ITBS provides positive change for Hansen Elementary

ITBS provides positive changes for Hansen Elementary

Our Idaho SESTA project is an extensive collaborative that focuses on improving education outcomes for all of Idaho’s students. Part of achieving this goal is ensuring that schools and educators have the tools they need to create positive environments where students can thrive. Enter Idaho Tiered Behavior Supports (ITBS).

This SESTA sub-project focuses on helping school districts set up and utilize the Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) framework to provide preventative, positive behavior supports for all students. Along with district-level planning, ITBS provides school team training, technical assistance and ongoing coaching that helps to ensure the successful and consistent use of the PBIS framework. It’s all about setting expectations, developing consistency and reinforcing positive behaviors.

We recently caught up with Lark Standley – a second-grade teacher and PBIS facilitator at Hansen Elementary School in Hansen, Idaho – to find out more about PBIS, ITBS and how both are creating positive change at Hansen Elementary. 

Hello, Lark! Thank you for your time. We really appreciate you sitting down with us for a chat about PBIS and ITBS. I’d just like to start off by going over your role. You’re at Hansen Elementary. Is that correct?

Lark: Yes.

And what is your role at the school?

Lark: I’m a second-grade teacher and I’m also the PBIS facilitator.

Excellent! And can you give me a brief overview of what PBIS/ITBS training is and how it applies to you?

Lark: PBIS/ITBS training is to teach positive behavior.  PBIS serves 100% of the students. ITBS focuses more on the 20% of children that need a second and third level of support, it is more individualized.  We had four years of PBIS training and two years of ITBS training.  We wanted to have the same language, the same culture.  When we switched to ITBS training , it was more for those Tier2/Tier 3 students and the training was very intense.

At first we had one team – the PBIS team. And the last two years with ITBS, we’ve added a Tier 2/Tier 3 team. We were spending all of our Tier 1/PBIS team time on maybe 20% of the students who needed extra help. We weren’t focused on the whole school. [Bringing in] ITBS helped us focus on those Tier 2/Tier 3 students, which allowed us to divide our time appropriately to ensure we could apply the appropriate training and resources to all of our students.

What did that look like for you?

Lark: We have a PBIS meeting once per month for 100% of our students. And twice per month, we meet for the Tier 2/Tier 3 students. I facilitate the PBIS meetings and we have another staff member who facilitates the ITBS meetings.

Our ITBS team is made up of a special education teacher, the principal, the superintendent, the counselor and two classroom teachers.  Only half of us have had the ITBS training.  But most of us are very experienced dealing with Tier2/Tier 3 students.

In these monthly meetings, is it primarily new staff or whole staff?

Lark: The monthly meetings are for our teams. Any issues that are affecting the positivity of the school by looking at data. This morning, for example, we were having bus issues that were impacting the whole school, so we talked about that.

I see, so you help to facilitate training and …

Lark: Yes. At the beginning of the year, we do a whole staff training, so everyone gets a refresher. And new staff are able to come on board with what we’re doing.

We also made a PowerPoint for our new students so that when they come they know our expectations. We try to remember to send them the PowerPoint to watch when they have time. Then we review our expectations, and again after each big break, we go over our expectations.

And this is schoolwide?

Lark: It is schoolwide but we review expectations within the classroom. We use our PBIS and ITBS meetings to remind our teachers to pull up that PowerPoint and go over our expectations with their students.

Can you give me an example of what a typical meeting or training for the staff would look like?

Lark: I have a PowerPoint that explains the basics of PBIS and then we go into why we switched to ITBS. We switched because we had more support from the ITBS people for our Tier 2/Tier 3 students. The meeting consists of going over our Tier 1 (PBIS) expcations, to make sure all students are getting the Three Rs training: what it looks like, sounds like, and what we expect in each location [in the school].

We go over our junk behavior flow chart, which is basic classroom management issues. Then we go more into interventions, preventions and consequences for our Tier 2/Tier 3 students. We do not bring up specific students at this time. It is just a refresher to make sure we are using the same language and creating a consistent culture.

We go through the definition of PBIS and why we felt that Hansen needed it. We explain our incentives. We go through our referral process. We go through our data.

Do you feel like this is something you and/or the school needed?

Lark: When it was first brought to us, we – our discipline actions, our behavior, our consequences – everyone had their own philosophy. So, we noticed that the culture needed to change. When this opportunity came, we jumped on board. We thought, “Oh yeah, we’re we want to do this!”

And we had the support from Boise State University PBIS grant, which grew with each year. We could call our coaches any time. I had monthly coaches meetings where all the coaches in the valley met. We were able to collaborate. We just needed it. We needed something common throughout the school. We had permanent posters made – everything is about the Three Rs – our expectations. We have our ‘Husky Bucks’ – our incentives.  It really, really changed the culture.

Can you give me an overview of what the expectations look like?

Lark: Schools are encouraged to have three to five expectations, which we set. We have three. They are: be respectful, be responsible, and be ready to learn.

We also have classroom expectations, hallway expectations, cafeteria and gym expectations, bathroom expectations – they’re all posted.  They’re bulleted so they’re easy to read and easy to follow.

We [the teachers] can see which ones might need a bit of work through data, or others that we’re all doing really well on. And when we catch someone doing really well, we hand out our ‘Husky Bucks’.

That’s great! And what can the students use ‘Husky Bucks’ for?

Lark: We have classroom awards. For example, I give out a chart at the beginning of the year with things like five Husky Bucks to take your picture and put up on the screen for a week. 10 Husky Bucks to sit in the teacher’s chair. Five Husky Bucks for extra recess. Things like that. Each classroom has their own.

We also have a monthly schoolwide reward that’s always 10 Husky Bucks. The PBIS team plans those out and the school general fund pays for a big reward, or little reward – art, bounce house, whatever.

Oh! That’s so cool!

Lark: Yeah!

What were your first impressions of the PBIS and ITBS training?

Lark: We were ready to move on from the PBIS. We needed more help with our Tier 2/Tier 3 students, so we were super excited about that because we had to have more help. More resources. More strategies. We had a couple of separate trainings with two really good ITBS experts. They really helped our Tier 2/Tier 3 teams! We were excited. Very excited to have more resources to pull from.

Have your impressions changed at all since you started working with the ITBS trainings?

Lark: No. Unfortunately, we lost one of the teachers that completed the ITBS training with me, so it’s a little harder. We do have quite a variety of experience on the team, so I think with all of us, we’re all still excited about it. We’re still helping students. We still seeing results. We’re still excited and we’re still working on it!

That’s amazing! On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate the quality of the support and the quality of the training that you receive?

Lark: It’s a 9.5. It was really good! We developed a connection to our trainers through our PBIS training. The support was always exactly what we needed, and the training was so focused that we were able to rewrite some of our behavior plans to better fit the needs of a couple of students. Over the past three or four years, we never felt like we were alone. We always had that support.

That’s awesome!

Lark: Yeah!

And what part has been the most valuable to you?

Lark: Probably … the culture. Having the same culture in every classroom, knowing that people feel like they’re supported, and that we have an avenue if there are any issues. It helps our teachers have immediate support and somewhere to go when they are struggling with students. In the moment, I just have to remember all that training!

Would you say the same for the school? The culture change has been the biggest benefit for the school?

Lark: Oh yes. PBIS, for us, has created a more consistent and supportive environment for our students. Mainly because expectations are explicitly taught, modeled and reinforced throughout every room in the building. I also think it helps us prevent behaviors so we do not have to go the consequence route.

The high school just started it this year. They have seen a drastic change in behavior since they started it. Now it carries over from the elementary to the junior high and high school, so PBIS/ITBS impacts students in the whole district positively.

I just think that’s the foundation for everything we do, so it’s great!

Can you give me an example of a positive change that you’ve seen for the school?

Lark: When you walk through the hallways, the teachers are positive. We’re, you know, we’re using those three Rs in everything we do whether it’s an assignment, or behavior, or hallways. Every aspect of our life. The shift in positivity in the building. You’re not so dragged down.

It just helps teachers focus … It’s just like using any curriculum. If you’re all using different curriculum then you don’t know what each other is saying or teaching. So, this is the PBIS/ITBS curriculum. We’re all using the same language. All the same rewards. It just creates a positive culture.

The kids look forward to those reward days and being able to spend those Husky Bucks, and, if you get a Husky Buck, man, it’s pretty awesome.

I had the chance to ask the principal what change was biggest for her and she noted that there are less students in her office. Not everything is handled by the principal now. Teachers have the right training to handle negative behaviors themselves.

Yeah! It seems like it’s created a positive change for students as well.

Lark: Well, PBIS is all about acknowledging the positive behavior, so it just makes the students more aware of those positive behaviors. They’re ready to work for those Husky Bucks!

That’s great! It’s great to hear that there’s something to make the school experience positive for the students and they want to be there. It’s a great improvement.

Lark: I think it makes everything easier. The kids know the system. The teachers know the system. And they know no matter what classroom they go to, it’s all the same.

Is there anything you would change?

Lark: I don’t think so …

Tier 2/Tier 3 is harder because you’re trying to hone in on what’s driving their behavior. We had two training sessions where we graduated ourselves from ITBS. Now we don’t have the support, and maybe we shouldn’t have graduated ourselves [laughs]. Only because it’s always good to have that training in front of you so you can go back and revisit.

The training was really good. It was spot on! It changed our meetings. It changed the expectations of what we expected teachers to bring to the team. It was good training. We just maybe should have held out a little longer before moving forward.

Is there a favorite training that you’ve completed, or anything that stands out as particularly helpful?

Lark: We went to a training last February. It was from a person who dealt with the students themselves. It wasn’t a trainer. It wasn’t the head of the program. The ITBS training was actually a person who works with students. Because we’re ‘in the trenches’, we don’t want to hear from the person who developed it. We want to hear from the people who are in there with us, actually dealing with the students.

We actually ended up recruiting her to come and help us with a student because she was so good. She came four or five times after that initial training to help us.

Having people who work with the students giving the training is so beneficial.

Right, that first hand experience and how it actually applies when you put it into action.

Lark: Exactly!

Would you recommend it to other schools and other teachers?

Lark: Oh, absolutely! Absolutely. I would recommend it to anybody.

I would say your staff has to be ready for it. We were ready. For a little while we had a little bit of turnover, but all the new staff that are coming on are ready for it.

It doesn’t work if you don’t have consistency. If you can take those skills, strategies and resources and use them for 100% of students, it can make a big difference.

Do you find that applying these principles to 100% of your students (rather than just focusing on the 20% that need extra help) helps to improve outcomes for the 20%?

Lark: It does. They see the positive reinforcement being applied across the board. They feel it. They know it. It changes their perspective. We have so many success stories, there is no denying that it works.