The PBIS matrix outlines specific expectations for students at different school locations and environments.
The reason for doing this is to clearly communicate to students exactly what is expected of them wherever they may be or whatever they may be doing.
By doing this, we will remove the loopholes we unintentionally create when we create a set of rules for our schools. For example, you want to bring some order to your hallway transitions. So you communicate clearly to all students in the building that running in the halls is absolutely not allowed. You might also add in the consequences associated with running in the hallways.
But in every school I have been in, you have what I would label as rule testers. Somewhere, sometime you will have a situation arise in which students test your no running in the hallways rule by crawling or hopping through your hallways. It is human nature; rules will be tested.
Schools that utilize PBIS instead rely upon expectations to communicate the behaviors they want to see, instead of emphasizing those they do not wish to take place. A school utilizing PBIS expectations could state the expectation is that students walk in the hallways of their school.
Another common problem with creating rules is that rules tend to lead to more rules. You add a new rule to cover the situations that you didn’t originally think of, and then students test it again. Yet again, you’ll find yourself amending the rule book to maintain order. We see this happen often with laws: they need to be amended and added to very often to keep pace with the rule testers in the real world. By creating expectations, you clearly state what is acceptable without any need to define what is not.
Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS) is a proactive approach to disruptive behavior in your building. PBIS Tiers designed to differentiate between the level of PBIS interventions your students need.
Tier 1 is given to all students. In this tier, we are teaching school-wide expectations, and establishing a team that will lead the charge in setting expectations, teaching them, progress monitoring, and planning rewards for your students who meet those goals. This is where the PBIS best practices and the Matrix comes into play.
The PBIS matrix is a living document that outlines specific expectations for different school locations and environments. For example, the PBIS matrix states how students are expected to behave in the hallway versus the classroom versus the playground. Here’s how to create yours.
In the first tier, you will create a team whose focus should begin with determining your school-wide expectations. The best practice is to keep these brief and broad so they can be recalled easily by staff and students alike while also being applicable to all situations in your school.
For example, my school uses 3 expectations building-wide:
They are easy to remember and easy to translate across all situations.
The next step in the PBIS process is to narrow down what the expectations mean by the locations and situations your students will have to navigate to achieve success in your building.
Think about the places your students need to navigate in your building. What is acceptable and necessary for them there?
In my school our students need to know the expectations in the following areas: Cafe, Hallway, Restroom, Assemblies, Bus, and Classroom Setting.
You’ll also find that it's helpful to teach students how those areas may change during the flow of your school’s schedule. For instance; your arrival procedures may be different than your dismissal procedures. Or the Cafe could be set up differently for breakfast than lunch. And a school play and a school pep rally may have a different set of expectations.
In my school, we also found that our return to in-person instruction post-COVID shutdowns required a full overhaul of our PBIS Behavior Matrix. And that is OK!
Your matrix should be a living document that is updated and revised as your school’s needs change. See below for an example template you can utilize in your school.
When creating the matrix, your team needs to determine the ideal behaviors in the areas you have chosen as necessary to teach. For instance, in my High School setting, we utilize a picture ID Badge as a safety measure for all students and staff in the building. So under each column we would have “badge is visible” located in the “Be Safe” row.
Another example for my school would be to include some level of cleanliness in each column beside the “Be Responsible” row. Under Cafe, this would include what we expect students to do with trays and trash when they exit for instance. The best practice is to keep each cell in the matrix to 3 or fewer bullet point expectations.
Once your team has completed the Matrix, the heavy lifting of the initial PBIS rollout is done. Your matrix can now be used to create area-specific signage. For instance, we have a poster in every hallway with exactly what it means to Be Safe, Be Responsible, and Be Safe in the hallway. Same for the other areas we chose.
You’ll also utilize the Matrix to create your initial lesson plans that are used building-wide to teach every single student what is expected in your school. My advice would be to break this up by area over several days to ensure all areas are covered and you get the maximum level of engagement.
One final note, in the last column concerning “Classroom,” I suggest making each teacher in your building a poster with your school-wide expectations and a blank column for their classroom expectations. Laminate the poster and allow teachers to fill in what each expectation means in their classroom.
This provides consistency with your students and it allows for autonomy/creativity for the teacher in the room. This is huge for buy-in and fidelity, which is what will determine how successful any positive behavior support program you roll out will be. If you're working with younger students you try our guide to PBIS in Elementary Schools. Or if your new to behavior support programs you should also take a look at our resources on how to build your own PBIS Store or how to start your PBIS program.
For best results you can create a cohort of peers to bounce ideas off of and improve your program by taking PBIS district-wide.
Looking for a place to start your school culture journey? Check out our free PBIS template where you can download a sample to get started.
To learn what other educators are saying take a look at our PBIS reviews. How do you unlock the full potential of PBIS? Check out our resources on harnessing the power of PBIS for your school district. Providing behavior support in today's schools requires that we address behavior problems holistically. Check out how The Dulles School of Excellence is doing just that by blending PBIS and SEL.
The reason for doing this is to clearly communicate to students exactly what is expected of them wherever they may be or whatever they may be doing.
By doing this, we will remove the loopholes we unintentionally create when we create a set of rules for our schools. For example, you want to bring some order to your hallway transitions. So you communicate clearly to all students in the building that running in the halls is absolutely not allowed. You might also add in the consequences associated with running in the hallways.
But in every school I have been in, you have what I would label as rule testers. Somewhere, sometime you will have a situation arise in which students test your no running in the hallways rule by crawling or hopping through your hallways. It is human nature; rules will be tested.
Schools that utilize PBIS instead rely upon expectations to communicate the behaviors they want to see, instead of emphasizing those they do not wish to take place. A school utilizing PBIS expectations could state the expectation is that students walk in the hallways of their school.
Another common problem with creating rules is that rules tend to lead to more rules. You add a new rule to cover the situations that you didn’t originally think of, and then students test it again. Yet again, you’ll find yourself amending the rule book to maintain order. We see this happen often with laws: they need to be amended and added to very often to keep pace with the rule testers in the real world. By creating expectations, you clearly state what is acceptable without any need to define what is not.
Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS) is a proactive approach to disruptive behavior in your building. PBIS Tiers designed to differentiate between the level of PBIS interventions your students need.
Tier 1 is given to all students. In this tier, we are teaching school-wide expectations, and establishing a team that will lead the charge in setting expectations, teaching them, progress monitoring, and planning rewards for your students who meet those goals. This is where the PBIS best practices and the Matrix comes into play.
The PBIS matrix is a living document that outlines specific expectations for different school locations and environments. For example, the PBIS matrix states how students are expected to behave in the hallway versus the classroom versus the playground. Here’s how to create yours.
In the first tier, you will create a team whose focus should begin with determining your school-wide expectations. The best practice is to keep these brief and broad so they can be recalled easily by staff and students alike while also being applicable to all situations in your school.
For example, my school uses 3 expectations building-wide:
They are easy to remember and easy to translate across all situations.
The next step in the PBIS process is to narrow down what the expectations mean by the locations and situations your students will have to navigate to achieve success in your building.
Think about the places your students need to navigate in your building. What is acceptable and necessary for them there?
In my school our students need to know the expectations in the following areas: Cafe, Hallway, Restroom, Assemblies, Bus, and Classroom Setting.
You’ll also find that it's helpful to teach students how those areas may change during the flow of your school’s schedule. For instance; your arrival procedures may be different than your dismissal procedures. Or the Cafe could be set up differently for breakfast than lunch. And a school play and a school pep rally may have a different set of expectations.
In my school, we also found that our return to in-person instruction post-COVID shutdowns required a full overhaul of our PBIS Behavior Matrix. And that is OK!
Your matrix should be a living document that is updated and revised as your school’s needs change. See below for an example template you can utilize in your school.
When creating the matrix, your team needs to determine the ideal behaviors in the areas you have chosen as necessary to teach. For instance, in my High School setting, we utilize a picture ID Badge as a safety measure for all students and staff in the building. So under each column we would have “badge is visible” located in the “Be Safe” row.
Another example for my school would be to include some level of cleanliness in each column beside the “Be Responsible” row. Under Cafe, this would include what we expect students to do with trays and trash when they exit for instance. The best practice is to keep each cell in the matrix to 3 or fewer bullet point expectations.
Once your team has completed the Matrix, the heavy lifting of the initial PBIS rollout is done. Your matrix can now be used to create area-specific signage. For instance, we have a poster in every hallway with exactly what it means to Be Safe, Be Responsible, and Be Safe in the hallway. Same for the other areas we chose.
You’ll also utilize the Matrix to create your initial lesson plans that are used building-wide to teach every single student what is expected in your school. My advice would be to break this up by area over several days to ensure all areas are covered and you get the maximum level of engagement.
One final note, in the last column concerning “Classroom,” I suggest making each teacher in your building a poster with your school-wide expectations and a blank column for their classroom expectations. Laminate the poster and allow teachers to fill in what each expectation means in their classroom.
This provides consistency with your students and it allows for autonomy/creativity for the teacher in the room. This is huge for buy-in and fidelity, which is what will determine how successful any positive behavior support program you roll out will be. If you're working with younger students you try our guide to PBIS in Elementary Schools. Or if your new to behavior support programs you should also take a look at our resources on how to build your own PBIS Store or how to start your PBIS program.
For best results you can create a cohort of peers to bounce ideas off of and improve your program by taking PBIS district-wide.
Looking for a place to start your school culture journey? Check out our free PBIS template where you can download a sample to get started.
To learn what other educators are saying take a look at our PBIS reviews. How do you unlock the full potential of PBIS? Check out our resources on harnessing the power of PBIS for your school district. Providing behavior support in today's schools requires that we address behavior problems holistically. Check out how The Dulles School of Excellence is doing just that by blending PBIS and SEL.
The reason for doing this is to clearly communicate to students exactly what is expected of them wherever they may be or whatever they may be doing.
By doing this, we will remove the loopholes we unintentionally create when we create a set of rules for our schools. For example, you want to bring some order to your hallway transitions. So you communicate clearly to all students in the building that running in the halls is absolutely not allowed. You might also add in the consequences associated with running in the hallways.
But in every school I have been in, you have what I would label as rule testers. Somewhere, sometime you will have a situation arise in which students test your no running in the hallways rule by crawling or hopping through your hallways. It is human nature; rules will be tested.
Schools that utilize PBIS instead rely upon expectations to communicate the behaviors they want to see, instead of emphasizing those they do not wish to take place. A school utilizing PBIS expectations could state the expectation is that students walk in the hallways of their school.
Another common problem with creating rules is that rules tend to lead to more rules. You add a new rule to cover the situations that you didn’t originally think of, and then students test it again. Yet again, you’ll find yourself amending the rule book to maintain order. We see this happen often with laws: they need to be amended and added to very often to keep pace with the rule testers in the real world. By creating expectations, you clearly state what is acceptable without any need to define what is not.
Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS) is a proactive approach to disruptive behavior in your building. PBIS Tiers designed to differentiate between the level of PBIS interventions your students need.
Tier 1 is given to all students. In this tier, we are teaching school-wide expectations, and establishing a team that will lead the charge in setting expectations, teaching them, progress monitoring, and planning rewards for your students who meet those goals. This is where the PBIS best practices and the Matrix comes into play.
The PBIS matrix is a living document that outlines specific expectations for different school locations and environments. For example, the PBIS matrix states how students are expected to behave in the hallway versus the classroom versus the playground. Here’s how to create yours.
In the first tier, you will create a team whose focus should begin with determining your school-wide expectations. The best practice is to keep these brief and broad so they can be recalled easily by staff and students alike while also being applicable to all situations in your school.
For example, my school uses 3 expectations building-wide:
They are easy to remember and easy to translate across all situations.
The next step in the PBIS process is to narrow down what the expectations mean by the locations and situations your students will have to navigate to achieve success in your building.
Think about the places your students need to navigate in your building. What is acceptable and necessary for them there?
In my school our students need to know the expectations in the following areas: Cafe, Hallway, Restroom, Assemblies, Bus, and Classroom Setting.
You’ll also find that it's helpful to teach students how those areas may change during the flow of your school’s schedule. For instance; your arrival procedures may be different than your dismissal procedures. Or the Cafe could be set up differently for breakfast than lunch. And a school play and a school pep rally may have a different set of expectations.
In my school, we also found that our return to in-person instruction post-COVID shutdowns required a full overhaul of our PBIS Behavior Matrix. And that is OK!
Your matrix should be a living document that is updated and revised as your school’s needs change. See below for an example template you can utilize in your school.
When creating the matrix, your team needs to determine the ideal behaviors in the areas you have chosen as necessary to teach. For instance, in my High School setting, we utilize a picture ID Badge as a safety measure for all students and staff in the building. So under each column we would have “badge is visible” located in the “Be Safe” row.
Another example for my school would be to include some level of cleanliness in each column beside the “Be Responsible” row. Under Cafe, this would include what we expect students to do with trays and trash when they exit for instance. The best practice is to keep each cell in the matrix to 3 or fewer bullet point expectations.
Once your team has completed the Matrix, the heavy lifting of the initial PBIS rollout is done. Your matrix can now be used to create area-specific signage. For instance, we have a poster in every hallway with exactly what it means to Be Safe, Be Responsible, and Be Safe in the hallway. Same for the other areas we chose.
You’ll also utilize the Matrix to create your initial lesson plans that are used building-wide to teach every single student what is expected in your school. My advice would be to break this up by area over several days to ensure all areas are covered and you get the maximum level of engagement.
One final note, in the last column concerning “Classroom,” I suggest making each teacher in your building a poster with your school-wide expectations and a blank column for their classroom expectations. Laminate the poster and allow teachers to fill in what each expectation means in their classroom.
This provides consistency with your students and it allows for autonomy/creativity for the teacher in the room. This is huge for buy-in and fidelity, which is what will determine how successful any positive behavior support program you roll out will be. If you're working with younger students you try our guide to PBIS in Elementary Schools. Or if your new to behavior support programs you should also take a look at our resources on how to build your own PBIS Store or how to start your PBIS program.
For best results you can create a cohort of peers to bounce ideas off of and improve your program by taking PBIS district-wide.
Looking for a place to start your school culture journey? Check out our free PBIS template where you can download a sample to get started.
To learn what other educators are saying take a look at our PBIS reviews. How do you unlock the full potential of PBIS? Check out our resources on harnessing the power of PBIS for your school district. Providing behavior support in today's schools requires that we address behavior problems holistically. Check out how The Dulles School of Excellence is doing just that by blending PBIS and SEL.
The reason for doing this is to clearly communicate to students exactly what is expected of them wherever they may be or whatever they may be doing.
By doing this, we will remove the loopholes we unintentionally create when we create a set of rules for our schools. For example, you want to bring some order to your hallway transitions. So you communicate clearly to all students in the building that running in the halls is absolutely not allowed. You might also add in the consequences associated with running in the hallways.
But in every school I have been in, you have what I would label as rule testers. Somewhere, sometime you will have a situation arise in which students test your no running in the hallways rule by crawling or hopping through your hallways. It is human nature; rules will be tested.
Schools that utilize PBIS instead rely upon expectations to communicate the behaviors they want to see, instead of emphasizing those they do not wish to take place. A school utilizing PBIS expectations could state the expectation is that students walk in the hallways of their school.
Another common problem with creating rules is that rules tend to lead to more rules. You add a new rule to cover the situations that you didn’t originally think of, and then students test it again. Yet again, you’ll find yourself amending the rule book to maintain order. We see this happen often with laws: they need to be amended and added to very often to keep pace with the rule testers in the real world. By creating expectations, you clearly state what is acceptable without any need to define what is not.
Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS) is a proactive approach to disruptive behavior in your building. PBIS Tiers designed to differentiate between the level of PBIS interventions your students need.
Tier 1 is given to all students. In this tier, we are teaching school-wide expectations, and establishing a team that will lead the charge in setting expectations, teaching them, progress monitoring, and planning rewards for your students who meet those goals. This is where the PBIS best practices and the Matrix comes into play.
The PBIS matrix is a living document that outlines specific expectations for different school locations and environments. For example, the PBIS matrix states how students are expected to behave in the hallway versus the classroom versus the playground. Here’s how to create yours.
In the first tier, you will create a team whose focus should begin with determining your school-wide expectations. The best practice is to keep these brief and broad so they can be recalled easily by staff and students alike while also being applicable to all situations in your school.
For example, my school uses 3 expectations building-wide:
They are easy to remember and easy to translate across all situations.
The next step in the PBIS process is to narrow down what the expectations mean by the locations and situations your students will have to navigate to achieve success in your building.
Think about the places your students need to navigate in your building. What is acceptable and necessary for them there?
In my school our students need to know the expectations in the following areas: Cafe, Hallway, Restroom, Assemblies, Bus, and Classroom Setting.
You’ll also find that it's helpful to teach students how those areas may change during the flow of your school’s schedule. For instance; your arrival procedures may be different than your dismissal procedures. Or the Cafe could be set up differently for breakfast than lunch. And a school play and a school pep rally may have a different set of expectations.
In my school, we also found that our return to in-person instruction post-COVID shutdowns required a full overhaul of our PBIS Behavior Matrix. And that is OK!
Your matrix should be a living document that is updated and revised as your school’s needs change. See below for an example template you can utilize in your school.
When creating the matrix, your team needs to determine the ideal behaviors in the areas you have chosen as necessary to teach. For instance, in my High School setting, we utilize a picture ID Badge as a safety measure for all students and staff in the building. So under each column we would have “badge is visible” located in the “Be Safe” row.
Another example for my school would be to include some level of cleanliness in each column beside the “Be Responsible” row. Under Cafe, this would include what we expect students to do with trays and trash when they exit for instance. The best practice is to keep each cell in the matrix to 3 or fewer bullet point expectations.
Once your team has completed the Matrix, the heavy lifting of the initial PBIS rollout is done. Your matrix can now be used to create area-specific signage. For instance, we have a poster in every hallway with exactly what it means to Be Safe, Be Responsible, and Be Safe in the hallway. Same for the other areas we chose.
You’ll also utilize the Matrix to create your initial lesson plans that are used building-wide to teach every single student what is expected in your school. My advice would be to break this up by area over several days to ensure all areas are covered and you get the maximum level of engagement.
One final note, in the last column concerning “Classroom,” I suggest making each teacher in your building a poster with your school-wide expectations and a blank column for their classroom expectations. Laminate the poster and allow teachers to fill in what each expectation means in their classroom.
This provides consistency with your students and it allows for autonomy/creativity for the teacher in the room. This is huge for buy-in and fidelity, which is what will determine how successful any positive behavior support program you roll out will be. If you're working with younger students you try our guide to PBIS in Elementary Schools. Or if your new to behavior support programs you should also take a look at our resources on how to build your own PBIS Store or how to start your PBIS program.
For best results you can create a cohort of peers to bounce ideas off of and improve your program by taking PBIS district-wide.
Looking for a place to start your school culture journey? Check out our free PBIS template where you can download a sample to get started.
To learn what other educators are saying take a look at our PBIS reviews. How do you unlock the full potential of PBIS? Check out our resources on harnessing the power of PBIS for your school district. Providing behavior support in today's schools requires that we address behavior problems holistically. Check out how The Dulles School of Excellence is doing just that by blending PBIS and SEL.
The reason for doing this is to clearly communicate to students exactly what is expected of them wherever they may be or whatever they may be doing.
By doing this, we will remove the loopholes we unintentionally create when we create a set of rules for our schools. For example, you want to bring some order to your hallway transitions. So you communicate clearly to all students in the building that running in the halls is absolutely not allowed. You might also add in the consequences associated with running in the hallways.
But in every school I have been in, you have what I would label as rule testers. Somewhere, sometime you will have a situation arise in which students test your no running in the hallways rule by crawling or hopping through your hallways. It is human nature; rules will be tested.
Schools that utilize PBIS instead rely upon expectations to communicate the behaviors they want to see, instead of emphasizing those they do not wish to take place. A school utilizing PBIS expectations could state the expectation is that students walk in the hallways of their school.
Another common problem with creating rules is that rules tend to lead to more rules. You add a new rule to cover the situations that you didn’t originally think of, and then students test it again. Yet again, you’ll find yourself amending the rule book to maintain order. We see this happen often with laws: they need to be amended and added to very often to keep pace with the rule testers in the real world. By creating expectations, you clearly state what is acceptable without any need to define what is not.
Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS) is a proactive approach to disruptive behavior in your building. PBIS Tiers designed to differentiate between the level of PBIS interventions your students need.
Tier 1 is given to all students. In this tier, we are teaching school-wide expectations, and establishing a team that will lead the charge in setting expectations, teaching them, progress monitoring, and planning rewards for your students who meet those goals. This is where the PBIS best practices and the Matrix comes into play.
The PBIS matrix is a living document that outlines specific expectations for different school locations and environments. For example, the PBIS matrix states how students are expected to behave in the hallway versus the classroom versus the playground. Here’s how to create yours.
In the first tier, you will create a team whose focus should begin with determining your school-wide expectations. The best practice is to keep these brief and broad so they can be recalled easily by staff and students alike while also being applicable to all situations in your school.
For example, my school uses 3 expectations building-wide:
They are easy to remember and easy to translate across all situations.
The next step in the PBIS process is to narrow down what the expectations mean by the locations and situations your students will have to navigate to achieve success in your building.
Think about the places your students need to navigate in your building. What is acceptable and necessary for them there?
In my school our students need to know the expectations in the following areas: Cafe, Hallway, Restroom, Assemblies, Bus, and Classroom Setting.
You’ll also find that it's helpful to teach students how those areas may change during the flow of your school’s schedule. For instance; your arrival procedures may be different than your dismissal procedures. Or the Cafe could be set up differently for breakfast than lunch. And a school play and a school pep rally may have a different set of expectations.
In my school, we also found that our return to in-person instruction post-COVID shutdowns required a full overhaul of our PBIS Behavior Matrix. And that is OK!
Your matrix should be a living document that is updated and revised as your school’s needs change. See below for an example template you can utilize in your school.
When creating the matrix, your team needs to determine the ideal behaviors in the areas you have chosen as necessary to teach. For instance, in my High School setting, we utilize a picture ID Badge as a safety measure for all students and staff in the building. So under each column we would have “badge is visible” located in the “Be Safe” row.
Another example for my school would be to include some level of cleanliness in each column beside the “Be Responsible” row. Under Cafe, this would include what we expect students to do with trays and trash when they exit for instance. The best practice is to keep each cell in the matrix to 3 or fewer bullet point expectations.
Once your team has completed the Matrix, the heavy lifting of the initial PBIS rollout is done. Your matrix can now be used to create area-specific signage. For instance, we have a poster in every hallway with exactly what it means to Be Safe, Be Responsible, and Be Safe in the hallway. Same for the other areas we chose.
You’ll also utilize the Matrix to create your initial lesson plans that are used building-wide to teach every single student what is expected in your school. My advice would be to break this up by area over several days to ensure all areas are covered and you get the maximum level of engagement.
One final note, in the last column concerning “Classroom,” I suggest making each teacher in your building a poster with your school-wide expectations and a blank column for their classroom expectations. Laminate the poster and allow teachers to fill in what each expectation means in their classroom.
This provides consistency with your students and it allows for autonomy/creativity for the teacher in the room. This is huge for buy-in and fidelity, which is what will determine how successful any positive behavior support program you roll out will be. If you're working with younger students you try our guide to PBIS in Elementary Schools. Or if your new to behavior support programs you should also take a look at our resources on how to build your own PBIS Store or how to start your PBIS program.
For best results you can create a cohort of peers to bounce ideas off of and improve your program by taking PBIS district-wide.
Looking for a place to start your school culture journey? Check out our free PBIS template where you can download a sample to get started.
To learn what other educators are saying take a look at our PBIS reviews. How do you unlock the full potential of PBIS? Check out our resources on harnessing the power of PBIS for your school district. Providing behavior support in today's schools requires that we address behavior problems holistically. Check out how The Dulles School of Excellence is doing just that by blending PBIS and SEL.
Jordan resides in Lexington, Kentucky. He has experience in Public Education as an Administrator, Science Teacher, and as a Coach. He has extensive experience with School Discipline, PBIS, SEL, Restorative Practices, MTSS, and Trauma-Informed Care.
A vital part of the PBIS process involves your staff teaching school-wide expectations. This process can look a number of different ways depending on your situation and preferences.
The reason for doing this is to clearly communicate to students exactly what is expected of them wherever they may be or whatever they may be doing.
By doing this, we will remove the loopholes we unintentionally create when we create a set of rules for our schools. For example, you want to bring some order to your hallway transitions. So you communicate clearly to all students in the building that running in the halls is absolutely not allowed. You might also add in the consequences associated with running in the hallways.
But in every school I have been in, you have what I would label as rule testers. Somewhere, sometime you will have a situation arise in which students test your no running in the hallways rule by crawling or hopping through your hallways. It is human nature; rules will be tested.
Schools that utilize PBIS instead rely upon expectations to communicate the behaviors they want to see, instead of emphasizing those they do not wish to take place. A school utilizing PBIS expectations could state the expectation is that students walk in the hallways of their school.
Another common problem with creating rules is that rules tend to lead to more rules. You add a new rule to cover the situations that you didn’t originally think of, and then students test it again. Yet again, you’ll find yourself amending the rule book to maintain order. We see this happen often with laws: they need to be amended and added to very often to keep pace with the rule testers in the real world. By creating expectations, you clearly state what is acceptable without any need to define what is not.
Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS) is a proactive approach to disruptive behavior in your building. PBIS Tiers designed to differentiate between the level of PBIS interventions your students need.
Tier 1 is given to all students. In this tier, we are teaching school-wide expectations, and establishing a team that will lead the charge in setting expectations, teaching them, progress monitoring, and planning rewards for your students who meet those goals. This is where the PBIS best practices and the Matrix comes into play.
The PBIS matrix is a living document that outlines specific expectations for different school locations and environments. For example, the PBIS matrix states how students are expected to behave in the hallway versus the classroom versus the playground. Here’s how to create yours.
In the first tier, you will create a team whose focus should begin with determining your school-wide expectations. The best practice is to keep these brief and broad so they can be recalled easily by staff and students alike while also being applicable to all situations in your school.
For example, my school uses 3 expectations building-wide:
They are easy to remember and easy to translate across all situations.
The next step in the PBIS process is to narrow down what the expectations mean by the locations and situations your students will have to navigate to achieve success in your building.
Think about the places your students need to navigate in your building. What is acceptable and necessary for them there?
In my school our students need to know the expectations in the following areas: Cafe, Hallway, Restroom, Assemblies, Bus, and Classroom Setting.
You’ll also find that it's helpful to teach students how those areas may change during the flow of your school’s schedule. For instance; your arrival procedures may be different than your dismissal procedures. Or the Cafe could be set up differently for breakfast than lunch. And a school play and a school pep rally may have a different set of expectations.
In my school, we also found that our return to in-person instruction post-COVID shutdowns required a full overhaul of our PBIS Behavior Matrix. And that is OK!
Your matrix should be a living document that is updated and revised as your school’s needs change. See below for an example template you can utilize in your school.
When creating the matrix, your team needs to determine the ideal behaviors in the areas you have chosen as necessary to teach. For instance, in my High School setting, we utilize a picture ID Badge as a safety measure for all students and staff in the building. So under each column we would have “badge is visible” located in the “Be Safe” row.
Another example for my school would be to include some level of cleanliness in each column beside the “Be Responsible” row. Under Cafe, this would include what we expect students to do with trays and trash when they exit for instance. The best practice is to keep each cell in the matrix to 3 or fewer bullet point expectations.
Once your team has completed the Matrix, the heavy lifting of the initial PBIS rollout is done. Your matrix can now be used to create area-specific signage. For instance, we have a poster in every hallway with exactly what it means to Be Safe, Be Responsible, and Be Safe in the hallway. Same for the other areas we chose.
You’ll also utilize the Matrix to create your initial lesson plans that are used building-wide to teach every single student what is expected in your school. My advice would be to break this up by area over several days to ensure all areas are covered and you get the maximum level of engagement.
One final note, in the last column concerning “Classroom,” I suggest making each teacher in your building a poster with your school-wide expectations and a blank column for their classroom expectations. Laminate the poster and allow teachers to fill in what each expectation means in their classroom.
This provides consistency with your students and it allows for autonomy/creativity for the teacher in the room. This is huge for buy-in and fidelity, which is what will determine how successful any positive behavior support program you roll out will be. If you're working with younger students you try our guide to PBIS in Elementary Schools. Or if your new to behavior support programs you should also take a look at our resources on how to build your own PBIS Store or how to start your PBIS program.
For best results you can create a cohort of peers to bounce ideas off of and improve your program by taking PBIS district-wide.
Looking for a place to start your school culture journey? Check out our free PBIS template where you can download a sample to get started.
To learn what other educators are saying take a look at our PBIS reviews. How do you unlock the full potential of PBIS? Check out our resources on harnessing the power of PBIS for your school district. Providing behavior support in today's schools requires that we address behavior problems holistically. Check out how The Dulles School of Excellence is doing just that by blending PBIS and SEL.
A vital part of the PBIS process involves your staff teaching school-wide expectations. This process can look a number of different ways depending on your situation and preferences.
The reason for doing this is to clearly communicate to students exactly what is expected of them wherever they may be or whatever they may be doing.
By doing this, we will remove the loopholes we unintentionally create when we create a set of rules for our schools. For example, you want to bring some order to your hallway transitions. So you communicate clearly to all students in the building that running in the halls is absolutely not allowed. You might also add in the consequences associated with running in the hallways.
But in every school I have been in, you have what I would label as rule testers. Somewhere, sometime you will have a situation arise in which students test your no running in the hallways rule by crawling or hopping through your hallways. It is human nature; rules will be tested.
Schools that utilize PBIS instead rely upon expectations to communicate the behaviors they want to see, instead of emphasizing those they do not wish to take place. A school utilizing PBIS expectations could state the expectation is that students walk in the hallways of their school.
Another common problem with creating rules is that rules tend to lead to more rules. You add a new rule to cover the situations that you didn’t originally think of, and then students test it again. Yet again, you’ll find yourself amending the rule book to maintain order. We see this happen often with laws: they need to be amended and added to very often to keep pace with the rule testers in the real world. By creating expectations, you clearly state what is acceptable without any need to define what is not.
Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS) is a proactive approach to disruptive behavior in your building. PBIS Tiers designed to differentiate between the level of PBIS interventions your students need.
Tier 1 is given to all students. In this tier, we are teaching school-wide expectations, and establishing a team that will lead the charge in setting expectations, teaching them, progress monitoring, and planning rewards for your students who meet those goals. This is where the PBIS best practices and the Matrix comes into play.
The PBIS matrix is a living document that outlines specific expectations for different school locations and environments. For example, the PBIS matrix states how students are expected to behave in the hallway versus the classroom versus the playground. Here’s how to create yours.
In the first tier, you will create a team whose focus should begin with determining your school-wide expectations. The best practice is to keep these brief and broad so they can be recalled easily by staff and students alike while also being applicable to all situations in your school.
For example, my school uses 3 expectations building-wide:
They are easy to remember and easy to translate across all situations.
The next step in the PBIS process is to narrow down what the expectations mean by the locations and situations your students will have to navigate to achieve success in your building.
Think about the places your students need to navigate in your building. What is acceptable and necessary for them there?
In my school our students need to know the expectations in the following areas: Cafe, Hallway, Restroom, Assemblies, Bus, and Classroom Setting.
You’ll also find that it's helpful to teach students how those areas may change during the flow of your school’s schedule. For instance; your arrival procedures may be different than your dismissal procedures. Or the Cafe could be set up differently for breakfast than lunch. And a school play and a school pep rally may have a different set of expectations.
In my school, we also found that our return to in-person instruction post-COVID shutdowns required a full overhaul of our PBIS Behavior Matrix. And that is OK!
Your matrix should be a living document that is updated and revised as your school’s needs change. See below for an example template you can utilize in your school.
When creating the matrix, your team needs to determine the ideal behaviors in the areas you have chosen as necessary to teach. For instance, in my High School setting, we utilize a picture ID Badge as a safety measure for all students and staff in the building. So under each column we would have “badge is visible” located in the “Be Safe” row.
Another example for my school would be to include some level of cleanliness in each column beside the “Be Responsible” row. Under Cafe, this would include what we expect students to do with trays and trash when they exit for instance. The best practice is to keep each cell in the matrix to 3 or fewer bullet point expectations.
Once your team has completed the Matrix, the heavy lifting of the initial PBIS rollout is done. Your matrix can now be used to create area-specific signage. For instance, we have a poster in every hallway with exactly what it means to Be Safe, Be Responsible, and Be Safe in the hallway. Same for the other areas we chose.
You’ll also utilize the Matrix to create your initial lesson plans that are used building-wide to teach every single student what is expected in your school. My advice would be to break this up by area over several days to ensure all areas are covered and you get the maximum level of engagement.
One final note, in the last column concerning “Classroom,” I suggest making each teacher in your building a poster with your school-wide expectations and a blank column for their classroom expectations. Laminate the poster and allow teachers to fill in what each expectation means in their classroom.
This provides consistency with your students and it allows for autonomy/creativity for the teacher in the room. This is huge for buy-in and fidelity, which is what will determine how successful any positive behavior support program you roll out will be. If you're working with younger students you try our guide to PBIS in Elementary Schools. Or if your new to behavior support programs you should also take a look at our resources on how to build your own PBIS Store or how to start your PBIS program.
For best results you can create a cohort of peers to bounce ideas off of and improve your program by taking PBIS district-wide.
Looking for a place to start your school culture journey? Check out our free PBIS template where you can download a sample to get started.
To learn what other educators are saying take a look at our PBIS reviews. How do you unlock the full potential of PBIS? Check out our resources on harnessing the power of PBIS for your school district. Providing behavior support in today's schools requires that we address behavior problems holistically. Check out how The Dulles School of Excellence is doing just that by blending PBIS and SEL.
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