High School Teacher Attitudes Toward Implementing Positive Behavior Support Systems

Positive behavior support (PBS) is a systems change effort that entails explicitly teaching expected social behaviors and rewarding students for behaving appropriately. Additionally, PBS systems involve developing a hierarchy of consequences that are matched to the severity of behavioral infractions. While there is growing research support for the effectiveness of PBS systems in elementary and middle school settings, there is very limited research about positive behavior support implementation at the high school level. Preliminary studies suggest that teacher and staff buy-in and attitudes toward implementation practices are critical to implementation success at the high school level. Additionally, the some theoretical models imply that attitudes toward performing a behavior, social perceptions about a behavior, and perceived behavioral control in executing a given behavior impact intent to perform the behavior. The present study discusses survey results of teaching staff in eight high schools implementing positive behavior support systems. Teacher attitudes toward various PBS practices, social perceptions about practices, and control over implementing practices are examined, as well as environmental factors inhibiting PBS implementation