Once the planning process is complete it is time to implement your Positive School Discipline plan. This module describes the important considerations for effective implementation and monitoring of the plan.
Implementation involves much more than just rolling out your action plan. Implementation involves changing old ways of doing things.
"Changing old ways of doing things" is easy to say, but it's not easy to do. People are often resistant to making change.
Think how difficult it is for most people to change personal habits to live a more healthy lifestyle. You may be asking for that same magnitude of change from people in your school and community.
To help people make change successfully, it will help to remember a few principles.
Click each statement below to learn more.
Change requires ongoing support and resources and it takes time. Sometimes we get discouraged when we don't see immediate results.
Michael Fullan, a leader in educational reform, notes that the process of implementing change is often most difficult in the first six months no matter how well you plan. It is important to have realistic expectations about the time it will take to see significant progress and to make sure other stakeholders in the community understand that as well.
The best program in the world won't succeed unless the people who are implementing it are ready and willing to make it a success. However, individual change is difficult if the organization is not supportive of the change.
Therefore, as a leader you need to pay attention to individual implementer's needs and concerns as well as to work with key stakeholders in the community to integrate the district's policies, programs, and practices into the system.
You can't expect everyone to be ready at the same time to implement a change initiative. Some people need more information to be convinced. Some need more training to feel prepared.
In his book, Diffusion of Innovation, Everett Rogers has identified characteristics of five categories of "adopter types," based on the way people respond to a planned change. View the Process of Change document under the Resources section of this page, to read more about each adopter type.
Concerns change as people become more skilled in implementing the initiative. The Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM) outlines seven stages of concern that implementers may experience.
For example, if you recognize that someone is still struggling to understand what you are proposing, you can find additional ways to present information about the new initiative. You might have someone who is using it in another community or agency talk about his or her experience.
If others are challenged by implementing the initiative for themselves, ask someone who is farther in the process to help someone facing challenges.
You will need to notice when people's concerns change. For example, once someone begins using a program, he or she might need further suggestions about how to use the materials, even if that person had been trained prior to implementation. Or, implementers might need opportunities to get together and share their experiences and learn from one another.
Always keep the larger system in mind since a change in one part of the system could have effects in another. Before you implement an initiative or program, think about its possible impact on other individuals and parts of the community.
Research has found that adopters go through predictable and sequenced stages of concerns about making changes when implementing new programs and practices. These concerns are described in the Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM).
Roll over each person or stage of concern to see which concerns match which part of the Concerns-Based Adoption Model.
"Our department would like to implement some strategies that we think might allow us to get even better results with our classroom management."
"I think I could benefit from finding out what strategies others are using that are working. It still takes a lot of my time even though I have to admit things are getting better in the school."
"O.K., since we have been using this new approach and consuming all of these resources, are things all that much different? I need to see the data to know that it's worth it."
"I'm not sure I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing. I could use some help from someone who knows what's supposed to be happening."
"This is just one more thing to pile on top of what the administration is already asking me to do. I don't want to take time out of class for this stuff. If they are going to subject me to more training, they had better pay me."
"I guess the data does indicate an imbalance of minority students receiving discipline, but I think that's someone else's issue. I need more information about what this Positive School Discipline approach is to be convinced."
"I'm not sure what everyone is concerned about. I don't see any problems with discipline here at Castle Hill."
Effective implementation involves addressing implementers' concerns with appropriate strategies so that they can feel competent and comfortable with the change. People can be in more than one stage of concern at a time. You need multiple strategies to address varying concerns. Not addressing concerns can result in resistance to changes.
Click each person or stage of concern to see what strategies you can use to overcome these concerns.
"Our department would like to implement some strategies that we think might allow us to get even better results with our classroom management."
"I think I could benefit from finding out what strategies others are using that are working. It still takes a lot of my time even though I have to admit things are getting better in the school."
"O.K., since we have been using this new approach and consuming all of these resources, are things all that much different? I need to see the data to know that it's worth it."
"I'm not sure I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing. I could use some help from someone who knows what's supposed to be happening."
Provide implementers with ongoing professional development and support, such as:
"This is just one more thing to pile on top of what the administration is already asking me to do. I don't want to take time out of class for this stuff. If they are going to subject me to more training, they had better pay me."
"I guess the data does indicate an imbalance of minority students receiving discipline, but I think that's someone else's issue. I need more information about what this Positive School Discipline approach is to be convinced."
"I'm not sure what everyone is concerned about. I don't see any problems with discipline here at Castle Hill."
You can learn from the success of others. See how districts have addressed adopter's concerns by getting buy-in and preparing for and supporting implementation of programs and practices.
Click the cities below to read real success stories.
The Eudora Public Schools SS/HS Initiative implements PBIS schoolwide. The district provides various levels of training, including team training for each school building at least twice a year. Coaches meet monthly with the PBIS coordinator for additional staff development and problem-solving and to promote districtwide consistency. Most schools devote time to PBIS during their monthly staff in-service day. A district leadership team meets quarterly to monitor implementation and address districtwide needs.
The SS/HS Initiative regularly presents data on implementation fidelity and program effectiveness, which helps the district identify ongoing needs for staff development-for example, staff development for principals to help them understand the need to link students to mental health assessment, services, and/or skill-building when behavioral issues are severe or chronic.
Additional training is required to ensure that PBIS is implemented with fidelity and that decisions are driven by the data. To meet these needs, some staff have been trained and certified in the School-Wide Information System, a behavior collection system used in conjunction with PBIS; the School Evaluation Tool, which evaluates the integrity of universal-level implementation of PBIS; and the Teaching Pyramid Observation Tool, which checks the fidelity of practices.
In the Newport-Mesa Unified School District, a large and diverse district in Orange County, tracking data and communicating the success of its programs for parents of older children has allowed the SS/HS Initiative to expand its parenting programs to parents of children in elementary school and preschool, addressing behavioral issues before they become more critical and interfere with children's academic success. In addition, the district implemented a software system that tracks students' progress in real time; the system monitors student behavior, attendance, and academic outcomes to quickly identify students and families who need support.
Instead of having to intervene to address problems as they arise, the district can now focus on promoting positive behaviors and preventing risk behaviors in a culturally competent manner.
The Franklin Special School District in Tennessee began using the evidence-based program, Incredible Years, at its therapeutic preschool for children who have behavioral issues. Incredible Years is a pro-social type of curriculum that helps children think about their behavior and learn self-control.
After students who experienced the Incredible Years program at the preschool started doing much better when they went to other preschools and to kindergarten and first grade, other teachers became interested and asked to attend the professional development sessions. Getting their buy-in happened naturally.
The Escondido Unified School District SS/HS Initiative, CARE Youth Project (CYP), is a comprehensive approach that includes Early Childhood readiness training for providers, integrates the PBIS preventive schoolwide and classroom system of supports, provides an anti-aggression/pro-social skills program for selected middle school students, and implements ATOD and bullying prevention programs.
Comprehensive Student Assistance Teams (CSAT)-multidisciplinary teams of professionals-identify at-risk and high-risk students in need of behavioral, social, and emotional supports, and create intervention plans that link students to the appropriate interventions (e.g., counseling, mentoring, anger management, and mental health services).
Each CYP program is supported by various levels of training:
How do you know if Positive School Discipline strategies are working?
It is essential to use data to monitor implementation. There are two major types of evaluations: process evaluation and outcome evaluation. Both are critical to effective implementation and monitoring of programs and practices. Additionally, there are two main types of data that are used in process and outcome evaluations: qualitative data and quantitative data.
Click below to learn more about the types evaluations and data.
Was your program, policy, or practice implemented as planned? Was the target population reached? For example, do your benchmark indicators show that you are implementing well?
Quantitative data are generally counted or assigned a number and are often used to measure the amount of change as a result of program participation.
Qualitative data include information from interviews, focus groups, written documents, observations, and open-ended survey questions.
Can you determine which measures are the most important process indicators to track the success of a particular action step?
One of your Action Steps was to conduct professional development for teachers and instructional aides on Culturally Responsive Classroom Management through afterschool sessions and Professional Leaning Community (PLC) formats.
Which measures will you pay attention to? Click all that apply, then click Submit.
| Selection A | Selection B | Selection C | Selection D | Selection E | Selection F | Selection G | Selection H | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Select All That Apply | 85% of teachers said they gained knowledge and skills from the training | Training materials distributed for Culturally Responsive Classroom Management | Professional Learning Committee (PLC) meeting minutes from the training indicating focused discussions on Culturally Responsive Classroom Management | Multicultural posters are now displayed throughout the campus | Instructional staff evaluations during the training | School-wide observance of cultural events such as Black History Month and Cinco de Mayo are planned | Classroom observations documenting skillful use of effective classroom management | The amount from the Positive School Discipline budget spent on professional development |
| Correct Answers | 85% of teachers said they gained knowledge and skills from the training | Professional Learning Committee (PLC) meeting minutes from the training indicating focused discussions on Culturally Responsive Classroom Management | Instructional staff evaluations during the training | Classroom observations documenting skillful use of effective classroom management | ||||
| Incorrect Feedback |
Not quite. Click Close to see which measures you should have selected. Then, click each measure to learn why it is or is not a good indicator of success. |
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| Correct Feedback |
You've done a good job differentiating between data that indicate success and data that report extraneous facts. Now, click each measure to learn why it is or is not a good indicator of success. |
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| Individual Feedback | This is a good indicator. Knowing that teachers have gained knowledge and skills from the training indicates that the training was done well. | This is not a good indicator. Distribution does not constitute professional development. There's no way to ensure that the materials were actually used. | This is a good indicator. Focused, on-topic discussions indicate that the professional development was successful in stimulating teachers' interest in culturally responsive classroom management. | This is not a good indicator. Displaying posters does not have any bearing on what takes place in a classroom or teacher behavior, or any other indicators of whether the professional development was successful. | This is a good indicator. Structured classroom observations can provide a great deal of information regarding whether the professional development was successful in building new learning and skills. | This is not a good indicator. While these observances may raise awareness of culture, they have no relationship to classroom management and whether the professional development was successful. | This is a good indicator. Frequent classroom observations (walkthroughs) can provide a great deal of data on teacher practice that includes whether new information and skills were acquired from the professional development as well as areas in need of additional training and support. | This is not a good indicator. While knowing the amount spent on the professional development will help you calculate the cost-benefit of providing the professional development, it doesn't give you any information about whether the professional development was delivered in its entirety or whether it was done well. |
If implementation is not working as planned and appropriate process indicators are not being met, consider these questions:
Blame the process, not the people. Make sure the infrastructure is in place to support effective implementation.
Despite your program's best efforts, you are likely to face resistance at some point. Remember, resistance may reflect legitimate concerns or needs of staff, community partners, students, and families that are not being met through staff development, support, logistics, or clear communication.
Resistance may be evident in people's behavior, for example, not attending meetings, not following through on assigned tasks, or criticizing the program and undermining support.
Click the cities below to read real stories about how the implementation of a program was instrumental in overcoming resistance and concerns.
The Anaheim City School District found that piloting the Second Step program on a small scale, demonstrating its success among the school population, and spreading the word to other district schools and staff made it easier to build support and a sense of ownership for the new program and to overcome resistance.
According to an Anaheim school official: "We piloted [Second Step] at two of our schools . . . the teachers were happy with the program . . . had wonderful things to say . . . 'Wow, this does really work, and I can continue teaching instead of [having] to stop for discipline issues.' When other teachers see what a success the program is and that it isn't as difficult as they thought, they understand the benefits of the program to kids and also to the teachers in creating better classrooms."
The Pueblo City Schools SS/HS Initiative used its database to determine and demonstrate the effectiveness of PBIS. For example, in the 25 schools implementing PBIS at 80% fidelity, office referrals decreased by almost 38%. In contrast, schools that were not implementing PBIS with high fidelity had office referrals at the same or greater rates than before program implementation.
SS/HS staff translated the cost of office referrals into loss of student classroom time. They calculated that the average office referral results in approximately 30-45 minutes of student time out of class. Since the effective implementation of PBIS reduced office referrals by 38%, the SS/HS Initiative can calculate and communicate to other staff how many extra minutes of student classroom time are gained by effective implementation of PBIS.
In the Allamakee Community School District, a rural SS/HS site, very few families were accessing mental health services. The SS/HS Initiative's goal was to de-stigmatize these services.
The initiative launched a campaign using data showing that students with attendance and discipline problems who received mental health services did better in school than students who didn't receive these services.
Once the word got out, the number of mental health referrals soared. The campaign increased the acceptability of getting services and provided ways for family to more easily access services.
At the inception of a multi-school district SS/HS Initiative in Bradley County, four Behavioral Intervention/Prevention Specialists (BIPS) were hired to assist classroom teachers in handling disruptive student behaviors. The BIPS conducted observations in the classrooms where teachers were concerned about disruptive behaviors, talked with the teachers, and often followed up with parents. If it was determined that a student's disruptive behaviors were based on social emotional issues, the student was referred to a school-based mental health counselor.
In planning for sustainability of the BIPS, the SS/HS project director proposed to the county Boards of Education and Directors of Schools that the BIPS be called Learning Support Specialists.
This new title lessened the stigma of receiving help for families and sent a clear message to parents, teachers, and administrators that the district was serious about addressing learning barriers that hinder students' academic achievement. All four renamed positions were sustained in both districts.
Another potential challenge during implementation is that key community partners from different systems (e.g., schools, mental health, law enforcement, juvenile justice, child welfare) do not share pertinent data that could better assist the children and youth with discipline-related problems.
Click the police officer and the probation officer to read about the potential reasons for a lack of information-sharing.
Confidentiality concerns can occur when caution or legal requirements cause an agency to withhold information because of a lack of understanding about or clear procedures for sharing information under HIPAA and FERPA laws.
Lack of trust and understanding between agencies can result in turf war when an agency feels territorial about its data.
Since information sharing is a crucial component for ensuring positive student outcomes in a multipronged Positive School Discipline approach, all of the partner agencies need to work together to find a way to make relevant information available to each other.
To learn more about addressing information-sharing challenges and to practice navigating different information-sharing situations, visit our Information-Sharing website.
Click Next to read a real story about partner involvement.
The Santa Fe Public Schools SS/HS Initiative found that its involvement with Santa Fe Regional Juvenile Justice and its SS/HS partners-the police department, local mental health agencies, the Juvenile Probation/Parole Office, and the Children, Youth, and Families Department-had the most significant impact on discipline. Together the partners reviewed a body of cases involving students who had at least two juvenile arrests and a history of runaway.
Working together on a weekly basis with a case manager, partners combined their resources to support the identified students. In the process, which included site visits to the Detention Center and runaway youth shelters, they learned how each of the different systems worked, how their vocabulary was different, and how to work together for prevention rather than punishment.
Despite the challenges, using the comprehensive Positive School Discipline Framework can help schools and districts to address them and create real change.
The outcomes for children, youth, and families are significant, long-lasting, and sustainable. See the difference in the foreseeable future for the Castle Hill School District.
Click the newsstand to read the latest headline about the changes in Castle Hill.
The State Education Agency has recognized Castle Hill School District for the dramatic turnaround in its discipline data. Following last year's critical report citing excessive numbers of suspensions of African American, Hispanic, and non-English-speaking students, the district embarked on an aggressive plan to address all discipline-related areas of concern. The district credits its success to a proven framework for change that includes three distinct stages Partner-Plan-Act and a multipronged strategy approach.
Castle Hill Principal Jackson, who spearheaded these efforts, says, "Early on, we recognized that this was more than just a school issue; we needed our entire community to be involved. The partnerships we were able to build made all the difference."
Data collected indicate that the new discipline policies and practices have had a major impact. The district has reduced the number of out-of-school suspensions by 50% for the current school year, while also reducing the gap (disproportionality) between the rate of minority and white suspensions to less than 5%. The superintendent cites additional positive indicators that appear to be linked to this community effort:
(Continued from Page 1) "We have seen a dramatic drop in office referrals across the district, a 5% increase in average daily attendance, and a significant reduction in teacher turnover." Additionally, he notes that recent school climate survey results indicate that students, parents, and teachers, for the first time, all gave positive ratings in every major category.
According to a State Education Agency spokesperson, "This is a tremendous example of a community working with their schools to improve the quality of education for their children."
Everyone from the police to the local realtor has something to say about the article and what's happening with the kids in the community.
Click each building to learn what people are saying. Can you identify any common concerns?
Everyone from the police to the local realtor has something to say about the article and what's happening with the kids in the community.
Click each building to learn what people are saying. Can you identify any common concerns?
"We're definitely seeing fewer kids out on the street during school hours so we're spending a lot less time and money tracking kids down and getting them back in school."
"Positive School Discipline is really working well. I see far fewer students entering the Juvenile Justice System, and our recidivism rate is much lower."
"Now that the schools are doing so much better, more people want to move into Castle Hill School District and housing prices are higher."
"Finding qualified workers is so much easier now that Castle Hill graduates have better social skills for interacting with customers, a more responsible work ethic, and good problem solving skills."
"We still have a way to go to get all the funding we need, but as a result of the Positive School Discipline program we're shining a light on the health issues of families in crisis."
"The restorative discipline methods are already making a noticeable difference. I'm seeing a lot fewer parents who still have to worry about where their kids are during the school day. Now they know where the kids are; they're in class!"
"I want to thank you all for your hard work and dedication to our kids. Positive School Discipline really is making a difference and I believe that things are only going to continue to get better. Since implementing our positive school discipline policies and practices, our students are doing so much better academically."
"I can't believe the way I was running my classroom. No wonder we were all miserable. During our last professional development day, I learned how to create a more collaborative classroom and have gotten a lot of support from our PLC. My students are really responding differently. I'm so grateful for this chance to rediscover my love for teaching."
"It took some time for me to change the way I thought about the 'problem' kids. I didn't realize that some of my them had mental health needs that weren't being addressed. Now that they have received services, they are doing much better in class."
"The difference in my son has been amazing. He's actually taking an interest in his classes and he complains a whole lot less about everything."
The Castle Hill School District's success is not just a fantasy. Districts that have implemented comprehensive Positive School Discipline have created safe and supportive learning environments and seen significant increases in student achievement. Click here to explore the Gallery of Real Stories page.
The tools and information from this course, and additional resources, can be used to develop your own district's Positive School Discipline approach.
Here are some resources and tools for bringing Positive School Discipline back to your own school district:
Congratulations! You have completed the Positive School Discipline course.
Please come back to the course any time you want to review strategies or just feel more encouraged in your work toward Positive School Discipline.