School-wide Expectations

Tiered Fidelity Inventory Item: 1.3 Behavioral Expectations

School-wide Expectations are guiding principles – valued behaviors, skills, and attitudes for success.

1. are interdisciplinary
2. positively stated
3. brief – no more than three to five in number
4. for all students
5. assessable

School-wide expectations reflect the language and culture of each school. They will become the language all staff use when they teach, remind, recognize, and correct students. If you are a WASC Accredited school, these should be similar if not the same as the SLOs.

The process for selecting schoolwide expectations is a visionary task–what you want students to be. It also addresses current student needs by defining what you want students to do.

Defining Specific Rules/Behaviors for All Settings

Here you are answering the question, “What does [respect, responsibility, best effort, etc.] look like in all settings, in our [hallways, cafeteria, recess, commons, on the bus, etc.] and in our classrooms?”

Resource: Example Elementary Matrix

Resource: Example Secondary Matrix

Engaging Staff, Students and Families in Selecting All Setting Behaviors/Rules

To ensure your matrix reflects valued behaviors of students and families, your team can seek their input on behavior/rules for all settings in the school. There are many creative ways to do this.

Defining Specific Behaviors/Rules and Procedures for Non-Classroom Areas

Non-classroom areas are those areas of the school that may be under the direct supervision of a variety of differing adults depending on the day or time. Having clear, agreed upon behaviors/ rules and procedures will allow staff to teach students the expectations prior to entering the setting and consistently use them when supervising. Deciding on the behaviors/rules for these areas, assuring that all staff is fluent with them, and making a plan for how to train new staff throughout the year should also be addressed.

Non-Classroom Behaviors/Rules

We typically think of a few common non-classroom areas – hallways, cafeteria, recess, bus, restrooms, etc., but the list can include such times or areas as AM arrival/PM departure, after school activities, bus waiting area, computer area special work or group areas, assemblies, pep rallies, school grounds, etc.

The same considerations when defining specific behaviors/rules for all settings apply to nonclassroom settings. These specific behaviors should be student-centered and define behaviors/rules that will lead to success in that setting.

Engaging Staff, Students and Families in Selecting Behaviors/ Rules for Non-Classroom Settings

Once again you will want to engage staff in determining the behaviors/rules for non-classroom settings. First, you may want to ask staff to brainstorm all possible areas of your building for which commonly shared behaviors/rules would be helpful. Using the weighted vote process described earlier, you can also identify those settings of greatest concern and begin your work there.

You will want to get student and family input on the areas of school that need to be addressed. One way to do that would be to give students a map of the school. Have them color red the areas where they are afraid or misbehaviors take place or green where they feel safe.

Once those areas of concern in the school for staff and students have been identified, small workgroups may be used to develop draft behaviors/rules that will then be brought back to staff to reach consensus on. Again, ensure all ideas follow OMPUA. As staff members agree on specific behaviors/rules they can be added to your matrix. As you work through the process of gaining consensus it is advisable to date your matrix and write DRAFT on it until staff, students and families agree it is “final.”

Once your matrix is complete, it will be important to share with staff, students and families in newsletters, handbooks, school website and post the behaviors/rules in each specific setting.

Non-Classroom Procedures

Clearly defined procedures allow staff to teach and supervise consistently and predictably. All staff will teach and model the procedures so it will be important to have staff reach consensus on them.

When defining non-classroom procedures it is important to consider what will help prevent congestion or confusion that may contribute to misbehavior. Reviewing existing or writing missing procedures may involve making environmental changes such as defining and labeling the “in” and “out” doors or rerouting lines of students.

Classroom Behavior/Rules and Procedures

The key to successful classroom management is prevention of problems before they occur. Clarifying specific expected behaviors/rules for the classroom is essential, and the same behaviors/rules that reduce classroom disruptions are clearly associated with increased student learning (Brophy & Evertson, 1976).

Resource: Checklist for Routines and Procedures

Defining Classroom Behavior/Rules

Jones and Jones (1998) share six factors that increase the likelihood students will accept and consistently follow classroom rules.

Effective classroom behaviors/rules….

1. Are developed by students and teachers.
2. Need to be clearly stated.
3. Are as few as possible.
4. Must be clearly accepted by students. Students must indicate their acceptance of the behavior standards agreed on by the class.
5. Must be monitored and frequently discussed to ensure they are consistent with classroom standards. Because the classroom behaviors/rules may be different than behavioral expectations outside school, it is important that student behavior be monitored and students are given feedback about how their behavior matches the expected norms.
6. Communicated and accepted by significant others, such as parents and peers. Students will more likely follow classroom behaviors/rules if they know others agree with them.

Teachers can facilitate the creation of classroom behaviors/rules with students by following these steps:

1. Have a discussion about why behaviors/rules are needed. Connections to traffic rules and laws in general can be made to help students see the need for rules to keep society as a whole orderly and safe.
2. List the schoolwide expectations and have students make a list of expected behaviors/rules under each expectation. Teachers may need to guide students to make the behaviors/ rules match the OMPUA guidelines.
3. After the behaviors/rules have been developed, the teacher should lead a discussion to clarify each behavior/rule and to gain student commitment for them. If a student questions a behavior/rule it may be important to clarify if the student does not think the behavior/rule will help create a safe and positive learning environment or whether the student does not think they can act in accordance to the behavior/rule. Discussions with small groups of students and the class as a whole may need to continue to determine whether a behavior/rule needs to be deleted or amended.
4. To publicly commit to the behaviors/rules, teachers may have students sign a poster of the rules, make a palm or thumb print or use another way to publicly show their promise to uphold the classroom behaviors/rules.
5. Once there is an agreed upon list of behaviors/rules teachers can send the class behaviors/rules home to inform parents and to share their philosophy of classroom management.
6. Display the classroom behaviors/rules in a big and bold way in a location in the classroom where they are handy to refer to often.

Classroom Procedures

Classroom procedures are the method or process to follow to accomplish a classroom activity or task. Procedures break down classroom behavior/rules into teachable steps. When procedures are taught and reinforced over time routines are established that help students meet classroom behaviors/rules.

Having classroom procedures…

1. Procedures show students how to behave, and minimize the amount of non-academic time while increasing time for academic instruction.
2. When students perform routine functions smoothly, teachers can focus on catching them being good and are freed to take care of instructional tasks, review student work, and have to provide less correction.
3. When you take time to explain how things are to be done, you appear fair and concerned. Students then experience higher rates of success and satisfaction, ensuring a positive learning environment.
4. Involving students in management of the learning environment empowers them, helping them to feel a partnership for their success and that of others.
5. Procedures provide students with productive work habits that lead to personal accountability and effectiveness later in life.

Resource: 30 Classroom Procedures to Head Off Behavior Problems (Scholastic Website)

Resource: Six Tips for Creating a positive Learning Environment In Your Classroom (Blog)