Introduction

Midway Elementary has been a part of Missouri’s School Wide Positive Behavior Support Program since 2010. The focus of this program is to instill a safe and positive learning environment for our students, staff, and parents.  As our primary goal, the success of our students is always of the utmost importance.  When teachers know and use positive and proactive measures, many of the common, minor behaviors can be reduced, if not avoided altogether.  The implementation of SWPBS in a systemic approach, improves the consistency of expected behaviors, and the common language used among all students and staff results in students being prepared to be active learners.  

What is SWPBS?

SWPBS is a data-driven, proactive, systemic approach for establishing the behavioral supports and environmental needs for all students in order to achieve, social, emotional, behavioral, and academic success.  It is formulated from the concept of the Response to Intervention (RTI) model.

There are three tiers within the SWPBS approach.  

Tier I - Core behavioral expectations are taught, modeled, and reinforced by all staff members in all school settings.  This typically meets the needs of 80% of the student population.

Tier II - Supplemental interventions are for small groups of students not meeting behavioral expectations or those needing more assistance.  This intervention should meet the needs of approximately 15% of the student population.

Tier III - This tier focuses on customizing interventions for individual students not meeting expected behaviors.  This tier accounts for approximately 5% of the student population.

Midway Elementary Behavior Expectations

As a school, we have adopted three universal behavior expectations for our students.  They are:

BE RESPECTFUL BE RESPONSIBLE BE SAFE

Implementation Process

Just like academic skills, behavior expectations and skills must be taught.  Our goal is to create a positive environment within our school as a whole, as well as in individual classrooms.  The focus on our behavior expectations: being respectful, being responsible, and being safe, are applied in all settings and in all scenarios.  By teaching these core beliefs, staff equips all students with the knowledge to successfully achieve their individual potential.

Students Displaying Expected Behavior

All staff members in the building can acknowledge when a student displays expected behavior.  One way to do this is by rewarding the students with Dojo points.  Students who display appropriate, expected behavior are given a positive point on Classroom Dojo.  These points can be uses as currency at our Midway Market.  Every class is scheduled to visit the Midway Market once a month.  Students can purchase items with their Dojo points.  Students can also be rewarded with their name on a ribbon for exhibiting our monthly school-wide focuses.  Ribbons are placed on a bullitin board in the hall.  A weekly, grade level, drawing is held on Friday.  Those students whose names are drawn spin the Wheel to win a prize.  

Crew Cards are awarded when the class as a whole is demonstrating positive, expected behaviors.  These cards are awarded by any staff member, with the exception of that class’s homeroom teacher.  

Students Displaying Problematic Behavior

If a child displays a minor problematic behavior which does not follow our expectations, the child is given a redirect.  This is simply our way of redirecting a student’s attention to appropriate behaviors, hence the term “redirect”.  The purpose behind this is to give that child the power over his/her behavior in order to take measures to correct it when inappropriate.  Occasionally, a second redirect is needed if change hasn’t occurred.  Upon the third redirect, the office will be alerted to this child’s repeated problematic behavior, otherwise known as an Office Discipline Referral (ODR).  This is now tagged as a minor escalation of problem behavior.   In the event this escalates past a fifth redirect, parents will be notified by the administration via a written document sent home with the child to be signed as well as a phone call or message through our messaging system.  This subsequently is termed as a major escalation of problem behavior.  If an initial behavior is severe, it immediately escalates to a major status.