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Positive Behavior Support
(PBS) has been successfully introduced into all Christina School
District schools as a means of establishing school-wide
strategies to reduce inappropriate behavior and establish
positive school climates. Unlike traditional behavioral
management, which views the individual as the problem and seeks
to
address the situation by eliminating the challenging behavior,
positive behavior support (PBS) views systems, settings, and
lack of skill as parts of the problem, and works to change those
elements.
The
District’s PBS program is coordinated by Susan Corey, who works
with every school to ensure that the PBS standards are met.
Recent
examples of PBS success in our schools include the Feather Store
at Elbert-Palmer Elementary School and the PBS Program at
Glasgow High School.
At
Elbert-Palmer, all students know about the Feather Store and its
“proprietor,” Ms. Barbara Griffin. Griffin, who runs the
redirection room, has turned a closet into a school store.
Students earn “feathers”—Elbert-Palmer’s mascot is the
peacock—which are paper tickets that are given for good
behavior, homework, wearing their uniform, showing respect,
being responsible, and caring. The feathers can then be
used like cash in the Feather Store.
Griffin has
also “hired” 10 retail clerks to help her manage the store.
The retail clerks work in teams of two to assist student
shoppers, organize the merchandise, and help with inventory.
To be chosen as a clerk, students had to write a letter to Ms.
Griffith about why they were qualified and how they planned to
do in school this year. The retail clerks earn 10 feathers every
time they work in the store, which is a nice incentive, but
there are other rewards as well.
“It makes me more caring and responsible and trustworthy,” said
one of the Feather Store clerks.
Ms. Griffin
keeps a schedule of Feather Store visits for each classroom.
Each month, the class with the fewest number of visits to Ms.
Griffin’s room earns a Double Feather
 Day,
where any feathers students have earned are worth twice their
amount.
“Everything I
do has to do with being positive,” Ms. Griffin said. In a
few weeks, she plans to transform her classroom into a Holiday
Store for students, where they can shop for gifts using their
feathers.
At Glasgow
High School, students were recently rewarded for their positive
behavior with some unique incentives. Various businesses,
including the Delaware Academy of Beauty, YMCA, and a local
movie theater donated prizes for a raffle that included beauty
treatments, Y memberships, movie tickets, and 30 days of snacks.
In addition, 30 students who earned 15 PBS tickets—called Fire
Cards at GHS because their mascot is the Dragon—were eligible to
attend a pizza party.
Phyllis
Rubenstein, who organized the PBS activities, said the school
had seen a decrease in disciplinary problems since PBS was
implemented. Even things like school announcements are
changing, with the emphasis on praising students for meeting
expectations. Now, school staff are working to focus on
positive behavior, and
“catching” kids doing the right thing, which is proving to be a
strong motivational tool.
“Now we are
doing something positive. It has been very well received
by kids and the teachers,” she said.
This year,
eight schools in Christina earned the designation of PBS “Star
Schools” after meeting rigorous criteria and goals developed by
the Positive Behavior Support Project in Delaware, which is a
joint effort between the University of Delaware’s Center for
Disabilities Studies and the Delaware Department of Education.
These schools were Brookside Elementary, Stubbs Elementary,
Delaware School for the Deaf, McVey Elementary, Keene
Elementary, West Park Place Elementary, Shue-Medill Middle
School, and Newark High School. |
