Wenatchee School District Board Meeting - Citizen Comment
Good evening. My name is Jennifer Talbot. I have six children and have been a parent in the Wenatchee School District for 14 years. I am currently the leader of a group of parents, students, staff, and community members concerned about the impact of Make Your Day.
Over two years ago, the School Board was asked to consider an alternative to Make Your Day[i]. During that time, a model called Positive Behavior Interventions & Support or PBIS was introduced to the School District[ii].
How do PBIS and Make Your Day compare?
These are the similarities:
Both have a common goal of reducing disruptive classroom behavior, the number of office referrals, and the number of suspensions at a school.
In order for a PBIS model or the Make Your Day program to be successful, parents, staff, and students need to support it and receive effective training.
These are the differences:
PBIS is a model formulated by a collective effort of research and by education and behavior scholars. PBIS is evidence based and sites over 130 research publications dated from 1983 to 2009.[iv] Make Your Day is a packaged program formulated by teacher, Earl Brown. Make Your Day sites one unpublished doctoral dissertation written in 1990, one overview of research written in 2003, and one evaluation report produced in 2006.[v]
PBIS uses Pyramid Response to Interventions or (RTI) and the Positive Behavior Support (PBS) elements: Outcomes, Practices, Data, and Systems. An RTI and/or PBS model is already being implemented in our District's special education[vi], high school PAWS program[vii], Pioneer Middle School Six Day Project[viii], District Improvement plan[ix], and learning targets & language objectives[x]. In other words, our staff and administration are familiar with this evidence based practice and its results. Make Your Day uses two basic methods that require extensive staff training to implement correctly and lacks extensive research and evidence of their effectiveness.
PBIS is acknowledged and supported by the United States Department of Education and the Washington State Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction. The National Technical Assistance Center on PBIS is a collaboration between the United States Department of Education and 11 technical assistance units across our nation. The National Technical Center on PBIS provides everything from training, program development, and technical assistance[xi]. PBIS has a large network of support available at national, state, and local levels[xii]. Make Your Day makes no claim to any of these networks or supports.
I have researched and studied the debate over the past three years. My observation is that our teachers, administrators, parents, and students share a common goal - a behavior program that is effective, supports academic achievement, is consistent among teachers within a school and schools within the district, and meets the needs of all learners. I believe as do many others in our community that PBIS is conducive to achieving these goals. I am lobbying the School District to take action this spring towards replacing or altering our Make Your Day program with a PBIS model.
In recent years, our School District has been earning a B average grade for behavior management in our schools. We have the opportunity to strive for an A+ through education on the merits of PBIS.
On Monday, March 12 at 7 p.m. at the Wenatchee Community Center, our Time for Change group is hosting a public information meeting -Positive Behavior Support for our Schools. I am publicity extending an invitation to our School Board members and School District staff to attend and support this meeting.
Jennifer Talbot
CC:
Brian Flones, Superintendent
Gary Callison, Board president
Jesus Hernandez, Board member
Kevin Gilbert, Board member
Dr. Walter Newman, Board member
Laura Jaecks, Board member
[i] Wenatchee School Board Minutes, 25 May 2010
[ii] Wenatchee School Board Minutes, 12 June 2011 & Lewis & Clark PTA Board
[iii] www.makeyerday.com
[iv] www.pbis.org
[v] www.makeyerday.com & makeyourdayparents.com
[vi] Wenatchee School Board Minutes, 11 May 2010
[vii] Wenatchee School Board Minutes, 8 June 2010
[viii] Wenatchee School Board Minutes, 13 April 2010
[ix] Wenatchee School Board Minutes, 9 March 2010
[x] Wenatchee School Board Minutes, 24 November 2009
[xi] www.pbis.org
[xii] NorthWest PBIS
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