Running head: FBLA: PBIS Action plan

Des Moines East: PBIS Action Plan

Greg Marshall and Kyle Reeping
Drake University

Author Note
All data is from the Iowa Youth Survey and Safe and Supportive Schools grant proposal.

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Des Moines East: PBIS Action Plan

East High School is an urban high school in the Des Moines Public School system (DMPS).
DMPS is the largest urban district in the state of Iowa, including five high schools, twelve middle
schools and thirty eight elementary schools. East High School is one of the largest schools in the
district and state, having approximately 2,600 students. The student population is diverse, with 28
nations being represented. Roughly, 70 percent of the students qualify for free and reduced lunch.
East has been identified as a school in need of assistance. To improve, East applied and was awarded
with the Safe and Supportive Schools Grant. This grant provides funding to create a safe, positive
environment at East. One stipulation of the grant is to conduct surveys on faculty, students and
parents. Based on the outcomes of the survey data East identified some key areas for improvement.
One of the areas was relationships within the school. Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports
(PBIS) was the program the staff and administration at East chose to implement in order to improve
student teacher relationships.
Rationale
The Iowa Youth Survey (IYS) asks students how much they agree with 6 statements about
adult-student relationships. East High Schools plan is focused on the statement: My teachers notice
when I am doing a good job and let me know about it. Even though student response to these
statements was not the lowest of the 6, East was concerned that while many other indicators
improved this one actually went down. Also, we believe adults in our school have a greater chance of
influencing student agreement with this statement at this time than they would with the statement that
had the lowest student agreement (My school lets a parent/guardian know if I am doing a good job).
Data used to determine our area of focus
What did our students say?
Figure 1 shows the % of students who agree or strongly agree with our target statement My
teachers notice when I am doing a good job and let me know about it. on the 2011, 2013, and 2014
IS3 Student Survey.

FBLA: PBIS Action plan

% of students who "agree" or "stongly agree" with the 6 IYS adult-student relationship statements
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%

What change is needed?

East would like to move its system from a punitive, reactive school environment described by
the students as a jail-like atmosphere where they feel rules are designed for the few students who
do things wrong to a positive, proactive environment where students who are doing the correct things
feel empowered. We want 100% of our students to respond, Yes to the statement my teachers
notice when I am doing a good job and let me know about it.
What strategy will we use?
We believe students will to respond more positively to these statements as East implements
PBIS with fidelity. Through PBIS we hope to achieve this outcome. By training staff to acknowledge
positive actions of students, we should see an increase in the number of students feeling that their
positive behaviors are recognized. PBIS will create a positive culture at East High between staff and
students. While we will be working on all of the components listed in the PBIS action plan we have

FBLA: PBIS Action plan

chosen to focus on one particular strategy for 2014-15: Student Acknowledgement. Staff will be
recognizing positive student behavior by giving them a Be East business card. Students will redeem
their cards to their advisory teachers every Wednesday to be tracked. Students may spend them at any
time after they have been redeemed in the student-led store. East will create advisory groups that
meet in a 30-minute time weekly by cohorts of 15-20 students. Advisory time will support PBIS in
multiple ways, specifically with the following:

Build relationships between teachers and students staff will be coached on both
how to acknowledge students when they hand them card and when they turn them

into their advisory teacher.

Teach expectations and provide consistency for students- Staff will receive lessons
on teaching expectations and how to reward students who are following the

expectations.
Acknowledgement for student positive behaviors- Staff will learn to focus their
efforts on rewarding kids for doing the right things rather than focusing on students
who do not.

See the following action plan for steps we will be following for this particular strategy.
Support from Author/Theory
This change initiative is based on the work George Sugai, a professor from the University of
Connecticut. Sugais career has focused on positive behavior interventions and supports for schools.
Based on Sugais research, PBIS was formed and first funded in 1998. Sixteen years later, PBIS has
been or is currently being implemented in approximately 7000 schools. The logic behind
implementing PBIS is to help teach students the social skills and behavior traits they will need to be
successful and productive citizens. All of these objectives are followed due to the creation of
measurable data and goals.
Personnel Required

FBLA: PBIS Action plan

In order for PBIS to be successful we need a minimum of 80% staff buy in. A core team will
need to be assembled in order to train staff and implement action steps. This team will need to
include the following: principal, vice principals, teachers from each department, counselors and
school nurses. From this team an internal PBIS coach will be identified to work with external
coaches from the local AEA. This team will break down into five committees; acknowledgement,
data, consequences, lesson plans and communication.
Budget Items
IS3 Proposed Budget
Line Item
Personnel

Purpose
Grant Support/Coordination(2 part-time interventionists)

Coaches hourly stipend as

Budget
$40,000

$6,000

PBIS leads
Subs

Pay teachers for after-hours

Materials and
Supplies

work- data, lesson plans, videos

PBIS- incentives for students,
printing and signage, and video
development

$10,000

$4,000
$35,000
$15,000

Baskets for advisory suppliessee below for details

$6000
Contractual
TOTAL

Technology
Food

Action Steps: (timeline)

Figure 3 lists the specific actions we will take to implement...

$2400
118,400

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FIGURE 3: Action Steps (What by When)

August

September

October

November

December

January

February

March

April

May

June

Facilitator

Principal

Statement
Action Team meetings
(twice monthly) to plan the
work
1. Attend annual
conference
2. Develop
reward/reinforceme
nt system
3. Develop working
smarter matrix
4. Develop teaching
plans
5. Implement
teaching plans
6. Apply a
reward/reinforceme
nt system on a
consistent basis2015
7. Build a
consequence
system
8. Define and develop
ODR form
9. Apply a
consequence
system on a
consistent basis
10. Establish an
information
system- sharing
with staff, parents,
etc.
11. Establish a valid
and efficient data
collection system
12. Introductory use of
IC data to make
decisions
13. Examine values of
school personnel
related to family
involvement
14. Define family
involvement plan
15. Evaluate family
involvement

X
X

Action Team

July

for our Target

Responsible
Teachers

Dates

Action Steps

X
X

X
X

X
X

X
X

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practices and how
they relate to PBIS
16. Introduction to
SET data and use
for decisionmaking
17. Understand nonclassroom
interventions-

Facility Requirements:
In order for our plan to be successful we will focus on spreading and reinforcing the message with
signs and lessons in Advisory.
The purpose of having signs is to remind students and staff members what is expected of
them. These signs will be posted throughout the building about what is expected in each distinct area
of the school. These areas have been defined as the hallways, common spaces such as the library and
cafeteria, and classrooms. These signs will express the behaviors that are expected using our
acronym Be EAST. Each sign will explain what it means to Be EAST in the setting that they are
posted in. These signs will be in color in order to draw attention to people that are in our building and
will reinforce the traits of engagement, accountability, safety, and thoughtfulness. Beneath each of
these traits will be specific examples that are unique to each setting. These examples will be in
smaller print in order to keep the signs visually appealing. In hallways and common areas the signs
will be larger so that they can be seen easily by multiple people. In classrooms they will be smaller,
so that classrooms arent overtaken by these signs and so teachers can place them in a convenient
spot. It is our expectation that these signs will be up in every classroom and each common area. In
the halls we expect that these signs will be in high frequency areas that are common places for
students to congregate and walk by. We feel that these signs will be a reinforcement of our values that

FBLA: PBIS Action plan

dont require time taken away from instruction or create excessive amount of work for staff or
students.
To complement the signage we will create lesson plans that focus on the traits of engagement,
accountability, safety and thoughtfulness. These lessons will be taught during Advisory. In addition,
we will be making changes in our enrollment for each Advisory. This change will focus on lowering
the enrollment of each Advisory thus requiring more teachers to teach advisory.
Lesson plans for Advisory will be created by the PBIS team and developed for all grades.
Our logic for this is we want all students in our building to have a consistent message about the
expectations of our school. Likewise these lessons are meant to develop character traits. We feel that
these lessons are vital for all ages and should be treated as an integral part in students development
into productive and well-rounded members of society. With our PBIS team creating these lesson
plans it will diminish the workload of planning for this period for the larger amount of teachers
required in our new setup.
The creation of more Advisories with a smaller number of students in each classroom is due
to the belief that teachers can develop stronger relationships with students if they have smaller
numbers. As stated in our focus, we believe that each student needs to feel a sense of
accomplishment. Creating a strong relationship with a staff member should allow the staff member to
see the growth and achievement of each of their Advisory students. Due to our rationale, students
will keep the same Advisory teacher for the entire school year. This should allow for teachers and
students to have more time to build relationships and give the student a sense of normalcy during
times of change. We do not expect every teacher to make meaningful connections with every single
one of their Advisory students; yet we feel that this change will help cultivate more positive
interactions between students and staff.
Staff Development Plan:

FBLA: PBIS Action plan

Staff will receive training in the fall for acknowledging students and advisory groups
and get their group assignments. As part of a professional development session, time will be spent
helping all staff: (1) understand why adult-student relationships are important; (2) know the types of
feedback students desire from their feedback, and (3) adopt the shared vision that adults care about
ALL EHS students we will do through the acknowledgement system.
Throughout the school year there needs to be on going professional development to help staff
refine their practice in acknowledging students. Training on a variety of topics will be provided,
such as de-escalation tactics, how to teach expectations and giving specific praise.

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References

Last The Iowa Youth Survey, 2013 was the source of student data.
The Safe and Supportive Schools grant proposal was the source of the action plan and charts.