At Boys Town, we’ve been educating youth for more than 100 years using our Boys Town Education Model®. We work side-by-side with schools nationwide to share our research-proven methods designed to improve student behaviors, teacher skills and school climate, to accomplish lasting results.
One of our most effective programs is Well-Managed Schools (WMS), our structured approach that utilizes the Boys Town Education Model to improve school-wide behavior, provide social management to help decrease disruptive behaviors and to create more positive and calm classrooms. Our ongoing research proves it works
WMS actively teaches students:
- self-awareness
- self-management
- social awareness
- relationship skills
- responsible decision-making
- the importance of maintaining a necessary focus on academic standards
We are familiar with the Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS) framework, an interactive approach that includes opportunities to correct and improve four key elements – outcomes, data, practices and systems. We wanted to research if PBIS could be successfully integrated into a Boys Town WMS-trained school. We were interested in determining through testing if it would impact teacher efficacy and student outcomes.
This question prompted one of our education partners who had been actively using WMS since 2008. In 2019, the school district launched an initiative to implement PBIS district-wide, presenting an opportunity to measure the outcomes of the integration in a district using the WMS program. The goal was to use the referral data collected to enable teams to make active, data-driven decisions.
Throughout the implementation, leadership teams collaborated weekly, embraced the data, and used it to determine weak or deficient skills and expectations. Once these issues were identified, they were addressed by implementing the Boys Town WMS Teaching into daily plans to help the struggling students.
The use of the PBIS application became an especially powerful data source in helping to identify students who specifically needed more Boys Town Effective Praise and Planned Teaching. Overall, the results, too, were stellar. Office referrals significantly declined, students stayed in class, suspensions were reduced, and staff morale soared.
“Referrals have decreased, and staff morale and teacher efficacy have increased!”
- Jaci Pesicka, Assistant Principal
Susan B. Anthony Elementary School
The data for both schools strongly indicated that PBIS can be successfully implemented with Boys Town WMS to increase positive outcomes for both staff and students including:
- Ongoing professional learning
- Collaboration
- Student goal setting/tracking
Findings:
- PBIS and Boys Town Well-Managed Schools, when implemented together, increase teacher efficacy and student outcomes.
- PBIS provides the systemic framework to deliver valuable student data to the teachers necessary for lesson planning.
- Boys Town WMS provides teachers with the strategies to prevent and correct problem behavior, encourage positive behavior and build confidence and competence in every teaching interaction.
Conclusions:
The implementation of PBIS with the existing Boys Town Education Model® enhanced Gallup scores, reduced office referrals and fostered student resilience. Teachers learned to “live in prevention versus die in correction!”
For more information about Boys Town’s research-proven child-care methods and the resources available in a variety of educational formats reach out to our team!
