Using Information for Behavior Support Decision-Making

1. Using Information for Behavior Support Decision-Making Taken from Rob Horner, Anne Todd, & George Sugai www.swis.org

2. Big Messages about PBIS • Traditional approaches to punishment and exclusion are ineffective when used alone. • Behavior support needs to occur at the “whole-school” level • Teaching is the most powerful behavior support strategy available • On-going use of information for decision-making is a key feature of successful school-wide discipline systems.

3. Effective Behavior Support • Effective Behavior Support is a set of strategies and systems to increase the capacity of schools to (a) reduce school disruption, and (b) educate students with problem behaviors • Research-validated practices • Supportive administrative systems • Use of information for problem solving

4. Effective Behavior Support Supporting Decision Making Supporting Staff Behavior INFORMATION SYSTEMS PRACTICES Supporting Student Behavior

5. Why Collect Discipline Information? • Decision making • Professional Accountability • Decisions made with data (information) are more likely to be (a) implemented, and (b) effective

6. Key features of data systems that work. • The data are accurate • The data are very easy to collect (1% of staff time) • Data are used for decision-making • The data must be available when decisions need to be made (weekly?) • Difference between data needs at a school building versus data needs for a district • The people who collect the data must see the information used for decision-making.

7. What data to collect for decision-making? • USE WHAT YOU HAVE • Office Discipline Referrals/Detentions • Measure of overall environment. Referrals are affected by (a) student behavior, (b) staff behavior, (c) administrative context • An under-estimate of what is really happening • Office Referrals per Day per Month • Attendance • Suspensions/Expulsions • Vandalism

8. Office Discipline Referral Processes/Form • Coherent system in place to collect office discipline referral data • Faculty and staff agree on categories • Faculty and staff agree on process • Office Discipline Referral Form includes needed information • Name, date, time • Staff • Problem Behavior, maintaining function • Location

9. When Should Data be Collected? • Continuously • Data collection should be an embedded part of the school cycle not something “extra” • Data should be summarized prior to meetings of decision-makers (e.g. weekly) • Data will be inaccurate and irrelevant unless the people who collect and summarize it see the data used for decision-making.

10. Organizing Data for “Information” • Counts are good, but not always useful • To compare across months use “average office discipline referrals per day per month”

13. Using Data for On-Going Problem Solving • Start with the decisions not the data • Use data in “decision layers” • Is there a problem? (overall rate of ODR) • Localize the problem • (location, problem behavior, students, time of day) • Get specific • Don’t drown in the data • It’s “OK” to be doing well • Be efficient

14. Is there a problem? • Office Referrals per Day per Month • Attendance • Faculty Reports

15. Interpreting Office Referral Data:Is there a problem? • Absolute level (depending on size of school) • Middle Schools (>5 per day) • Elementary Schools (>1.5-2 per day) • Trends • Peaks before breaks? • Gradual increasing trend across year? • Compare levels to last year • Improvement?

22. Is There a Problem? #1Maintain - Modify - Terminate

23. Is There a Problem? #2Maintain - Modify - Terminate

24. Is There a Problem? #3Maintain - Modify - Terminate

25. Is There a Problem? #4Maintain - Modify - Terminate

26. What systems are problematic? • Referrals by problem behavior? • What problem behaviors are most common? • Referrals by location? • Are there specific problem locations? • Referrals by student? • Are there many students receiving referrals or only a small number of students with many referrals? • Referrals by time of day? • Are there specific times when problems occur?

27. Referrals by Problem Behavior

28. Referrals by Problem Behavior

29. Referrals by Problem Behavior

30. Referrals per Location

32. Referrals per Student

33. Referrals per Student

34. Referrals by Time of Day

35. Referrals by Time of Day

37. Designing Solutions • If many students are making the same mistake it typically is the system that needs to change not the students. • Teach, monitor and reward before relying on punishment.

38. Choices in “other reports” • 1. Custom Report2. Custom Graph3. Referrals by Staff4. Suspension/Expulsion Report5. Ethnicity Reports (we are going to explain in depth) 5.1 School Ethnicity Report6. Individual Student Report7. Year End Report8. Student & Staff Lists

39. The 4 Ethnicity reports The first documents the proportion of students in the school by ethnicity,The second breaks out % of referrals from different ethnic groups, The third breaks out the % of students in an ethnic group who received a referral, The last is the % of all students who received referrals by ethnic group. So... the reports document referrals and students.

40. The first documents the proportion of students in the school by ethnicity,

41. The second breaks out % of all referrals from different ethnic groups

42. The third breaks out the % of students in an ethnic group who received a referral

43. The 4th is the % of all students who received referrals by ethnic group.

44. The key message is:It takes more than one report to determine over-representationThat is why all four are presented.