Moving PBIS Instruction into the College Classroom through Interagency Partnerships

In the early 2000s, PBIS emerged within P-12 education, becoming the primary framework through which school districts reimagine their approaches to behavior management. In its wake state departments of education, districts, and universities have been trying to keep pace in training districts, schools, and classroom educators in implementing the PBIS framework with fidelity. Seeing the need for additional university-based educator preparation in PBIS, representatives from Georgia College & State University, the Georgia Department of Education’s state PBIS team, and Georgia Southern University collaborated in the development of university coursework designed initially to comprise a college-issued PBIS certificate with the eventual goal of becoming an add-on endorsement sanctioned by the Georgia Professional Standards Commission, the teacher accreditation body within the State of Georgia. Presenters will describe the process by which representatives from the universities and the state department of education envisioned and laid out relevant series of PBIS courses to be delivered to graduate students aspiring to be teacher-leaders in understanding and implementing positive behavior supports within their districts, schools, and classrooms. Elements of the process to be discussed include initial contact and preliminary discussions to gauge interest in a joint venture, descriptions of joint visioning and brainstorming sessions designed to identify key components the series of courses would address, and the specific course-by-course layout of the GCSU certificate, which was guided by the three-tiered Response to Intervention (RtI) process at the primary, secondary, and tertiary levels. Presenters will discuss challenges faced by collaborators ranging from the identification of key concepts to be taught to the specific places within the course series in which to best present them. The presenters will share take-away lessons, points of growth, and will offer suggestions for P-12 educational leaders and university partners planning to develop similar courses or certificates