Sistema Compton

If you teach in a traditional school setting, although you may not have access to the benefi ts associated with PBIS data systems or the array of collaborative options of Tier 2 approaches commonly available in PBIS schools, all is not lost! You will likely base the identifi cation of students in your classroom who appear in need of targeted inter-vention and support on your intuitive sense for how your students are responding to your approach to classroom management. Although obviously your use of intuition may not be as reliable as documented discipline referrals, use of your intuitive sense may serve as your most acces-sible form of information to inform your practice in your

classroom (at least to start). The bottom line is that as a teacher you can only use what you have access to at that moment in time, so use to the best of your ability the information that is available. By way of these com-ments I am not suggesting that it is not possible to have an array of targeted interventions and supports available at your school building. My experience sug-gests that most traditional schools have, in their own way, at least some array of options. In fact many schools have an array of well- intended initiatives in place. Unfortunately, without proper organization such initiatives, despite good intent and resources, commonly can appear disjointed and diffi cult to access. Often frontline folks, such as you as the classroom teacher, are left to try to navigate the array of available resources without a clear and explicit protocol that is organized into a multitiered framework.

Furthermore, often the focal point of Tier 2 strategies in more traditional schools tends to refl ect you as the classroom teacher taking on more and more responsibility in isolation to address your par-ticular student of concern’s needs, which may require Herculean efforts on your part (and thus may not be sustainable over time). To be clear, I am not suggesting that continued overreli-ance on you as the teacher taking on increasing degrees of workload is by design in most tradi-tional schools. Rather, it simply can become the practical result (despite intentions to the contrary) when a coherent multitiered organization of intervention and supports is lacking.

One initial Tier 2 approach worth exploration in your classroom is an adaptation of the use of DPRs from the Behavior Education Program (Check-In, Check-Out [CICO]). I suggest starting with an adaptation of this

So What Else Can I Do? 87

approach, as it provides you, as the classroom teacher, with a form of targeted intervention that is within your direct reach (or ability to

implement). In other words, should you fi nd yourself need-ing to explore Tier 2 approaches devoid of a formal MTSS at your school, adaption of DPRs may prove to be a reasonably effi -cient place to start. To help keep things clear and to distinguish DPRs associated with CICO from the adapted application I

am suggesting, I will refer to this adapted approach as behavior progress reports (BPRs). For your convenience, reproducible BPRs are in the Appendix and online. You will need to target what you believe to be a reasonable time interval for use of this adapted approach. DPRs asso-ciated with CICO (as indicated in the name) refl ect the student’s behavior based on a daily time frame. However, there are typically multiple measures that occur with CICO within a given school day as the student goes from class to class between the check- in and check- out ses-sions (e.g., three measures in the morning and three in the afternoon, plus the lunch period, resulting in seven measures in a given day). Of course application of CICO requires an infrastructure of coordination that comes with MTSS (e.g., PBIS), as multiple staff may be involved in the process along with the student of concern. Thus you will want to start by identifying what you feel to be a manageable time interval for measures as you apply your BPRs in your classroom with the student of concern.

For example, you may want to start with fewer measures in a given day and, in turn, debrief with your student of concern on a scheduled basis that you can consistently employ (e.g., in a second- grade classroom perhaps one

morning and one afternoon measure per day and meeting to review progress once or twice per week). To be clear, I am not suggesting that such an adapted approach will be as precise, effective, or effi cient as systematic application of DPRs within CICO. Rather, the use of BPRs as described may provide you with a logical place to start in the event that you do not have access to additional supports to run high- fi delity CICO. Applying BPRs as described will pro-vide you with an approach that refl ects increased progress monitoring with your student of concern. You, of course, may adjust the frequency of measures and debriefi ng ses-sions as appropriate based on student progress (or lack of a suffi cient rate of progress) as well as other factors in your classroom (e.g., sustainability of your data collection in tandem with interventions and supports). Also, of great importance is that you remember that you are encouraged to continue application of Tier 1 strategies as described in previous chapters in tandem with layering on your use of BPRs as needed.

In the event that your student of concern does not suffi ciently respond to your use of BPRs you may need to consider a more comprehensive approach to behavior

contracting with the student of concern. There are two important concepts to keep in mind when developing a behavior contract. First, the primary goal of a behavior contract is to

see suffi cient improvement in behavior so that you can wean the student off the

con-tract within a reasonable amount of time.

Second, at its very core, a behavior con-tract is nothing more than a systematic, student- centered way of further defi ning behavioral expectations and increasing the like-lihood of being able to catch your student doing things the correct way. An effective student- centered contract should enable you to reinforce the student for desired

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behavior at a more suffi cient rate based on his perfor-mance. (Thus behavior contracts are consistent with the principle of reinforcement that

I emphasized in Chapter 6.) This is typically accomplished by further operationally defi n-ing the same behavioral expec-tations that you have for all your students while also estab-lishing a clear criterion for performance within a reason-able (typically shorter) time interval for that given student.

In short, an effective behavior

contract has more to do with reinforcement procedures for appropriate behavior than it has to do with negative con-sequences (given, of course, that you select meaningful reinforcement procedures for the student in question). An example of a behavior contract is provided in the Appen-dix for your review.

Beyond use of BPRs and behavior contracts, it is cer-tainly appropriate to consider the use of some form of mentor program as previously described with the particu-lar student of concern. In fact, the power of noncontingent reinforcement and attention (e.g., personal greetings) serves as a building block in building rapport. Connect-ing the student with an adult of his or her preference to provide periodic support and guidance can help reduce problem behavior (e.g., if the mentor is available daily at school the student could periodically touch base with his or her mentor each day). Mentoring programs may be used in tandem with BPRs as well as behavior contracting.

Obviously there are clear advantages to you as a teacher to accessing existent resources at your school to support your endeavors in applying targeted interven-tions and supports. Likewise, your use of evidenced- based

A behavior contract is nothing more than a way of defi ning behavioral expectations and increasing the likelihood of being able to catch students doing things the correct way.

instructional practices that help prevent problem behavior is also part of the ebb and fl ow in an effective classroom (e.g., student choice of task sequence when appropriate, task variation, varying task diffi culty). In my experiences PBIS schools that have schoolwide organization of MTSS tend to have greater natural capacity to support teach-ers in meeting the needs of students in need of Tier 2 (as well as Tier 3) approaches. In light of this reality, I highly encourage you to concurrently engage colleagues at your school in discussions about establishing MTSS (e.g., PBIS).

Although there is rarely a convenient time to initiate these types of conversations during a school year, I believe it is essential to have these discussions in order to build such capacity in your school system. I have provided some guid-ance for your consideration for initiating such discussions with your colleagues in the Appendix.

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So What if Everything I Have