REPOST: Beecher uses Responsive Classroom and they are in good company...

I repeat...our neighbor, Beecher Road School, uses Responsive Classroom -- an approach Bethany Community School did not even consider in their haste to adopt PBIS.  But it's not too late...let's take a look at Responsive Classroom especially since Beecher students COMBINE with Bethany Community School students to attend Amity Middle School together.  Here is the parent info on Beecher's website regarding Responsive Classroom.  And, Responsive Classroom can be used with PBIS instead of the rewards/incentives/tokens.  The Responsive Classroom site has a 2-page fact sheet and an 9-page white paper on combining their approach with PBIS.

Beecher is in good company.  Quinnipiac University trains prospective teachers in Responsive Classroom in their educator preparation classes, and below is information on a handful of the many Connecticut schools using Responsive Classroom school-wide:

• Branchville Elementary School in Ridgefield, CT uses Responsive Classroom.  Follow these links for a newspaper article about their decision and to their school's site.
• A study was done at K.T. Murphy School in Stamford, Connecticut demonstrating Responsive Classroom has a positive impact on the social skills and behaviors of those at the school.  The abstract can be found here and the entire paper here.
• Hurlbutt Elementary in Weston, CT uses Responsive Classroom.
• Highcrest Elementary in Wethersfield, CT uses Responsive Classroom.
• Chase Collegiate School a private school in Waterbury, CT uses Responsive Classroom.
• Canton Intermediate School in Canton, CT uses Responsive Classroom.
• Broadbrook Elementary School, in Broadbrook, CT uses Responsive Classroom.
• The Master's School a private school in Simsbury, CT uses Responsive Classroom.

The following information is excerpted from the Responsive Classroom website by Donna Scanlon, Assistant Superintendent for the Hampden-Wilbraham Regional School District in Massachusetts:

Seven principles guide the Responsive Classroom approach:

1.The social curriculum is as important as the academic curriculum.

2.How children learn is as important as what they learn: Process and content go hand in hand.

3.The greatest cognitive growth occurs through social interaction.

4.To be successful academically and socially, children need a set of social skills: cooperation, assertion, responsibility, empathy, and self-control.

5.Knowing the children we teach-individually, culturally, and developmentally-is as important as knowing the content we teach.

6.Knowing the families of the children we teach and working with them as partners is essential to children's education.

7.How the adults at school work together is as important as their individual competence: Lasting change begins with the adult community.

At the heart of the Responsive Classroom approach are ten classroom practices:

1.Morning Meeting - gathering as a whole class each morning to greet one another, share news, and warm up for the day ahead

2.Rule Creation - helping students create classroom rules to ensure an environment that allows all class members to meet their learning goals

3.Interactive Modeling - teaching children to notice and internalize expected behaviors through a unique modeling technique

4.Positive Teacher Language - using words and tone as a tool to promote children's active learning, sense of community, and self-discipline

5.Logical Consequences - responding to misbehavior in a way that allows children to fix and learn from their mistakes while preserving their dignity

6.Guided Discovery - introducing classroom materials using a format that encourages independence, creativity, and responsibility

7.Academic Choice - increasing student learning by allowing students teacher-structured choices in their work

8.Classroom Organization - setting up the physical room in ways that encourage students' independence, cooperation, and productivity

9.Working with Families - creating avenues for hearing parents' insights and helping them understand the school's teaching approaches

10.Collaborative Problem Solving - using conferencing, role playing, and other strategies to resolve problems with students

Schools implementing the Responsive Classroom approach schoolwide typically adopt the following practices:

•Aligning policies and procedures with Responsive Classroom philosophy - making sure everything from the lunch routine to the discipline policy enhances the self-management skills that children are learning through the Responsive Classroom approach;

•Allocating resources to support Responsive Classroom implementation - using time, money, space, and personnel to support staff in learning and using the Responsive Classroom approach;

•Planning all-school activities to build a sense of community - giving all of the school's children and staff opportunities to learn about and from each other through activities such as all-school meetings, cross-age recess or lunch, buddy classrooms, and cross-age book clubs;

•Welcoming families and the community as partners - involving family and community members in the children's education by maintaining two-way communication, inviting parents and others to visit and volunteer, and offering family activities;

•Organizing the physical environment to set a tone of learning - making sure, for example, that schoolwide rules are posted prominently, displays emphasize student work, and all school spaces are welcoming, clean, and orderly.

COME to the Board of Education meeting on Wednesday, May 12th, at 6:30pm in the BCS library.  Let the BOE members hear your concerns with the full-blown rewards/incentives/tokens being proposed.  Ask the BOE to direct the school to further investigate alternatives such as Responsive Classroom.

A teacher interviews Dr. Marvin Marshall, author of Discipline without Stress

Teacher Larry Ferlazzo recently interviewed Dr. Marvin Marshall on the topic of positive discipline.  You can find and read the interview on Larry's website: Interview Of The Month: Marvin Marshall On Positive Classroom Management.
 .

Empowering vs. Overpowering

More from MarvinMarshall.com

"A responsive classroom culture that honors students' voices may enhance students' ownership of literacy learning and alleviate feelings of anger, anxiety, alienation, and powerlessness..." finds Dr. Penny Oldfather

Responsive Classroom can help with more than just behavior.  It can also have a positive impact on literacy learning.  Below is an abstract to a study conducted by Dr. Penny Oldfather who teaches courses on teaching/learning processes, early childhood curriculum, motivation, and qualitative research methodology. Her research interests include qualitative research on student motivation, constructivism in teaching and teacher education, and issues of student voice in research methodology.

When Students Do Not Feel Motivated for Literacy Learning: How a Responsive Classroom Culture Helps

AUTHOR: Penny Oldfather

INSTITUTION: University of Georgia

ABSTRACT: Teachers' responsiveness to and empathic understanding of students' perceptions when they are not motivated are critical in a) promoting students' ownership of the literacy learning agenda; b) in helping students with their motivational difficulties; and c) in establishing classrooms that focus on the enhancement of caring. This report of an interpretive study, conducted in a 5th/6th-grade whole language classroom, provides insights about students' thoughts, feelings, and actions when not motivated for literacy tasks, and examines students' subjective experiences in three different motivational situations. The study offers clues about the affective and cognitive processes that enable some students to become engaged in literacy activities and prevent others from beginning them. It argues that a responsive classroom culture that honors students' voices may enhance students' ownership of literacy learning and alleviate feelings of anger, anxiety, alienation, and powerlessness.

READ THE ENTIRE STUDY

Beecher Road School uses Responsive Classroom and they are in good company!

I repeat...our neighbor, Beecher Road School, uses Responsive Classroom -- an approach Bethany Community School did not even consider in their haste to adopt PBIS.  But it's not too late...let's take a look at Responsive Classroom especially since Beecher students COMBINE with Bethany Community School students to attend Amity Middle School together.  Here is the parent info on Beecher's website regarding Responsive Classroom.  And, Responsive Classroom can be used with PBIS instead of the rewards/incentives/tokens.  The Responsive Classroom site has a 2-page fact sheet and an 9-page white paper on combining their approach with PBIS.

Beecher is in good company.  Quinnipiac University trains prospective teachers in Responsive Classroom in their educator preparation classes, and below is information on a handful of the many Connecticut schools using Responsive Classroom school-wide:

• Branchville Elementary School in Ridgefield, CT uses Responsive Classroom.  Follow these links for a newspaper article about their decision and to their school's site.
• A study was done at K.T. Murphy School in Stamford, Connecticut demonstrating Responsive Classroom has a positive impact on the social skills and behaviors of those at the school.  The abstract can be found here and the entire paper here.
• Hurlbutt Elementary in Weston, CT uses Responsive Classroom.
• Highcrest Elementary in Wethersfield, CT uses Responsive Classroom.
• Chase Collegiate School a private school in Waterbury, CT uses Responsive Classroom.
• Canton Intermediate School in Canton, CT uses Responsive Classroom.
• Broadbrook Elementary School, in Broadbrook, CT uses Responsive Classroom.
• The Master's School a private school in Simsbury, CT uses Responsive Classroom.

The following information is excerpted from the Responsive Classroom website by Donna Scanlon, Assistant Superintendent for the Hampden-Wilbraham Regional School District in Massachusetts:

Seven principles guide the Responsive Classroom approach:

1.The social curriculum is as important as the academic curriculum.

2.How children learn is as important as what they learn: Process and content go hand in hand.

3.The greatest cognitive growth occurs through social interaction.

4.To be successful academically and socially, children need a set of social skills: cooperation, assertion, responsibility, empathy, and self-control.

5.Knowing the children we teach-individually, culturally, and developmentally-is as important as knowing the content we teach.

6.Knowing the families of the children we teach and working with them as partners is essential to children's education.

7.How the adults at school work together is as important as their individual competence: Lasting change begins with the adult community.

At the heart of the Responsive Classroom approach are ten classroom practices:

1.Morning Meeting - gathering as a whole class each morning to greet one another, share news, and warm up for the day ahead

2.Rule Creation - helping students create classroom rules to ensure an environment that allows all class members to meet their learning goals

3.Interactive Modeling - teaching children to notice and internalize expected behaviors through a unique modeling technique

4.Positive Teacher Language - using words and tone as a tool to promote children's active learning, sense of community, and self-discipline

5.Logical Consequences - responding to misbehavior in a way that allows children to fix and learn from their mistakes while preserving their dignity

6.Guided Discovery - introducing classroom materials using a format that encourages independence, creativity, and responsibility

7.Academic Choice - increasing student learning by allowing students teacher-structured choices in their work

8.Classroom Organization - setting up the physical room in ways that encourage students' independence, cooperation, and productivity

9.Working with Families - creating avenues for hearing parents' insights and helping them understand the school's teaching approaches

10.Collaborative Problem Solving - using conferencing, role playing, and other strategies to resolve problems with students

Schools implementing the Responsive Classroom approach schoolwide typically adopt the following practices:

•Aligning policies and procedures with Responsive Classroom philosophy - making sure everything from the lunch routine to the discipline policy enhances the self-management skills that children are learning through the Responsive Classroom approach;

•Allocating resources to support Responsive Classroom implementation - using time, money, space, and personnel to support staff in learning and using the Responsive Classroom approach;

•Planning all-school activities to build a sense of community - giving all of the school's children and staff opportunities to learn about and from each other through activities such as all-school meetings, cross-age recess or lunch, buddy classrooms, and cross-age book clubs;

•Welcoming families and the community as partners - involving family and community members in the children's education by maintaining two-way communication, inviting parents and others to visit and volunteer, and offering family activities;

•Organizing the physical environment to set a tone of learning - making sure, for example, that schoolwide rules are posted prominently, displays emphasize student work, and all school spaces are welcoming, clean, and orderly.




COME to the Board of Education meeting on Wednesday, May 12th, at 6:30pm in the BCS library.  Let the BOE members hear your concerns with the full-blown rewards/incentives/tokens being proposed.  Ask the BOE to direct the school to further investigate alternatives such as Responsive Classroom.

A teacher offers advice and alternatives...

This comes from a teacher, written on MarvinMarshall.com's Discipline without Stress yahoo-group.  Thank you, Kerry!

Hi Aimee,

I just checked in at your blog. Good luck to the parents who go to your school meeting!

I don't know if the following links might help you to give the parents at your school some other visions for how schools can promote personal and social responsibility in ways other than rewards.

In my own K-6 school we have been using DWS for a number of years now. Last year I had an article published in Educational Leadership about a program we developed as a direct result of our staff study of the DWS textbook. In the article I explain some of the philosophy of DWS and how it was translated into a program of daily announcement questions. Although, obviously this little program is only a portion of how we promote high level personal and social behaviour at our school, it might give someone at your school (teachers or parents) a taste of what an alternative to PBIS could look like. Marv once said to me that audience members at his presentations often mention that there is a whole different "feel" to this approach and they are right, there is!

http://disciplineanswers.com/one-question-a-day/

And there's another article that also might be of use. It's a two part article... the first part written by Marv explains how and why he developed his DWS approach. The second part was written by me and describes the results that my teaching partner and I saw almost immediately in our grade one classroom once we started to implement DWS.

http://www.marvinmarshall.com/pdf/Phi_Delta_Kappan.pdf

As well, here's a post on the DWS blog that explains how my own staff greatly (and easily) improved the behaviour of the students at our regular school assemblies using ideas from DWS. Seven years later the behaviour in our assemblies remains near perfect. Originally we wanted to improve school assembly behaviour because kids were calling out, talking and even booing etc.

http://disciplineanswers.com/school-assembly-procedures/

Once again, I hope that all your efforts get parents/teachers to start thinking and questioning!

Kerry

Please attend the PTO meeting on Tuesday, May 4th at 7pm in the library, PBIS presentation

I cannot attend the PTO meeting where there will be a Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports presentation.  I did attend the one last month and I will be at the Board of Education meeting on May 12.  My husband, Paul, will be at the meeting with his own list of questions.  He's a teacher with 20 years experience in urban and suburban settings and among other things is a cooperating teacher (one who trains student teachers), a provider of professional development to other teachers, a mentor teacher (for the State Dept. of Education mentoring and evaluating new teachers), a life-long learner, and a father.  I encourage everyone and anyone to join Paul; to come and hear what will be presented to the PTO regarding PBIS at Bethany Community School, come to your own conclusions, and be heard.

Here is what I would share if I could be there:

• BCS doesn't need a behavior program, as much as a philosophy.
• BCS doesn't need a behavior program, as much as leadership.
• BCS doesn't need a behavior program, as much as consistency, communication, collaboration, and community among both the PAID ADULT STAFF as well as the student body.
• BCS doesn't need a behavior program, as much as it needs to support its teachers and paraprofessionals in teaching and learning and growing and stretching.
• BCS doesn't need a behavior program, as much as it needs an engaging curriculum that emphasizes exploration over assessment.

Instead, BCS is taking the "easy way out" by purchasing a short-term, short-sighted, potentially damaging program. 


They'll call the rewards, prizes, and tokens "reinforcements", but do not be confused -- they are rewards, prizes, and tokens. 


They'll say the teachers identified the need and brought the program to the administrators, but do not be confused -- while it may have been a teacher or two who initiated this, it was most definitely not The Teachers as the majority of The Teachers knew nothing about it, continue to know nothing about it, and have not been asked for their input on adopting a program that will dramatically alter the culture of the school, and would not choose this approach.  Teachers may agree there are issues to be solved, but their voices have not been heard in HOW this will occur.


They'll say the vast majority of children behave properly and it's time they were recognized for it, but do not be confused -- the children who behave properly do it because it's what they do, it's what's expected (they want to learn, they are curious, they love their teacher, and they simply like being in class) and a paper paw print or a pizza party does nothing to truly recognize their efforts the way meeting the needs of the children who misbehave would; eliminating the misbehaviors thereby benefiting the whole class, for those who regularly behave and just want to learn AND for the child who regularly misbehaves. My consistently well-behaved kid doesn't want a paw print as much as she'd like the kids in her class to behave appropriately! She doesn't want a certificate, she wants the adults to take charge of the situation and rescue the learning environment from the few students who hold it captive. 


They'll say the children behave inappropriately on the bus, in the hall, on the playground, in the bathroom, and in the cafeteria, but do not be confused -- in each of these areas the situation could be improved if the ADULT PAID STAFF created consistent expectations, developed solutions that help students raise their responsibility, and then, held themselves accountable.


They'll explain enthusiastically about the awarding of paws, the filling of buckets, the choosing of names and rewards reinforcements, the assemblies, the character education, but do not be confused -- the use of rewards has a damaging effect on character development.  "Studies at the University of Toronto and Arizona State University show that external rewards for socially responsible behaviors are associated with less commitment for helping, caring, and sharing over the long haul." (marvinmarshall.com)


They'll tell you they have teacher and parent input, but do not be confused -- the teachers may have been surveyed about issues, but they were not asked their opinion of PBIS and a parent may have been added to the PBIS committee, but parent concerns were never heard during the decision and design stages of bringing PBIS to BCS.  


They'll tell you PBIS is the most effective program, but do not be confused -- they did not investigate any other approach because the State Department of Ed is promoting PBIS leaving an interesting money trail behind it all the way to NCLB.  


They'll tell you PBIS is research based, but do not be confused -- it is based on Skinner's research that people behave like pets and long term research does not show a positive correlation between rewarding good behavior and the continuation of that behavior.  


It has become clear to me that despite the fact that other approaches achieve the same goals of consistency and appropriate behavior -- the powers that be, the strong personalities driving the discussion, ARE NOT INTERESTED and do not care to investigate any approach other than blanketing all students with a program designed specifically as an alternative to restraint and seclusion of special education students. 


It has been suggested to me that I raise my awareness by reading a dog-training manual as evidence that reward systems work. They may work, in the short term - for tasks the dog child does not want to do, and for tasks that do not require high order thinking or responsibility. Obedience is essential for dogs - responsibility should be our goal for kids.


BCS has purchased this program without the input of teachers, paraprofessionals, BOE members, parents or students. BCS continues training select staff and purchasing the bells and whistles for this program. Despite this, however, I do believe that it is not too late to halt the program, truly identify the situation at BCS, explore alternatives, and design an approach for our school -- one with the development of responsibilty rather than obedience as the goal; one designed to meet the needs of those misbehaving (both adult and student) so they can participate fully in the BCS community of learners. 


UPDATE: (I removed the word offenders from that last sentence...I was using language not my own in a hasty and failed attempt to show how important and vital it is to meet the needs of the students - especially those reacting to the situation with 'misbehavior' and how this program does not account for that.)

Rewards aim at obedience. They do not foster values of character education such as responsibility, integrity, honesty, empathy, or perseverance.

(Good to be Different by jnthnhys)

The following is reprinted here with permission from MarvinMarshall.com:

The last two newsletters contained articles published in the mailring about a program that is finding increasing use throughout the U.S.A. It is referred to as Positive Behavior(al) Interventions and Supports (PBIS) or just Positive Behavior Support (PBS). It was established by the Office of Special Education Programs in the U.S. Department of Education. The approach is behaviorally based in that it is a classic use of B.F. Skinner's positive reinforcement of operant conditioning. The program was developed as an alternative to aversive interventions that were used with  students with severe disabilities who engaged in extreme forms of self-injury and aggression.

Positive Behavior Support treats the acquisition and use of social-behavioral skills in much the same way we would academic skills. However, academic skills deal with the cognitive domain, whereas behavior has to do with the affective domain--those factors which pertain to feelings and emotions.

A basic rationale of PBS is that it is necessary to understand the "why" of a behavioral problem in order to "fix' the behavior. However, it is nearly impossible to articulate with certainty the underlying reasons for behavior. And even more important, although finding the rationale or reason for a behavior may be interesting, it has no effect on changing the behavior.

(Photo by Leo Reynolds)

My personal life attests to this little acknowledged fact. I attended speech classes all the way through elementary, junior high, and high school. When I graduated high school, I still had a severe stutter. Although much research and study gave me great insight into the cause of my behavior, it had absolutely nothing to do with "fixing my problem." In order to change my behavior, it was necessary for my brain to establish new neural patterns. Although at the time I did not know how the brain operates, I did know that in order to change behavior, it would be necessary to participate and experience new behavior patterns in order to replace my current pattern. In college, therefore, I decided to participate in new experiences such as impromptu and extemporaneous speaking, debating, and radio broadcasting.

The major point here is that when you focus on attempting to understand the reason that prompted the behavior, you are focusing on the past and simply revisiting memories. The more you stay in the past, the more you avoid working in the present. The past cannot be changed. It is useless to water last year's crops. Dr. William Glasser put it succinctly:"We do not need to find the pothole that ambushed the car in order to align the front end."

The ground on which PBS rests is faulty--and sooner or later the structure will topple.

(Photo by jpverkamp)

According to the developers of PBS, the most impressive gains in reducing challenging behavior have occurred with students who have severe intellectual disabilities. It seems to me that this is another case of both the tail wagging the dog and of tunnel vision. When I was working in the dean of boys' office in a large urban high school, I dealt solely with behavioral problems. The position could easily give one a policeman's viewpoint. Are ALL students sent to the office for disciplinary purposes? Hardly! But that was the only type of student I dealt with. In contrast, when I moved to an even larger high school (3,200 students) in a different district as assistant principal of supervision and control, I dealt with the student government leaders, athletes, as well as with students whose behaviors needed attention. I, therefore, had a more realistic perception of the entire student body.

For the advocates of PBS to impose a system on an entire school--which they are trying to do--in order to help a few seems to me hardly justifiable.

Success with special education students and students of lower intellectual abilities has more to do with motivation to learn and using procedures in a structured environment than giving rewards for desired behavior.

An integral part of the PBS is based on schools' developing rules. But rules are meant to control, not to teach. Establishing rules to have teachers reward students is counterproductive to the goals of the system--a critical factor the developers of the approach do not realize.

Rewards aim at obedience. They do not foster values of character education such as responsibility, integrity, honesty, empathy, or perseverance.

(Photo by bullcitydogs)

PBS is based on the "critical importance of consistency among people." But people differ in a myriad of ways. A focus on consistency fosters the factory approach of the 19th and 20th centuries--certainly not one for the 21^st century where success is increasingly based on individual creativity and personal responsibility.

A major concern is that decision-making is team-based. It is impractical to the point of being impossible to have a team respond to every behavior. Most importantly a "one size fits all" approach is totally unfair. With some students an askance look stops inappropriate behavior; others need to feel the heat before they see the light. One could hire a layman to enforce rules. The future of this approach is destined to be short-lived if for no other reason that it is imposed top-down and, thereby, deprives professionals of their professional judgments.

PBS is based on "empirical support" or evidence of effectiveness. The aphorism is appropriate here. "Those things that count can't be counted, and those things that can be counted don't count." How can one quantify perseverance, honesty, integrity, caring, desire, positive self-talk, self-esteem and other factors that make for a responsible and successful citizenry?

The developers of PBS state that it may take a school 3 – 5 years to fully implement. A person wonders, with the turnover of so many principals in so many schools these days, how practical this approach is--especially when an approach exists which can find immediate results and have long-lasting changes. See

http://www.marvinmarshall.com/in-housedetails.html.

WHAT SHOULD A SCHOOL DO IF PBS IS MANDATED? The first step would be to present a better approach and ask for a waiver. The case would be presented by asking whether the district is willing to allow the school to try something different that the school believes will reach the objectives of PBS without using the PBS approach.

FOR AN INDIVIDUAL TEACHER WHO HAS THE APPROACH MANDATED, have a class meeting. Put the problem on the table and let the students determine the criteria to be used for the reward, and then have the students choose on a rotating basis which students will do the rewarding. In all of my studies of PBS, I have not seen anything that mandates the TEACHER to do the rewarding.

(Photo by WellSpringCS)

Two final thoughts: (1) Experience shows that rewards punish those who believe they have deserved the reward but were not rewarded. (2) Rewards change motivation so that students soon start competing to see who receives the most number of rewards.

PBS is another case of using a misguided approach based on external agents to promote responsible behavior--which is always an internal decision.

For those interested in a personal experience and a quicker, more effective approach to promote responsible behavior and learning, download the following article to read at your convenience: http://www.marvinmarshall.com/aletterworthreading.html

While not specific to behavior programs, Sir Ken Robinson discusses the downside of school's fostering a "critical importance of conformity" on the Bonnie Hunt Show.

How about sending staff here instead of training them to apply rewards and incentives?

For two days this week, BCS is sending to training a few staff members to learn how to apply a "data driven" token/rewards/incentives system to all the children at BCS - including the vast majority of students who are already behaving well.  Instead, we could send staff to an event such as this lecture by Dr. Stuart Ablon and learn to actually meet the needs of the children actually displaying difficult behaviors: TriFold Ablon FINAL

Kids Do Well If They Can...Dr. Stuart Ablon speaks

How might we reach the children who need help with behavior and making better choices?


Collaborative Problem-Solving focuses on understanding the thinking and behavior of children so that we can help them develop the skills that are needed to behave well.
These skills include:

• Impulse and emotional control
• Problem-solving
• Interpersonal and social skills
• Adaptability

Dr. Stuart Ablon co-authored Treating Explosive Kids-The Collaborative Problem Solving Approach.  Dr. Ablon is currently the Director of Think:Kids and Director of the Psychotherapy Research Program, both at Massachusetts General Hospital, as well as being an Associate Clinical Professor of Psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.  For more information about the work/research being done at Think:Kids please go to www.thinkkids.org.

More in the video series can be found here.

Alternatives: Lost at School, Collaborative Problem Solving

From Dr. Ross W. Greene's Lost at School

“The wasted human potential is tragic. In so many schools, kids with social, emotional, and behavioral challenges are still poorly understood and treated in a way that is completely at odds with what is now known about how they came to be challenging in the first place.” READ MORE

A quote from Alfie Kohn found on the Lost at School site praising the book:

Greene removes all doubt: Even with challenging kids, rewards and punitive ‘consequences’ can (and should) be replaced with Collaborative Problem Solving. Lost at School is a detailed and immensely practical guide whose approach makes much more sense than behavior management plans and other tactics of control. It’s hard to imagine any educators, counselors, or parents who wouldn’t benefit from reading this book. And their kids will benefit even more.”

Alfie Kohn
Author, Beyond Discipline and Punished by Rewards

More Information on Collaborative Problem Solving can be found at Lives in the Balance. 

Another alternative: Responsible Thinking Process, Ed Ford

(Photo by Bill Barber)

I think BCS is fully capable of addressing issues of behavior on our own.  I do not necessarily think we need to buy a program.  However, if part of the appeal of PBIS is "having a program" then I offer alternatives to the incentive/token/reward based program PBIS offers.  


Here's an excerpt from Ed Ford's Responsible Thinking Process website:  

The Responsible Thinking Process is designed to help students develop a sense of responsibility for their own lives and respect for everyone around them. Ford describes it as a school discipline process that is radically different from traditional classroom discipline programs and school behavior management programs. It does not involve coercion, punishment, or rewards. READ MORE

Another excellent article from the website that gives a glimpse as to what it looks like at a school: Teaching Respect using RTP. 

A principal speaks...

I think BCS is fully capable of addressing issues of behavior on our own.  I do not necessarily think we need to buy a program.  However, if part of the appeal of PBIS is "having a program" then I offer alternatives to the incentive/token/reward based program PBIS offers.  Here a middle school principle describes her experience with Marvin Marshall's Discipline without Stress:

www.marvinmarshall.com for more information