PBIS
The Little Falls Community Schools began implementation of an evidenced based framework called Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS), summer 2011. PBIS encourage schools to identify 3-5 behavioral expectations and teach behavioral expectations along with academics. For students who are not consistently demonstrating the expectations, each school has a protocol to reteach them to ensure students have additional supports to promote expected behavior. Through this process each building has formed a PBIS team, four district-wide behavioral expectations were identified; Respect, Responsibility, Positive Attitude, and Safety. Each building outlined what expected behavior looked like across various school environments, including, but not limited to: hallways, classroom, lunchroom, and community. These behavioral expectations began being taught to students in the spring of 2012. Positive behavior recognition systems have been developed in which any employee can positively acknowledge expected behavior.
One way PBIS has begun to expand to the community is through the Stand Up 4 U Coalition. Stand Up 4 U is a community group whose goal is to reduce substance use by students in the Little Falls School District to promote teen health and safety. The coalition uses Positive Community Norms (PCN) as the framework to create media messages around the positive attitudes and beliefs in the community and among the focus audience. PCN guides the process of helping the community set new standards and expectations for behavior around youth substance use. Both PBIS and PCN utilize evidenced based and data to make decisions on the effectiveness of implementation. One data source Little Falls Community School has utilized this school year is the School-Wide Evaluation Tool (SET), this assessment assesses the each buildings implementation of the 7-core PBIS principles. The SET score is generated through a variety of data collection methods such as student and teacher interviews, and permanent products such as posters, banners, and student recognition slips. The average SET score for the Little Falls Community Schools shows a pre score of 47%, which was conducted Fall 2011, and a post score of 100% as of Spring 2013. A Benchmark of Quality Assessment is conducted at each site on an annual basis and provides information to building PBIS teams to assist with yearly goal setting, and implementation.