The influence of positive behavior interventions on school culture

The purpose of this study was to determine the influence of positive behavior interventions and supports (PBIS) on school culture at the high school level. PBIS is a three-tiered framework that several schools and organizations use to focus on the positive behavior outcomes over the negative behavior outcomes. Additionally, the effectiveness of the program on school culture is described through a qualitative transcendental phenomenological study.Participants included two administrator and five teacher participants from the study site. The design of this study was a transcendental phenomenology with a focus on qualitative data that was collected, analyzed, and summarized. Additional information was collected from existing archives of student discipline referral records. Research Question 1 addressed how the use of the PBIS program influences the culture of the school from teachers’ perceptions. Teachers emphasized that the PBIS framework must be implemented with fidelity in order to have a positive effect on the culture of the school. Additionally, they expressed the need for administrators to create buy-in and model the framework for all stakeholders. Overall, the teachers expressed there were only small changes in the culture due to the lack of administrative support and inconsistencies of implementation across campus. Research Question 2 addressed how the use of the PBIS framework influences the school culture from the administrators’ perception. Administrators stressed the importance of implementing the PBIS framework through the creation of teacher buy-in and administrative initiative. Overall, administrators saw small shifts toward a positive school culture. School data were analyzed by the administrators that measured a decrease in discipline referrals. They also expressed experiencing more interactive relationships between staff and students due to the tangible rewards system associated with the practices of the PBIS framework. Research Question 3 addressed how the role of administrators influenced the use of PBIS from administrators’ perspective. Administrators emphasized their role was to create teacher buy-in through administrative initiatives and modeling the framework of PBIS. Additionally, they are responsible for identifying the wanted behaviors to ensure all stakeholders understand the expectations. Research Question 4 addressed how the administrators influence the PBIS framework from the teachers’ perceptions. Teachers emphasized the need for administrative initiative to create teacher buy-in. Additionally, teachers stated that it was the role of the administrator to model the framework of PBIS and that they are responsible for identifying the wanted behaviors to ensure all stakeholders understand the expectations. Research Question 5 identified the measurements used to determine the success of the PBIS program. These quantitative data were collected from an administrative participant. The data displayed a small decrease in discipline referrals over a three-year period; however, no conclusions could be drawn due to the insufficiency of the data