Interventions for Support & Consequences for Accountability

Common Terms Defined: Intervention, Consequence and Discipline

Intervention - Behavior interventions are specific actions taken for the purpose of changing the behavior of either an individual or a group of people.  It is also important to understand that “consequences” and “interventions” are not synonyms.  Schools may intervene in several ways: 

• Increase the Explicitness and/or Frequency of Instruction: The more behaviorally at-risk a person, group, or school is, the more explicit the instruction needs to be to create agency. 

• Acknowledge and Correct Behaviors:  Intentional redirection, reflection, processing, goal setting provide students the opportunity to build skill and change behavior.  

• Modify the Environment: Environmental factors and dynamics, which inadvertently support and/or promote misbehaviors may be addressed in a number of ways. 

• Solve the Problem: Challenging behaviors communicate that students have a problem meeting an expectation placed on them.  When solved collaboratively and proactively, the student will not only be able to meet the expectation without behavior, but will also position the student to build the skill that prevented them from meeting the problem in the first place.  

Consequences - A consequence is the relation of a result to its cause. Every day thousands of consequences occur at school.  Some are positive and some are negative; some are intended and others are unintended.  In order to effectively respond to human behavior — both staff and students — it is critical to possess a clear understanding of how consequences work, how to apply them with intention, and how to evaluate their effectiveness.  Depending upon the student, a consequence may function as a penalty (losing the privilege of coming to school), a punishment (receiving the stigma of being sent home from school), a negative reinforcement (successfully avoiding having to go to school), or a positive reinforcement (gaining free time at home). It is critical that educators be adept at thoughtfully implementing and evaluating the effectiveness of the consequences they deliver. Despite our best intentions, the true nature and effectiveness of a consequence can only be determined by evaluating the outcome. There are four types of consequences: 

• Penalty: to LOSE something DESIRED 

• Punishment: to RECEIVE something UNDESIRED 

• Negative Reinforcement: to AVOID something DESIRED 

• Positive Reinforcement: to GAIN something DESIRED 

Discipline  - Discipline (v) means to instruct, to train in accordance with the rules, an activity or exercise to improve a skill. Equipping students for behavioral and social success is a school-wide responsibility, which requires the commitment and efforts of all adults — not just a select few are perceived as “disciplinarians.”