Are You "With It" in the Classroom? Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS): Classroom Management Strategies and Systems That Work!

This workshop, begin facilitated by Jeffrey Sprague, Ph.D., University of Oregon, will describe multiple evidence-based classroom management practices and participants will gain tools for implementing them.  98 percent of Americans believe that the public school system’s primary purpose is to prepare students to become responsible citizens. However, chronic behavioral problems in the classroom detract from teachers’ ability to realize this goal. Students’ inability or unwillingness to conform to classroom rules and social norms detracts from instructional time and interferes with educational achievement, and can lead to low teacher morale and high attrition rates.  When PBIS is implemented in the classroom, it may be referred to as Classroom PBIS, positive and proactive classroom management, or a variety of other synonyms.  Classroom PBIS (CPBIS) includes preventative and responsive approaches that may be effectively implemented with all students in a classroom and intensified to support small groups or a few individual students. CPBIS strategies are important tools to decrease disruptions, increase instructional time, and improve student social behavior and academic outcomes, which is critical as schools are held to greater accountability for student outcomes and teacher effectiveness.  Although individual teachers may implement CPBIS in their own classrooms regardless of the broader school context, the effects of CPBIS strategies are maximized by (a) implementing within a school-wide multi-tiered behavioral framework (MTBF), like school-wide PBIS; (b) directly linking classroom and school-wide expectations and systems; (c) merging CPBIS strategies with effective instructional design, curriculum, and delivery; and (d) using classroom-based data to guide decision making.