The Effect of School-wide Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports on Behavioral Referrals

The purpose of this research study was to determine the effect of implementation of School-wide Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (SWPBIS) on behavioral referrals. This study specifically looked at the implementation of School-wide Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports of a rural Midwestern school. This study used data gathered from three grade levels, third, fourth, and fifth over three school years, pre-implementation year/training year, the first year of implementation, and second year of implementation of School-wide Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports. This study discusses the schools training and process in the implementation of School-wide Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports and measures overall implementation fidelity during the process. Implementation fidelity was measured through the SWPBIS Tiered Fidelity Inventory, a valid, reliable, efficient measure of the extent to which school personnel is applying the core features of SWPBIS. As a general rule, a score of 70% for each tier is accepted as a level of implementation that will result in student outcomes. Behavioral data was collected through the School Wide Information System Campus annual and compared against the fidelity of implementation to determine the effect of m of School-wide Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports. As implementation fidelity of School-wide Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports increased from 20%-80% over three years the number of office discipline referrals decreased from 76 to 71 to 63 which allows more time for teaching and learning within classrooms