Today, we’re bringing you another installment in our mythbuster series. In October, we tackled the myth that PBIS is only about rewards. Spoiler alert: Rewards are part of it, but there’s more to it than the myth suggests. In this episode, we’re exploring the myth: There are no consequences in PBIS. Back again to help us bust this myth is Dr. Kent McIntosh.

Kent is the Philip H. Knight Chair of Special Education at the University of Oregon and the Director at PBISApps. He is also Co-Director of the Center on Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports. His current research focuses on increasing racial equity in school discipline, and sustainability of systems for social, emotional, and behavior support in schools.

Together, we talked about the types of consequences we deliver in schools. We really honed in on how our options ought to be instructional whenever possible and removing students from instruction shouldn’t be our option B, C, or even D.

For more information about the resources shared in the episode, check out the following links:

• Tiered Fidelity Inventory
• Consequence Matrix
• Referral Category Definitions
• Practice Guide – Supporting and Responding to Behavior: Evidence-based Classroom Strategies for Teachers

A system-level feature of your PBIS implementation involves the professional development you offer to all staff.

Many of us take advantage of conferences to receive professional development, especially related to our PBIS implementation. We love a good conference. We also know lecture-style learning alone isn’t enough to sustain the outcomes we want to achieve. We wondered what it would look like to leverage our conference experience to supplement our on-going professional learning.

We called on some conference organizers for our favorite PBIS conferences to see what they had to say about this idea. Joining us in conversation are Dr. Jessica Swain-Bradway, Kelly Perales, and Dr. Stephanie Martinez.

Dr. Jessica Swain-Bradway is the executive director for Northwest PBIS Network – an organization providing professional development and support around PBIS & MTSS. She is also helps to organize the group’s annual PBIS conference. In her work, Jessica also focuses on equipping teachers with strategies for instruction, relationship-building, and designing effective learning environments.

Kelly Perales is the co-director of the Midwest PBIS Network and she's an implementer partner with the Center on PBIS. As an implementer partner, Kelly helps to organize the annual National PBIS Leadership Forum. Kelly leads schools implementing the Interconnected Systems Framework (ISF) by focusing specifically on the integration of mental health and educational systems. In addition to her work with schools, she researches the effects ISF has on family-school-community partnerships.

Dr. Stephanie Martinez provides training and technical assistance on the Florida PBIS Project at the University of South Florida. She is also a board member for the Association for Positive Behavior Support (APBS). As a tri-chair for the Training and Education Committee for APBS, Stephanie assists with planning the organization’s annual International Conference on Positive Behavior Support. She also helps coordinate the High School APBS Network.

For more information about the resources shared in the episode, check out the following links:

Northwest PBIS Conference

National PBIS Leadership Forum

International Conference on Positive Behavior Support

Society for Prevention Research Annual Meeting

Council for Exceptional Children Convention and Expo

National Center for School Mental Health Annual Conference

California PBIS Conference

Southeastern School Behavioral Health Conference

We’re back with the second installment of our Expert Instruction Mythbusters series. Today we’re exploring the myth: “PBIS is just about rewards and tokens.” Joining us in conversation is Dr. Kent McIntosh.

Kent is the Philip H. Knight Chair of Special Education at the University of Oregon and the Director at PBISApps. He is also Co-Director of the Center on Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports. His current research focuses on increasing racial equity in school discipline, and implementation and sustainability of systems for social, emotional, and behavior support in schools.

During our discussion, we explored the ways rewards are intricately linked with the schoolwide expectations you set. We talked about the purpose rewards play in your PBIS implementation and how they play an important role in establishing the equitable outcomes you hope to achieve.

For more information about the resources shared in the episode, check out the following links:

• Tiered Fidelity Inventory (TFI) https://www.pbisapps.org/products/tfi

• Feedback and Input Survey https://www.pbisapps.org/resource/feedback-input-surveys-fis-manual

• School Climate Survey (SCS) https://www.pbisapps.org/products/scs

• Lesson Plan: Co-creating Classroom Expectations with Students (Elementary Schools) https://www.pbis.org/resource/lesson-plan-co-creating-classroom-expectations-with-students-elementary-schools

• Be+ App https://www.pbis.org/announcements/track-positive-reinforcement-with-our-be-app

Two system-level, foundational features of PBIS implementation relate to your schoolwide team — specifically who’s on it and how it operates. While research tells us team-based decision making is an effective practice, it can’t pinpoint exactly which practices contribute to that success. , That’s because what makes teams so great has a lot to do with how well they fit within the culture and context of their schoolwide community.

So what does a schoolwide PBIS team look like? How does it work? We invited our colleague Danielle Triplett to join us today to share some of her experiences working with teams in every role from team member to district-level coach.

Danielle is a Senior Research Assistant and member of our PBIS Apps training team. She is passionate about schools. In her work, she’s particularly interested in exploring how schools can improve educational equity, offer alternatives to exclusionary discipline, use data for decision-making, and implement multi-tiered systems of support for behavior and mental health.

For more information about the resources shared in this episode, check out the following links:

• Tiered Fidelity Inventory
• Centering Equity in Data-based Decision Making: Considerations and Recommendations for Leadership Teams

PBIS has its skeptics — folks who just aren’t so sure the framework is useful. It’s fair to question things and criticisms push us to think about how our implementation can be more inclusive. When you hear a critique or even a misperception, how do you respond?

We thought we’d help you out. Today’s episode of Expert Instruction is the first in our new series: PBIS Mythbusters.

Mythbusters was a television series where the two hosts, Adam and Jamie, would use science to test a myth and determine once and for all if it was true. If it wasn’t, they stamped the myth as officially busted. We’re taking our cue from that show by exploring some of the critiques about PBIS with experts from across the country. Together, we will figure out whether we can declare the statements true or busted!

The myth we’re talking about today is, “Students don’t need to be taught how to behave at school; they should just know.” Joining us in conversation is Dr. Jessica Daily and Mimi McGrath Kato.

• Mimi is a Senior Research Assistant here at the UO. In her research, she focuses on implementing prevention systems at the high school level and improving outcomes for students in those places. She brings with her more than 25 years of experience either working in or alongside high schools across the country.
• Jessica is the Professional Learning Administrator for Michigan’s MTSS Technical Assistance Center. Before working there, she spent time as a school psychologist, a PBIS district coach, a state-wide technical assistance provider, and up until about a month ago, the training team lead here at PBISApps.

For more information about the resources shared in the episode, check out the following links:

• Feedback and Input Survey

Who’s ready for summer? Literally every hand in our office is up…maybe yours is, too. The end of the year is the perfect time to tie up loose ends, pack up your things, and look back on everything you accomplished. Reflection is an active process — one that keeps our work fresh and helps us improve from year to year — and it’s what we’re doing today.

In this episode, we’re looking back at every conversation we had over the past school year and sharing our favorite highlights and lessons learned. We’ve interviewed 21 guests across 10 episodes. Every conversation gave us something to think about and find ways to infuse it in our work moving forward. Today, we’re sharing five of those lessons with you.To travel back in time and dive into any of these episodes mentioned today, check out the following links:

• Ep. 21: Benefits & Examples of Creating a Schoolwide Purpose Statement
• Ep. 24: The Benefits of Play‍
• Ep. 26: Vulnerable Decision Points
• Ep. 27: Neutralizing Vulnerable Decision Points‍
• Ep. 29: Integrating Mental Health Supports in Your PBIS Framework

This month, we’re taking the opportunity to explore the ways schools embed school mental health within their existing PBIS framework through a process called the Interconnected Systems Framework (ISF). The ISF offers you a way to take advantage of the expertise within your larger schoolwide community, add it to the systems, practices, and data accessible on your PBIS teams, and get students the comprehensive support they need.

In this episode, we’re talking to two people who have done just that.

• Megan Schultz is the community coordinator for an organization called The 15th Night —"a youth-informed, community movement to end youth homelessness by connecting existing resources and finding innovative ways to keep kids in school and off the streets.” In her role, Megan helps schools and community organizations get connected through a system called the Rapid Access Network (RAN).
• Kelly Perales is the co-director of the Midwest PBIS Network and an implementer partner with the Center on PBIS. She leads schools implementing ISF, focusing on the integration of mental health and education systems. In addition to her work with schools, she researches the effects ISF has on family-school-community partnerships.

For more information about the resources shared in this episode, check out the following links:

• Overview of ISF
• Advancing Education Effectiveness: Interconnecting School Mental Health and School-Wide PBIS, Volume 2: An Implementation Guide: A step-by-step guide for district and school teams implementing ISF.
• The 15th Night Homepage

Teachers across the country say the number of behaviors they manage in the classroom is up this year compared to before the pandemic. We know the first step to improving behavior trends schoolwide is to verify your Tier 1 systems and practices are fully in place. When you’ve verified they are and behavior trends continue to rise, what can you do? In this episode of Expert Instruction, learn how to increase schoolwide support by infusing it with a dose Tier 2 critical elements.

Joining the conversation are Dr. Billie Jo Rodriquez and Noah Van Horn.

• Billie Jo is a Northwest PBIS Network staff member, a senior lecturer at the University of Oregon, a nationally certified school psychologist, and a board-certified behavior analyst. She has over 20 years of experience supporting students with diverse needs and helping schools implement increasingly intensive function-based supports.
• Noah is a nationally certified school psychologist and PBIS coach for Springfield Public Schools in Springfield, OR. In addition to his work leading district initiatives to support PBIS, he is a lead trainer for district professional development on topics ranging from Tier1 practices to more intensive, individualized support.

Surprise! It’s our first bonus episode of Expert Instruction! We’ve been working as a team to bring some new labels and language to the Schoolwide Information System (SWIS). As part of that work, we revisited the category label definitions and gave them a refresh. As that project comes to completion, we realized the work overlapped with the conversations we’ve had over the last two months.

When you talk about solutions to disrupt vulnerable decision points, defining behavior — both what it looks like and the options available to address it — is on the list. We had to get the team together to share a little about what the process was like and how you can do it, too, in your school.

Joining us in conversation are Diertra Lomeli, Katie Schulz, and Seth May.

• Diertra is the Customer Support Team Manager at PBISApps. She leads the team of people who connect with our users, set up every account, invoice every subscription, and problem-solve every bug as it comes in.
• Katie is a Customer Support Specialist at PBISApps. When users have questions, concerns, or feedback about our applications, they get in touch with our customer support team, and often, they get in touch with Katie.
• Seth is the Director of IT at PBISApps. He started as a developer creating the very first version of SWIS. Now, he leads a team of developers and IT professionals to create the applications schools use every day.

For more information about the resources shared in this episode, check out these links:

• Updated SWIS Referral Category Definitions
• Details to Prep You for Changes Coming to SWIS
• Teach by Design: Disrupt Your Vulnerable Decisions With These Simple Solutions

In this episode of Expert Instruction: The Teach by Design Podcast, we’re continuing the conversation from last month’s episode about vulnerable decision points (VDP). Drs. Maria Reina Santiago-Rosaria and Sean Austin are back to share how we can disrupt our decision making in those moments.Today we’re talking about neutralizing routines: brief, step-by-step processes to make our quick decisions more deliberate. During our conversation, we recognized the overlaps between these routines and those we explored in previous episodes related to de-escalation. While both require us to become more present in the moment, neutralizing routines are specifically designed to disrupt our implicit bias—those stereotypes we carry around without even knowing it.María is a researcher at the University of Oregon who focuses on racial equity in school discipline, measuring teacher expectations of students, and supporting students who receive special education services as they transition from middle to high school. Sean is also a researcher at the University of Oregon who focuses on positive behavior support, implementation science, and professional development.The two of them share how they’ve seen these routines implemented, how to know when those routines are working, and how all of this serves the larger goal of making your discipline decisions more equitable for all students.