding the variables that impact their day-to-day is also important to educate the whole child. Understanding what students have gone through and missed the last couple of years is important as well.
But we owe it to our students to balance this empathy with high expectations. Those expectations are what will set the bar for students as they obtain the skills necessary to succeed.
Mr. Williams says this generation won’t be weak because of their circumstances, they will be the strongest generation because they overcame those circumstances. That is a powerful mindset shift.
So back to that group that doesn’t immediately come around. How do you address their needs? For Dulles that meant utilizing Check-In/Check-Out as a Tier 2 solution. If you have experience with MTSS or specifically CICO, you know the hurdle to implementation is often data collection.
Dulles decided to use the same points system they utilized for Tier 1. The same behaviors they wanted to emphasize with everyone would be emphasized during the mentor sessions with the Tier 2 population.
This meant 1 program that everyone was already trained upon. This also means 1 fewer obstacle to mentorship for their staff.
Points are fun ways to incentivize behavior. But that actually isn’t the most powerful aspect of the program at Dulles. They utilize insights and points to view behavioral trends in their school.
This gives them actionable data to make decisions upon. It also provided a logistically friendly way to communicate behavior trends to parents. Another very powerful positive feedback loop was developed once parents understood the purpose and saw regular updates on progress.
Schools mean so much to students' lives. So much development is undergone, so many interactions that shape who they will become. If we can make changes that create safer, more positive environments for our students then we need to do so.
By emphasizing PBIS and Social-Emotional Learning Dulles is accomplishing just that. Not only have they greatly improved the suspension data in their school but all those positive interactions add up.
Positive School Culture is an idea that is tough to define and easy to imagine. It’s tough to communicate because every school has its own uniqueness due to staff, students, geography, and even architecturally different aspects.
But it is easy to imagine in our thoughts. We think of engagement. We think of warmth. We think of community. We think of relationships. We think of extracurriculars. We think of creativity. All of those thoughts come back to positive interactions. Filling the bucket.
Dulles found a way to fill their bucket, and track their progress along the way. Now it’s your turn to improve the school culture in your building.
How will you fill your bucket?
Want to learn all you can possibly learn about PBIS expectations? Check out our Complete PBIS Field Guide.
Looking for a place to start your school culture journey? Check out our free PBIS template where you can download a sample to get started.
How do you unlock the full potential of PBIS? Check out our resources on harnessing the power of PBIS for your school district.
Just like the rest of the country, they are attempting to meet needs that have heightened due to Covid. Larry Williams, or L, is the Culture and Climate Coordinator for Dulles. He and the staff of Dulles identified a priority for positive behavior interventions and a need for social-emotional learning supports for students.
They required Dulles to do much more than deliver content. Dulles had to equip students with the social-emotional skills they needed to succeed. They searched for a way to keep students engaged.
It was essential that they reduce in-school suspensions (ISS) and out-of-school suspensions (OSS) to maximize class time for students struggling with learning loss over the last 2 years. This demanded a system that emphasized positive behavior in a way that students would respond to.
So they got busy building a points system built around a PBIS behavior plan and SEL. And it worked. Dulles teachers have recognized 35,000 positive interactions this year alone. That's around 50 positive interactions logged per student.
This is HUGE.
They have achieved a 12 to 1 positive to negative ratio with points awarded vs points taken. These 700 students have earned 500,000 positive behavior points this school year. All are powered by 100% teacher fidelity.
This isn’t to say Dulles didn’t have challenges to overcome. For the program to succeed, they needed to have plans for multiple potential pain points.
At first glance, your school may or may not have many obvious commonalities with Dulles. But I want you to think about the potential hurdles your school would face in improving student behavior and school culture...still thinking……ok now I want you to compare with Dulles's pain points:
Those are very common issues in all schools. Even pre-pandemic we all saw similar problems. As a Dean in another state, I saw similar issues.
According to our School Culture Report, the number 1 priority for administrators is improving school culture. Let’s talk about how Dulles is conquering these issues and setting its students up for success.
By tying a PBIS-based points system to behaviors they are reinforcing the behaviors they need to see present in the school. So what is positive behavior? How do you define it? How do you teach it? That is where they incorporated social-emotional learning.
Specifically, they emphasized mindfulness. They recognized as many of us have, that students were behind in their social interactions and they were struggling to deal with emotions as a result of those interactions. By tying these things together and incentivizing student participation they developed a positive feedback loop that is building a strong community at Dulles.
That said, Mr. L recognizes that there is always going to be a set of students who won’t immediately respond to these programs. Stay with it. Stick to the plan. Reward them for doing right and they’ll show improvement along the way.
At Dulles, they have made a commitment to participate in the program. The data is used for rewards and school improvement as well as in staff meetings. The House Points standings are always displayed in the main office. Staff will participate if they know the program is useful to students and to the school.
The transparency with points has led to a big increase in teacher integrity within the program as staff knows the data needs to be accurate to be useful. Points are instant and in the moment for Dulles. They do not add or subtract after school hours so the data is useful not only in a report but also on the day of.
Understanding where students come from is important. Understanding the variables that impact their day-to-day is also important to educate the whole child. Understanding what students have gone through and missed the last couple of years is important as well.
But we owe it to our students to balance this empathy with high expectations. Those expectations are what will set the bar for students as they obtain the skills necessary to succeed.
Mr. Williams says this generation won’t be weak because of their circumstances, they will be the strongest generation because they overcame those circumstances. That is a powerful mindset shift.
So back to that group that doesn’t immediately come around. How do you address their needs? For Dulles that meant utilizing Check-In/Check-Out as a Tier 2 solution. If you have experience with MTSS or specifically CICO, you know the hurdle to implementation is often data collection.
Dulles decided to use the same points system they utilized for Tier 1. The same behaviors they wanted to emphasize with everyone would be emphasized during the mentor sessions with the Tier 2 population.
This meant 1 program that everyone was already trained upon. This also means 1 fewer obstacle to mentorship for their staff.
Points are fun ways to incentivize behavior. But that actually isn’t the most powerful aspect of the program at Dulles. They utilize insights and points to view behavioral trends in their school.
This gives them actionable data to make decisions upon. It also provided a logistically friendly way to communicate behavior trends to parents. Another very powerful positive feedback loop was developed once parents understood the purpose and saw regular updates on progress.
Schools mean so much to students' lives. So much development is undergone, so many interactions that shape who they will become. If we can make changes that create safer, more positive environments for our students then we need to do so.
By emphasizing PBIS and Social-Emotional Learning Dulles is accomplishing just that. Not only have they greatly improved the suspension data in their school but all those positive interactions add up.
Positive School Culture is an idea that is tough to define and easy to imagine. It’s tough to communicate because every school has its own uniqueness due to staff, students, geography, and even architecturally different aspects.
But it is easy to imagine in our thoughts. We think of engagement. We think of warmth. We think of community. We think of relationships. We think of extracurriculars. We think of creativity. All of those thoughts come back to positive interactions. Filling the bucket.
Dulles found a way to fill their bucket, and track their progress along the way. Now it’s your turn to improve the school culture in your building.
How will you fill your bucket?
Want to learn all you can possibly learn about PBIS expectations? Check out our Complete PBIS Field Guide.
Looking for a place to start your school culture journey? Check out our free PBIS template where you can download a sample to get started.
How do you unlock the full potential of PBIS? Check out our resources on harnessing the power of PBIS for your school district.
Jordan resides in Lexington, Kentucky. He has experience in Public Education as an Administrator, Science Teacher, and as a Coach. He has extensive experience with School Discipline, PBIS, SEL, Restorative Practices, MTSS, and Trauma-Informed Care.
Just like the rest of the country, they are attempting to meet needs that have heightened due to Covid. Larry Williams, or L, is the Culture and Climate Coordinator for Dulles. He and the staff of Dulles identified a priority for positive behavior interventions and a need for social-emotional learning supports for students.
They required Dulles to do much more than deliver content. Dulles had to equip students with the social-emotional skills they needed to succeed. They searched for a way to keep students engaged.
It was essential that they reduce in-school suspensions (ISS) and out-of-school suspensions (OSS) to maximize class time for students struggling with learning loss over the last 2 years. This demanded a system that emphasized positive behavior in a way that students would respond to.
So they got busy building a points system built around a PBIS behavior plan and SEL. And it worked. Dulles teachers have recognized 35,000 positive interactions this year alone. That's around 50 positive interactions logged per student.
This is HUGE.
They have achieved a 12 to 1 positive to negative ratio with points awarded vs points taken. These 700 students have earned 500,000 positive behavior points this school year. All are powered by 100% teacher fidelity.
This isn’t to say Dulles didn’t have challenges to overcome. For the program to succeed, they needed to have plans for multiple potential pain points.
At first glance, your school may or may not have many obvious commonalities with Dulles. But I want you to think about the potential hurdles your school would face in improving student behavior and school culture...still thinking……ok now I want you to compare with Dulles's pain points:
Those are very common issues in all schools. Even pre-pandemic we all saw similar problems. As a Dean in another state, I saw similar issues.
According to our School Culture Report, the number 1 priority for administrators is improving school culture. Let’s talk about how Dulles is conquering these issues and setting its students up for success.
By tying a PBIS-based points system to behaviors they are reinforcing the behaviors they need to see present in the school. So what is positive behavior? How do you define it? How do you teach it? That is where they incorporated social-emotional learning.
Specifically, they emphasized mindfulness. They recognized as many of us have, that students were behind in their social interactions and they were struggling to deal with emotions as a result of those interactions. By tying these things together and incentivizing student participation they developed a positive feedback loop that is building a strong community at Dulles.
That said, Mr. L recognizes that there is always going to be a set of students who won’t immediately respond to these programs. Stay with it. Stick to the plan. Reward them for doing right and they’ll show improvement along the way.
At Dulles, they have made a commitment to participate in the program. The data is used for rewards and school improvement as well as in staff meetings. The House Points standings are always displayed in the main office. Staff will participate if they know the program is useful to students and to the school.
The transparency with points has led to a big increase in teacher integrity within the program as staff knows the data needs to be accurate to be useful. Points are instant and in the moment for Dulles. They do not add or subtract after school hours so the data is useful not only in a report but also on the day of.
Understanding where students come from is important. Understanding the variables that impact their day-to-day is also important to educate the whole child. Understanding what students have gone through and missed the last couple of years is important as well.
But we owe it to our students to balance this empathy with high expectations. Those expectations are what will set the bar for students as they obtain the skills necessary to succeed.
Mr. Williams says this generation won’t be weak because of their circumstances, they will be the strongest generation because they overcame those circumstances. That is a powerful mindset shift.
So back to that group that doesn’t immediately come around. How do you address their needs? For Dulles that meant utilizing Check-In/Check-Out as a Tier 2 solution. If you have experience with MTSS or specifically CICO, you know the hurdle to implementation is often data collection.
Dulles decided to use the same points system they utilized for Tier 1. The same behaviors they wanted to emphasize with everyone would be emphasized during the mentor sessions with the Tier 2 population.
This meant 1 program that everyone was already trained upon. This also means 1 fewer obstacle to mentorship for their staff.
Points are fun ways to incentivize behavior. But that actually isn’t the most powerful aspect of the program at Dulles. They utilize insights and points to view behavioral trends in their school.
This gives them actionable data to make decisions upon. It also provided a logistically friendly way to communicate behavior trends to parents. Another very powerful positive feedback loop was developed once parents understood the purpose and saw regular updates on progress.
Schools mean so much to students' lives. So much development is undergone, so many interactions that shape who they will become. If we can make changes that create safer, more positive environments for our students then we need to do so.
By emphasizing PBIS and Social-Emotional Learning Dulles is accomplishing just that. Not only have they greatly improved the suspension data in their school but all those positive interactions add up.
Positive School Culture is an idea that is tough to define and easy to imagine. It’s tough to communicate because every school has its own uniqueness due to staff, students, geography, and even architecturally different aspects.
But it is easy to imagine in our thoughts. We think of engagement. We think of warmth. We think of community. We think of relationships. We think of extracurriculars. We think of creativity. All of those thoughts come back to positive interactions. Filling the bucket.
Dulles found a way to fill their bucket, and track their progress along the way. Now it’s your turn to improve the school culture in your building.
How will you fill your bucket?
Want to learn all you can possibly learn about PBIS expectations? Check out our Complete PBIS Field Guide.
Looking for a place to start your school culture journey? Check out our free PBIS template where you can download a sample to get started.
How do you unlock the full potential of PBIS? Check out our resources on harnessing the power of PBIS for your school district.
Just like the rest of the country, they are attempting to meet needs that have heightened due to Covid. Larry Williams, or L, is the Culture and Climate Coordinator for Dulles. He and the staff of Dulles identified a priority for positive behavior interventions and a need for social-emotional learning supports for students.
They required Dulles to do much more than deliver content. Dulles had to equip students with the social-emotional skills they needed to succeed. They searched for a way to keep students engaged.
It was essential that they reduce in-school suspensions (ISS) and out-of-school suspensions (OSS) to maximize class time for students struggling with learning loss over the last 2 years. This demanded a system that emphasized positive behavior in a way that students would respond to.
So they got busy building a points system built around a PBIS behavior plan and SEL. And it worked. Dulles teachers have recognized 35,000 positive interactions this year alone. That's around 50 positive interactions logged per student.
This is HUGE.
They have achieved a 12 to 1 positive to negative ratio with points awarded vs points taken. These 700 students have earned 500,000 positive behavior points this school year. All are powered by 100% teacher fidelity.
This isn’t to say Dulles didn’t have challenges to overcome. For the program to succeed, they needed to have plans for multiple potential pain points.
At first glance, your school may or may not have many obvious commonalities with Dulles. But I want you to think about the potential hurdles your school would face in improving student behavior and school culture...still thinking……ok now I want you to compare with Dulles's pain points:
Those are very common issues in all schools. Even pre-pandemic we all saw similar problems. As a Dean in another state, I saw similar issues.
According to our School Culture Report, the number 1 priority for administrators is improving school culture. Let’s talk about how Dulles is conquering these issues and setting its students up for success.
By tying a PBIS-based points system to behaviors they are reinforcing the behaviors they need to see present in the school. So what is positive behavior? How do you define it? How do you teach it? That is where they incorporated social-emotional learning.
Specifically, they emphasized mindfulness. They recognized as many of us have, that students were behind in their social interactions and they were struggling to deal with emotions as a result of those interactions. By tying these things together and incentivizing student participation they developed a positive feedback loop that is building a strong community at Dulles.
That said, Mr. L recognizes that there is always going to be a set of students who won’t immediately respond to these programs. Stay with it. Stick to the plan. Reward them for doing right and they’ll show improvement along the way.
At Dulles, they have made a commitment to participate in the program. The data is used for rewards and school improvement as well as in staff meetings. The House Points standings are always displayed in the main office. Staff will participate if they know the program is useful to students and to the school.
The transparency with points has led to a big increase in teacher integrity within the program as staff knows the data needs to be accurate to be useful. Points are instant and in the moment for Dulles. They do not add or subtract after school hours so the data is useful not only in a report but also on the day of.
Understanding where students come from is important. Understanding the variables that impact their day-to-day is also important to educate the whole child. Understanding what students have gone through and missed the last couple of years is important as well.
But we owe it to our students to balance this empathy with high expectations. Those expectations are what will set the bar for students as they obtain the skills necessary to succeed.
Mr. Williams says this generation won’t be weak because of their circumstances, they will be the strongest generation because they overcame those circumstances. That is a powerful mindset shift.
So back to that group that doesn’t immediately come around. How do you address their needs? For Dulles that meant utilizing Check-In/Check-Out as a Tier 2 solution. If you have experience with MTSS or specifically CICO, you know the hurdle to implementation is often data collection.
Dulles decided to use the same points system they utilized for Tier 1. The same behaviors they wanted to emphasize with everyone would be emphasized during the mentor sessions with the Tier 2 population.
This meant 1 program that everyone was already trained upon. This also means 1 fewer obstacle to mentorship for their staff.
Points are fun ways to incentivize behavior. But that actually isn’t the most powerful aspect of the program at Dulles. They utilize insights and points to view behavioral trends in their school.
This gives them actionable data to make decisions upon. It also provided a logistically friendly way to communicate behavior trends to parents. Another very powerful positive feedback loop was developed once parents understood the purpose and saw regular updates on progress.
Schools mean so much to students' lives. So much development is undergone, so many interactions that shape who they will become. If we can make changes that create safer, more positive environments for our students then we need to do so.
By emphasizing PBIS and Social-Emotional Learning Dulles is accomplishing just that. Not only have they greatly improved the suspension data in their school but all those positive interactions add up.
Positive School Culture is an idea that is tough to define and easy to imagine. It’s tough to communicate because every school has its own uniqueness due to staff, students, geography, and even architecturally different aspects.
But it is easy to imagine in our thoughts. We think of engagement. We think of warmth. We think of community. We think of relationships. We think of extracurriculars. We think of creativity. All of those thoughts come back to positive interactions. Filling the bucket.
Dulles found a way to fill their bucket, and track their progress along the way. Now it’s your turn to improve the school culture in your building.
How will you fill your bucket?
Want to learn all you can possibly learn about PBIS expectations? Check out our Complete PBIS Field Guide.
Looking for a place to start your school culture journey? Check out our free PBIS template where you can download a sample to get started.
How do you unlock the full potential of PBIS? Check out our resources on harnessing the power of PBIS for your school district.
The Dulles School of Excellence is a K-8 school serving students on the south side of Chicago. Over 90% of their students come from government housing in the neighborhood where Dulles is located. This area has a high crime rate
Just like the rest of the country, they are attempting to meet needs that have heightened due to Covid. Larry Williams, or L, is the Culture and Climate Coordinator for Dulles. He and the staff of Dulles identified a priority for positive behavior interventions and a need for social-emotional learning supports for students.
They required Dulles to do much more than deliver content. Dulles had to equip students with the social-emotional skills they needed to succeed. They searched for a way to keep students engaged.
It was essential that they reduce in-school suspensions (ISS) and out-of-school suspensions (OSS) to maximize class time for students struggling with learning loss over the last 2 years. This demanded a system that emphasized positive behavior in a way that students would respond to.
So they got busy building a points system built around a PBIS behavior plan and SEL. And it worked. Dulles teachers have recognized 35,000 positive interactions this year alone. That's around 50 positive interactions logged per student.
This is HUGE.
They have achieved a 12 to 1 positive to negative ratio with points awarded vs points taken. These 700 students have earned 500,000 positive behavior points this school year. All are powered by 100% teacher fidelity.
This isn’t to say Dulles didn’t have challenges to overcome. For the program to succeed, they needed to have plans for multiple potential pain points.
At first glance, your school may or may not have many obvious commonalities with Dulles. But I want you to think about the potential hurdles your school would face in improving student behavior and school culture...still thinking……ok now I want you to compare with Dulles's pain points:
Those are very common issues in all schools. Even pre-pandemic we all saw similar problems. As a Dean in another state, I saw similar issues.
According to our School Culture Report, the number 1 priority for administrators is improving school culture. Let’s talk about how Dulles is conquering these issues and setting its students up for success.
By tying a PBIS-based points system to behaviors they are reinforcing the behaviors they need to see present in the school. So what is positive behavior? How do you define it? How do you teach it? That is where they incorporated social-emotional learning.
Specifically, they emphasized mindfulness. They recognized as many of us have, that students were behind in their social interactions and they were struggling to deal with emotions as a result of those interactions. By tying these things together and incentivizing student participation they developed a positive feedback loop that is building a strong community at Dulles.
That said, Mr. L recognizes that there is always going to be a set of students who won’t immediately respond to these programs. Stay with it. Stick to the plan. Reward them for doing right and they’ll show improvement along the way.
At Dulles, they have made a commitment to participate in the program. The data is used for rewards and school improvement as well as in staff meetings. The House Points standings are always displayed in the main office. Staff will participate if they know the program is useful to students and to the school.
The transparency with points has led to a big increase in teacher integrity within the program as staff knows the data needs to be accurate to be useful. Points are instant and in the moment for Dulles. They do not add or subtract after school hours so the data is useful not only in a report but also on the day of.
Understanding where students come from is important. Understanding the variables that impact their day-to-day is also important to educate the whole child. Understanding what students have gone through and missed the last couple of years is important as well.
But we owe it to our students to balance this empathy with high expectations. Those expectations are what will set the bar for students as they obtain the skills necessary to succeed.
Mr. Williams says this generation won’t be weak because of their circumstances, they will be the strongest generation because they overcame those circumstances. That is a powerful mindset shift.
So back to that group that doesn’t immediately come around. How do you address their needs? For Dulles that meant utilizing Check-In/Check-Out as a Tier 2 solution. If you have experience with MTSS or specifically CICO, you know the hurdle to implementation is often data collection.
Dulles decided to use the same points system they utilized for Tier 1. The same behaviors they wanted to emphasize with everyone would be emphasized during the mentor sessions with the Tier 2 population.
This meant 1 program that everyone was already trained upon. This also means 1 fewer obstacle to mentorship for their staff.
Points are fun ways to incentivize behavior. But that actually isn’t the most powerful aspect of the program at Dulles. They utilize insights and points to view behavioral trends in their school.
This gives them actionable data to make decisions upon. It also provided a logistically friendly way to communicate behavior trends to parents. Another very powerful positive feedback loop was developed once parents understood the purpose and saw regular updates on progress.
Schools mean so much to students' lives. So much development is undergone, so many interactions that shape who they will become. If we can make changes that create safer, more positive environments for our students then we need to do so.
By emphasizing PBIS and Social-Emotional Learning Dulles is accomplishing just that. Not only have they greatly improved the suspension data in their school but all those positive interactions add up.
Positive School Culture is an idea that is tough to define and easy to imagine. It’s tough to communicate because every school has its own uniqueness due to staff, students, geography, and even architecturally different aspects.
But it is easy to imagine in our thoughts. We think of engagement. We think of warmth. We think of community. We think of relationships. We think of extracurriculars. We think of creativity. All of those thoughts come back to positive interactions. Filling the bucket.
Dulles found a way to fill their bucket, and track their progress along the way. Now it’s your turn to improve the school culture in your building.
How will you fill your bucket?
Want to learn all you can possibly learn about PBIS expectations? Check out our Complete PBIS Field Guide.
Looking for a place to start your school culture journey? Check out our free PBIS template where you can download a sample to get started.
How do you unlock the full potential of PBIS? Check out our resources on harnessing the power of PBIS for your school district.
The Dulles School of Excellence is a K-8 school serving students on the south side of Chicago. Over 90% of their students come from government housing in the neighborhood where Dulles is located. This area has a high crime rate
Just like the rest of the country, they are attempting to meet needs that have heightened due to Covid. Larry Williams, or L, is the Culture and Climate Coordinator for Dulles. He and the staff of Dulles identified a priority for positive behavior interventions and a need for social-emotional learning supports for students.
They required Dulles to do much more than deliver content. Dulles had to equip students with the social-emotional skills they needed to succeed. They searched for a way to keep students engaged.
It was essential that they reduce in-school suspensions (ISS) and out-of-school suspensions (OSS) to maximize class time for students struggling with learning loss over the last 2 years. This demanded a system that emphasized positive behavior in a way that students would respond to.
So they got busy building a points system built around a PBIS behavior plan and SEL. And it worked. Dulles teachers have recognized 35,000 positive interactions this year alone. That's around 50 positive interactions logged per student.
This is HUGE.
They have achieved a 12 to 1 positive to negative ratio with points awarded vs points taken. These 700 students have earned 500,000 positive behavior points this school year. All are powered by 100% teacher fidelity.
This isn’t to say Dulles didn’t have challenges to overcome. For the program to succeed, they needed to have plans for multiple potential pain points.
At first glance, your school may or may not have many obvious commonalities with Dulles. But I want you to think about the potential hurdles your school would face in improving student behavior and school culture...still thinking……ok now I want you to compare with Dulles's pain points:
Those are very common issues in all schools. Even pre-pandemic we all saw similar problems. As a Dean in another state, I saw similar issues.
According to our School Culture Report, the number 1 priority for administrators is improving school culture. Let’s talk about how Dulles is conquering these issues and setting its students up for success.
By tying a PBIS-based points system to behaviors they are reinforcing the behaviors they need to see present in the school. So what is positive behavior? How do you define it? How do you teach it? That is where they incorporated social-emotional learning.
Specifically, they emphasized mindfulness. They recognized as many of us have, that students were behind in their social interactions and they were struggling to deal with emotions as a result of those interactions. By tying these things together and incentivizing student participation they developed a positive feedback loop that is building a strong community at Dulles.
That said, Mr. L recognizes that there is always going to be a set of students who won’t immediately respond to these programs. Stay with it. Stick to the plan. Reward them for doing right and they’ll show improvement along the way.
At Dulles, they have made a commitment to participate in the program. The data is used for rewards and school improvement as well as in staff meetings. The House Points standings are always displayed in the main office. Staff will participate if they know the program is useful to students and to the school.
The transparency with points has led to a big increase in teacher integrity within the program as staff knows the data needs to be accurate to be useful. Points are instant and in the moment for Dulles. They do not add or subtract after school hours so the data is useful not only in a report but also on the day of.
Understanding where students come from is important. Understanding the variables that impact their day-to-day is also important to educate the whole child. Understanding what students have gone through and missed the last couple of years is important as well.
But we owe it to our students to balance this empathy with high expectations. Those expectations are what will set the bar for students as they obtain the skills necessary to succeed.
Mr. Williams says this generation won’t be weak because of their circumstances, they will be the strongest generation because they overcame those circumstances. That is a powerful mindset shift.
So back to that group that doesn’t immediately come around. How do you address their needs? For Dulles that meant utilizing Check-In/Check-Out as a Tier 2 solution. If you have experience with MTSS or specifically CICO, you know the hurdle to implementation is often data collection.
Dulles decided to use the same points system they utilized for Tier 1. The same behaviors they wanted to emphasize with everyone would be emphasized during the mentor sessions with the Tier 2 population.
This meant 1 program that everyone was already trained upon. This also means 1 fewer obstacle to mentorship for their staff.
Points are fun ways to incentivize behavior. But that actually isn’t the most powerful aspect of the program at Dulles. They utilize insights and points to view behavioral trends in their school.
This gives them actionable data to make decisions upon. It also provided a logistically friendly way to communicate behavior trends to parents. Another very powerful positive feedback loop was developed once parents understood the purpose and saw regular updates on progress.
Schools mean so much to students' lives. So much development is undergone, so many interactions that shape who they will become. If we can make changes that create safer, more positive environments for our students then we need to do so.
By emphasizing PBIS and Social-Emotional Learning Dulles is accomplishing just that. Not only have they greatly improved the suspension data in their school but all those positive interactions add up.
Positive School Culture is an idea that is tough to define and easy to imagine. It’s tough to communicate because every school has its own uniqueness due to staff, students, geography, and even architecturally different aspects.
But it is easy to imagine in our thoughts. We think of engagement. We think of warmth. We think of community. We think of relationships. We think of extracurriculars. We think of creativity. All of those thoughts come back to positive interactions. Filling the bucket.
Dulles found a way to fill their bucket, and track their progress along the way. Now it’s your turn to improve the school culture in your building.
How will you fill your bucket?
Want to learn all you can possibly learn about PBIS expectations? Check out our Complete PBIS Field Guide.
Looking for a place to start your school culture journey? Check out our free PBIS template where you can download a sample to get started.
How do you unlock the full potential of PBIS? Check out our resources on harnessing the power of PBIS for your school district.
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