Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports

Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS) is a set of ideas and tools that schools use to improve the behavior of students. PBIS uses evidence and data-based programs, practices and strategies to frame behavioral improvement in terms of student growth in academic performance, safety, behavior, and establishing and maintaining positive school culture. PBIS addresses the needs of at-risk students as well as the multi-leveled needs of all students in regards to behavior, which creates an environment for both teaching and learning to occur in schools. In contrast to PBIS, many schools used exclusionary discipline practices including detentions, suspension, or expulsions to separate students from the classroom and from peers. PBIS emphasizes preventing problem behaviors before they happen to increase the opportunity for students to learn by keeping them in the classroom. PBIS is a team-based framework for schools that borrows elements from response to intervention, an intervention that uses diagnostic data to develop personalized learning plans for all students.

PBIS is an acronym for Positive Behavioral Intervention and Supports. Effective classroom management and discipline are essential for teaching and learning. PBIS emphasizes the integrated use of classroom management and school-wide discipline strategies coupled with effective academic instruction to create a positive and safe school climate for all students. PBIS is based in a behaviorist psychology approach to improving student behavior, which means that teachers and students identify misbehavior, model appropriate behaviors, and provide clear consequences for behavior in the classroom context. In a PBIS model, schools must define, teach, and reinforce appropriate behaviors to ensure success. Research shows that punishing students inconsistently without a positive alternative, is ineffective and only offers short-term solutions. Modeling and rewarding positive behaviors are more effective. The goal of PBIS is to establish a positive school climate. To do this, a continuum of behavior support has been established which can be applied at the school level (primary level), for small groups of students (secondary level), and for individual level (tertiary level).

PBIS is not a packaged program for districts to purchase. Instead, it is a framework approach that helps schools to identify the key tasks in developing preventative positive behavior tailored to their own school. It is an approach defined by the following core design components.

The outcome is the goal for improved student behavior towards which the school community aims. The goals must be measurable, and must clearly be the result of implementing the PBIS model. Outcomes of a successful PBIS framework with a school can be measured in both behavior data and academic achievement of the students in the school. The academic and behavior goals are often defined and supported by the students, families, and teachers in tandem for the program to succeed.

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