Mansfield City wins districtwide honor for PBIS implementation

MANSFIELD — For some students, getting through the school day is a challenge.

Suzanna Grubaugh has seen it first-hand. Grubaugh is a middle school teacher with Tyger Digital Academy, a hybrid learning option for students in Mansfield City Schools.

She’s also a member of the district’s PBIS team.

Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) is an approach to student behavior that focuses on a variety of strategies.

Most strategies, like positive reinforcement and PBIS points, apply to all students (Tier I). Students who need extra support may receive Tier II or even Tier III interventions.

During a recent meeting of the PBIS team, teachers from across the district discussed the ways PBIS had impacted their students and classrooms.

Grubaugh recalled the pride she felt watching a student shift his behavior over the course of the school year.

As a Tier II student, the boy had received multiple disciplinary referrals and was considered “at risk” for dangerous behaviors.

Grubaugh said he struggled to get through class without acting out, but he had a goal. He wanted to earn enough points to “buy” the top item in the school’s PBIS store.

No matter what grade level, students earn PBIS points based on how well they embody five standards — respectful, responsible, ready, safe and proud. The points are tracked on an app that students can access on their school-issued Chromebooks.

Students can spend those points on little things, like candy or fidget toys. They can also save them up for big-ticket items like school supplies, toys, ear buds or game controllers.

Grubaugh’s student had his eyes on the most “expensive” item — a tablet.

“There were days when he was like, ‘I’m not gonna make it. I just can’t do it,'” she recalled.

Grubaugh continued to tell him he could. By the end of the school year, he did.

“He worked really, really hard,” Grubaugh said. “He had days that he went backwards, but every little step backwards, it was two forward. He got there.”

Mansfield City gets gold award

Mansfield City Schools recently received districtwide recognition for its PBIS system from the Ohio Department of Education & Workforce.

Olivia Siegfried, a PBIS coach with State Support Team Region 7, said Mansfield City is the first district in the ten-county region to receive a District Recognition Award.

But Mansfield’s program hasn’t always run so smoothly. An excerpt’s from the district’s PBIS award application sums it up best:

“With eight separate schools within our district (Preschool – 12th Grade), we had eight different ways to implement PBIS and none of them were very effective,” a summary statement reads.

Behavior analyst Dahni Reynolds, who leads the district’s PBIS team, said building-level teams now approach PBIS with common procedures, team member roles, agendas, forms and data collection processes.

“I would say what made the biggest difference for PBIS implementation for the district was the creation of a district-level team, coaching from SST7 (Olivia Siegfried) and defining specific roles for building team members that are consistent across the district,” she said.

High school English teacher Elizabeth Donahue said support from district administrators is another big reason why Mansfield City’s PBIS framework works.

“You have to have the support of your higher-ups in your district to be able to make the great things happen in your building,” she said.

“People are still in the education world acting as if (PBIS) is some new crazy thing. It’s just now becoming a point of emphasis. I think it’s really awesome that Mansfield City Schools are at the forefront.”

Teachers say PBIS reduces exclusionary discipline

The point store may be the most immediate, tangible manifestation of PBIS, but teachers say PBIS is much more. It’s an evidence-based framework designed to tackle one of the most pressing issues educators face — student behavior.

Approaches like PBIS and restorative justice have grown more prominent in schools across the country.

They stand in stark contrast to the “zero tolerance” polices of the early 2000s, which educators and experts say hurt academic achievement and disproportionately affected students of color.

In contrast, proponents of PBIS say it promotes healthy behaviors and a positive school culture.

“The fundamental purpose of PBIS is to make sure schools are an effective and equitable learning environment,” Siegfried said.

“Making an environment that’s consistent, making sure it’s safe and making sure it’s positive — that’s really the grounding of where you start your PBIS implementation.”

According to the Ohio Department of Education & Workforce, implementing PBIS leads to reductions in office disciplinary referrals, in-school suspensions and out-of-school suspensions, which means students spend more time in the classroom.

Educators on the PBIS team say exclusionary discipline, which removes students from the classroom environment, isn’t really an effective way to address behavior problems anyway.

“For students who are suspended, they’re suspended and we expect them to come back fixed or different, but we’re not providing them any type of instruction or reteaching or modeling or support,” Reynolds said.

A state mandated model

Ohio law has required public schools to have a PBIS system in place for nearly a decade. Nevertheless, Siegfried said some districts implement the system more thoroughly than others.

At Mansfield City, the district’s enthusiastic PBIS team said they’re seeing the framework pay off.

Exclusionary discipline has dramatically decreased.

Data is sparse from COVID-19 school years, when students spent much of their time learning in a remote setting. But the difference between the 2018-2019 and 2022-2023 school years is significant.

Emergency removal incidents dropped more than 80 percent, according to data provided by the district.

Classroom removals incidents dropped by almost 58 percent.

Out-of-school suspensions decreased by nearly half.

Teaching and reteaching positive behavior

Members of the district’s PBIS team say success starts with clearly outlining expectations and highlighting positive behavior.

That often means pointing out students who are behaving well.

Grubaugh said positive attention is a motivator for students, even if older ones don’t want to admit it.

“When people are acting up, if you start saying, ‘I like how Liz is sitting quietly and paying attention,’ then all of a sudden, it’s like, ‘Oh, I want to be that kid,'” she explained. “It’s a really great tool to have as a teacher.”

Highlighting the good can be a way to redirect a classroom while keeping the environment positive — which benefits teachers as well.

“It helps keep me sane,” said Josie Burns, a teacher at Mansfield Spanish Immersion. “I feel like I’m less grouchy and grumpy if I make a conscious effort to focus on those things.”

Teaching students what positive behavior is is another core component of PBIS.

“It’s getting past that idea of, ‘They should know,'” Burns said. “They’re showing us that they don’t, so we’re going to meet them where they are.”

“Just because they should know really doesn’t mean anything,” Burns continued. “I should eat five servings of vegetables every day. I should be working out. I should be drinking more water.

“We all need reminders of the things that we should do.”

Positive referrals

While students can earn PBIS points by meeting expectations, they can also earn referrals by exceeding them.

Positive referrals are notes from a teacher recognizing a job well done. Students can see these referrals on their Chromebooks. They’re also sent home to a student’s parents or guardians.

Donahue said she thinks these referrals may have an even bigger impact on students because it helps them feel seen and appreciated by an adult.

“They just crave that positive interaction with their teachers,” she said. “Everyone wants recognition. And if you say that you don’t, you want at least some type of positivity. Everybody likes to feel like they have a spot in your classroom and in the world in general.”

Diving into data

Data collection and analysis is another big part of Mansfield City’s PBIS initiative.

Once a month, building PBIS teams meet and analyze student discipline, attendance and suspension data.

If the data shows behaviors aren’t improving month over month, the teams start thinking about what they can do to support students.

That may mean spending more time instructing kids on certain behavior. It could also involve examining teachers’ own biases.

“We look at the different demographics so that we can make sure that we are being equitable,” Burns said.

She lift one hand to her shoulder and another above her head.

“If this much of your enrollment is boys and this much of your negative referrals are being given to boys, then we’re most likely being too hard on the boys.”

Teachers can also look at individual student data and see trends. If a student behaves particularly well in one class, colleagues can ask that teacher for tips on interacting with that child.

“It helps us to collaborate as teachers too and and help the student as best we can,” Grubaugh said.

Burns said having individual student data can also help with objectivity and demonstrating progress or challenges to parents and guardians.

“Is it extra work? Yes,” she said. “Is the benefit for you as a teacher completely worth it? Also, yes.”

‘It takes a lot of work’

With so much of a focus on positive behavior, teachers said there’s a common misconception that there’s no consequences for acting out.

Members of the PBIS team say that’s not the case. Students who misbehave still get in trouble. Negative discipline referrals, lunch detentions, suspensions and expulsions are still on the table.

Some educators have pushed back on the notion of PBIS, assuming it’s just another educational fad.

“It takes time and it is a lot of work,” Donahue admitted. “Education is changing all the time. People have experience in seeing things come and go so frequently. So how do you trust that this is something that’s here that’s going to stay?”

Brad Strong, a teacher at Malabar Intermediate, said he believes PBIS is a good tool, but one with limitations.

“I’m in favor of PBIS,” he said. “I can’t say that behavior is totally changed, but I do think it impacts some kids.”

Strong pointed out that PBIS is only effective for kids who care about points and positive affirmation from educators. For that reason, he thinks it’s most impactful at the elementary level.

But overall, Strong said he doesn’t think PBIS has had a large impact on behavior. In fact, he said student behavior overall is the worst he’s seen in his 30 years as an educator.

There’s likely multiple reasons — students are recovering from pandemic-era disruptions in their social and academic lives. They’re dealing with poverty and trauma at home. Youth mental health problems are on the rise nationwide.

Nevertheless, Strong said PBIS does have its benefits.

“For the kids who do the right things, I think it’s a wonderful thing,” he said. “It rewards kids who follow the rules, who are doing what they’re supposed to do.”

Strong also said PBIS works best when it’s a reward for good behavior, not a bribe to stop kids actively engaged in destructive or distracting behavior. He credited the district’s new PBIS team is making strides in creating a more consistent system.