Forest Park School District 91, the Forest Park Police Department, Park District, Community Center, and Library are collaborating to implement PBIS across the community. A Community-wide PBIS Leadership Team was put in place with members from each of the participating organizations. The mission of the team is to increase the safety and quality of life within the community by implementing and sustaining PBIS systems, data, and practices throughout Forest Park.

The community team has monthly meetings to review progress towards goals and next steps. Each of the community partners has designated an internal coach to lead their on-site PBIS implementation. Coaches meet monthly to coordinate their efforts.  The four community organizations and two schools were trained together in Tier 1 PBIS in June of 2010. All sites are developing systems for continuous teaching and reinforcement of behavioral expectations. Examples highlighting activities and outcomes for the Library, Park District, and a school are summarized here.

CUSD 300 in Carpentersville convened a district bully prevention task force, including the District Security Officer, administrators, PBIS external coaches, parents, and school staff. As they began to develop a plan, they decided to take advantage of the established PBIS structures to ensure a systemic multi-tiered approach to address bullying. The task force developed a district-level “map” that identifies how evidence-based bully prevention practices and data can be integrated into their current PBIS framework as part of the district’s overall Response to Intervention approach.

Friendship Junior High School in CCSD 59 reviewed their office discipline referrals (ODRs) for the 2009-10 school year and identified the need to address bullying behavior. The school PBIS team established a Bully Prevention subgroup to develop schoolwide strategies. In October 2010, instruction was delivered schoolwide using a student-developed video. Students and parents signed a bully prevention pledge and a phone message was sent to all parents conveying the expectations. Weekly updates about reductions in behavior related to bullying are provided during school announcements. An initial review of the data shows that ODRs for bullying behaviors have decreased from 1.21 ODRs per day in October to 0.63 ODRs per day in November. The PBIS team has also partnered with a community agency, Elk Grove Youth Services, to conduct youth outreach on bullying to sixth graders during physical education classes. 

Alton High School, in Alton CUSD 11, has an active PBIS secondary systems team working to create and refine Tier 2 interventions.  The team has developed a Check-in Check-out (CICO) system and defined their decision rules for entering, progress monitoring, and exiting students on CICO. When monitoring students’ response to the CICO intervention, attendance, discipline, and academic data are reviewed.  In November of 2010, Alton HS had 30 students on CICO.  Twenty-three of these students had decreased their number of tardies, 21 had decreased their ODRs, and 16 had decreased both tardies and ODRs.  Ten of the 30 students on CICO were meeting 80% of their daily progress points the majority of the time.  Although it is early to report, the results are encouraging and the PBIS team will continue to monitor the success of the intervention, making refinements as needed.

Alton High School Students Responding to CICO Intervention

The three high schools in Springfield SD 186 exemplify how Tier 1 fidelity can increase as Tier 2/Tier 3 structures are being developed.  Each of the schools has an active PBIS secondary systems team, which has begun using the Tier 2/Tier 3 Systems Guiding Questions tool to help them design, implement, and refine Tier 2 structures.  As the Tier 2 interventions were implemented and more students received support, a decrease in out of school suspensions (OSS) was observed.  The OSS rate from August through November for these Springfield high schools decreased by 44%, from 1,115 events in 2009-10 to 629 in 2010-11.  It is also noteworthy that the SET scores for teaching  expectations and overall Tier 1 implementation have increased over the last two years.  Teaching expectation scores have risen from an average of 50% to an average of 87%, and their overall score has increased from an average of 74% to 94%.

High Schools in Springfield SD 186 Two Year Comparison of OSS Events

In an effort to create a consistent community-level message on PBIS implementation, Forest Park SD 91, the Forest Park Library, and Park District have adopted the same set of behavioral expectations: Be Respectful, Be Safe, and Be Responsible. The continuous teaching and re-teaching of behavioral expectations community-wide is a key component of their efforts to date. The Forest Park community-wide PBIS implementation has already impacted multiple sites, and is scheduled to be implemented by additional agencies this year. The graph below shows the decreases in behavior incidents experienced by the Park District, Library, and Field Stevenson Elementary School, for August through November of 2009 compared to 2010.

Reductions in Behavior Incidents in Forest Park Community Sites

Positive Recognition Increases in Park District

By integrating PBIS into their existing before and after school care programs, the Park District in Forest Park has been able to effect a 50% decrease in instances of problem behavior. Instructing the behavioral expectations and using the reward system for appropriate behavior, has given youth a clear, consistent message on how they are expected to conduct themselves, not just in the Park District, but in the community as well.  

  
Library Benefits from Positive Cues

Since beginning PBIS implementation, the Forest Park Library has experienced a 60% drop in behavioral incidents. The staff uses positive language and role playing to teach clear and specific expected behaviors. A reward system for encouraging youth to demonstrate positive behavior has been established. Positive correction is used when youth display undesired behaviors.

  
Improved School Climate at Field Stevenson Elementary

Field Stevenson Elementary School has begun their second year of PBIS implementation and has recorded a 54% decrease in office discipline referrals (ODRs). From August to November of 2009-10, there were 61 ODRs, and for the same period in 2010-11 there were only 28 ODRs. The school PBIS team attributes these improvements to the staff having a greater understanding of the importance of teaching and re-teaching expectations.

Sandburg Elementary School, Springfield District 186, has been addressing student needs through PBIS since 2001. They have had eight years of documented fidelity at the universal level on the School-wide Evaluation Tool (SET). Outcomes include progressive success meeting or exceeding state and district standards on the Illinois State Achievement Test (ISAT). Sandburg has also recently implemented a Tier 2/Secondary system, with individualized goals for all students in Check-in Check-out (CICO). Additionally, the school is receiving Tier 2 training from district level external coaches.

In their third year of PBIS implementation, the team at Lombard Middle School, Galesburg CUSD 205, scored a 92 on the Benchmarks of Quality (BoQ), indicating full implementation of PBIS at Tier 1.  The school saw an 18% decrease in ODRs over the last two years.   In addition, Lombard has blended initiatives such as Social Emotional Learning (SEL), with the PBIS and academic components of Response to Intervention (RtI). In 2009, the school made Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) on the Illinois State Achievement Test (ISAT) for the first time since 2004. Principal Neal Thompson explained that when PBIS was implemented, “We had time to do the work we needed for our students [. . .] and we are still analyzing data and surveying staff to make improvements.” The administration has restructured the school schedule to allow time for Social/Academic Instruction Groups and enrichment interventions based on ODR, attendance, and academic scores of students.

Winston Churchill Elementary School, Homewood School District 153, began to see decreasing disproportionality related to African American students in the fall of 2009.  The 16 students enrolled in Check-in Check-out (CICO) benefitted greatly from the positive adult contact and recognition.  “We saw the connection some kids made with adults in their daily check-in and out, and  it encouraged them.  The one-on-one relationships with staff were critical,” said Assistant Principal Tonya Morris of the school’s success in implementing CICO. As a result of Churchill’s emerging Tier 2 supports, office discipline referrals (ODRs) for African American students fell, decreasing the gap between percentage of students enrolled and percentage of ODRs.  

Aware of the proportion of Hispanic/Latino students receiving large numbers of ODRs in the 2006-07 school year, Algonquin Middle School, CUSD 300, strengthened Tier 2 interventions for identified students and also took steps to increase attendance. By the 2008-09 school year, attendance for Hispanic/Latino students was up to 97%, 4% higher than the prior year, and honor roll status went from 29% to 52% for Hispanic/Latino students. Principal Peggy Thurow credits the success to PBIS team members’ focus on the data and willingness to discuss topics outside their comfort levels. All students also benefitted from the reduced use of punitive consequences. Overall, out of school suspension (OSS) events were reduced 46% from 54 in the  2006-07 school year to 24 in 2008-09.