The Louisiana Positive Behavior Support (LAPBS) Project has named Istrouma High School a Demonstration School Site. Principal Linda Lewis (left) received the award, along with school social worker and site PBIS coach Tanya Baham (right), at the East Baton Rouge Parish School System’s High School Principals’ Meeting Thursday, April 8. In this School System, the project is known as the Positive Behavior Interventions and Support (PBIS) program.
The certificate was generated by the Louisiana State University’s School-Wide Positive Behavior Support (SWPBS) program at the College of Education. The program is a proactive process that allows school leadership teams, in alignment with school improvement efforts, to facilitate the school’s implementation of system-wide positive discipline procedures, make ongoing data-based decisions about the effectiveness of their discipline procedures/interventions and make adjustments as needed throughout the year to enhance student and staff success.
As part of the program, the Istrouma High School scored 100 percent in the area of Expectations Taught and 97 percent on the Total Score. To be a PBIS Demonstration Site for the district, schools must score on a scale of 100 points at least 90 percent in two areas: Expectations Taught and the Total Score. Schools must receive at least 80 percent in the six remaining areas of: Expectations Defined, Reward System, Violations System, Data and Decision Making, Management and District Level Support
The program meets the demands of the Education/Juvenile Justice Partnership Act requiring the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education to recommend a master plan for improving behavior and discipline within schools. The SWPBS model is recommended as the foundation for the model master plan. In addition, it allows an improvement in school climates so students and faculty can focus on learning. Schools spending undue time on reactive and unsuccessful discipline matters struggle to meet the requirements of No Child Left Behind and the state’s educational accountability system.
“We appreciate all of your support and continued efforts in meeting the needs of your students in order to ensure their success,” wrote Kara Hill, co-director of the LAPBS Project, in a congratulatory letter to Istrouma High School. “Thank you for ensuring that your school is at the forefront in creating a positive and safe learning environment for all students, staff and families.”
PBIS is based on understanding why problem behaviors occur. It is the application of evidence-based strategies and systems to assist schools to increase academic performance, increase safety, decrease problem behavior and establish positive school cultures.
On an individual level, PBIS uses functional behavior assessments to understand the relationships between a student's behavior and characteristics of his or her environment. On a school-wide level, the program relies on accurate and reliable discipline referral data to understand the behaviors occurring across campus. An analysis of the data allows a school team to identify the problem areas, brainstorm interventions such as where and what to teach, reward the students exhibiting the expected behavior and communicate findings to the staff, students, and families.
Positive Behavior Support is a mandated program to be implemented in all public schools in the state of Louisiana. This Act emphasizes that good student behavior and discipline are prerequisites to academic learning. For more information, contact Lee Dixon, the School System’s director of Exceptional Student Services, at (225) 929-8601 or Hill at (225) 578-2298.
