Incentive and Reward Systems

RISE System

The RISE system is an incentive and rewards system that is based on four of James Baldwin Academy's core principals. These principals are Respect, Integrity, Safety, and Engagement. When you take the first letter from each of these values you get the acronym RISE. Our hope is that by each one of us following through with these values and behavioral expectations, our school will be a welcoming, safe, and fun place for learning.

The RISE system is used to evaluate how students are doing throughout every period of every day. Students are given a score of 0-2 each period of every day based on each of these 4 core values. This system is used to incentivize students to take into account the four principles of RISE on a daily basis. These incentives include special break/lunch privileges, classroom store, Bonus Points, and Fun Friday!

Bonus Point Information

At JBA we believe strongly in the power of positive behavior incentive and intervention. The bonus point system is in place to motivate and reward students for positive behavioral and academic choices. Bonus points are added up daily for students to purchase items from various school stores. Super Store is offered once a month and has larger items for student purchase. Our hope is to incentivize students to remain on task and engaged with rewarding positive behavior with bonus points.

Schoolwide Learner Outcomes

Here at the James Baldwin Academy we try to instill certain values within our students, we call these values our Schoolwide Learner Outcomes (SLO's). The 5 outcomes we focus on teaching are; Awareness of Self and the World, Criticality, Agency, Community, Healing & Joy.

We have worked hard to identify values that go beyond the classroom and effect student's lived experiences.

These SLO's all coincide and intertwin. Developing a deep Awareness of Self and the World leads to comfort in and opportunities for utilizing Criticality to understand and challenge the system and feeling a sense of Agency to take action that improves the world and builds Community. Through this, students will be able to identify and seek out what brings them Healing and Joy, which, in turn helps them to feel more confident and supported in growing in all 5 of these areas.

Student Contracts

Another way in which we try to incentivize students here at the James Baldwin Academy is through Individual Behavior Contracts. All of our students have the option to create contracts with their classroom staff. These contracts aim to change an undesirable behavior that a student partakes in by identifying what the behavior is and providing an alternative behavior to take its place. All contracts have a set length of time, so that students are aware of how long they have to try and change their behavior, and a set reward, so that students have an incentive to push them to reach their goal.

If our students can practice the alternative behavior and demonstrate that they have met their goal then they receive their earned award. Past examples of rewards for these contracts are individual staff/student time, special field trips (ex. fishing, mini golf, other fun activities), special lunches, and more! Our Individual Behavior Contract is just one example of the incentive and reward systems we have in place at JBA.

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