Supporting Teachers' Use of PBIS-Based Interventions in Schools

Exclusionary disciplinary measures continue to show little effectiveness in reducing negative behaviors. These types of reactions to negative student behaviors often lead to harsher outcomes and do not teach students requisite behaviors for future success. As such, more schools are adopting positive approaches to dealing with negative student behaviors. One such approach is Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS), which focuses on improving the overall school climate and functionally replacing negative student behaviors with more useful, positive behaviors that lead to successful student outcomes. However, there appear to be barriers that hinder effective and sustained implementation of PBIS-based interventions within schools. One such factor that leads to less-than-desirable student outcomes is teachers’ ability to implement interventions as they were intended (i.e., intervention integrity). Also, other barriers in schools further inhibit teachers’ ability to effectively implement positive interventions that could potentially improve student outcomes. As such, the current study focused on establishing consultative relationships with teachers to increase their integrity to PBIS-based interventions implemented within their classrooms. Other environmental factors were also monitored to determine if any specific barriers decreased teachers’ abilities to produce desired student outcomes. The results of the current study indicated that even though teachers were able to increase their abilities to implement interventions with high integrity, other environmental factors should be considered when developing student supports. Implications for the findings of the current study are discussed, with particular attention placed on establishing effective support systems for sustained and effective interventions implemented within schools in order to promote more positive student outcomes