Jamestown High School athletes Joseph Mistretta, Jack Breen and Nikk Holland entered the Lincoln Elementary School gymnasium to the sound of “On Red Raiders.” The JHS students spoke at a recent schoolwide Positive Behavioral Intervention and Supports assembly. Lincoln’s PBIS theme this year is “Football.” Lincoln staff asked the JHS students to give motivational speeches tied to the school’s three behavioral tenets: respect, responsibility and safety.

“It was important for us to come back and talk to the students,” said Joe Mistretta, who is a Lincoln alumnus. “My message was about being a leader and working as a team to meet your goals. I know the younger kids look up to us, and it is important that they understand what they learn in elementary school will make a difference in middle and high school. We wanted them to know that positive character traits contribute to your success.”

The football players’ visit was only one component to Lincoln’s school-wide PBIS, which is a research-based framework that JPS is implementing in every school to encourage positive behavior, decrease negative behaviors, and use a preventative approach when intervening with negative behaviors. PBIS is a multi-tiered system of support for students and staff.

PBIS is not a scripted, plug-and-play program. In fact, Erie 1 BOCES behavior specialist Cassie Porter, who has worked with JPS since 2012, acts more as a building inspector than as an architect, builder or interior designer. Her role is to guide the school’s representative team, as they create the systems and implement practices for their school. Each school is its own architect, builder and designer, while Porter ensures that all components are addressed in a way that still result in improved outcomes for students and staff.

An area of PBIS that is often misunderstood is the reinforcement system. At the elementary and middle school levels, tickets are often used to acknowledge a student for following school-wide expectations. These tangible reinforcement items are then cashed in at a school store, in the same way money is used at a grocery store.

“The assumption that tickets will be given to a student every time they do something right, could not be farther from the truth,” said Porter. “The token economy is a research-based method of reinforcing student behavior using intermittent reinforcement. Immediately following instruction on behavior, there is a short period of frequent reinforcement, which transitions to occasional reinforcement. Students will sometimes be given a ticket, and sometimes not, for the same behavior. It is the same behavioral theory behind slot machines. Those who play slot machines continue to play because they may get a reward. In this same way, students who previously did not display appropriate behaviors may, at first, act correctly in order to get a ticket. But this intermittent reinforcement is actually the tool that allows students to take the desired behaviors from something they do to something they are – from external motivation (for the tickets) to internal (because it is who I am).”

At the high school level, the components of a PBIS framework are the same, but the implementation of these research-based systems and practices may look different, as we adapt to the age of the students. JHS is at the very beginning of designing their approach. There is no magic solution for all students all the time. The beauty of a PBIS framework is flexibility; each and every school is able to create the system that reflects their school, students and community.

“Our efforts to create a positive learning environment for all students is on track,” said Katie Russo, Lincoln Elementary School principal. “We have established a clear vision as to what our school needs to be like for learning to happen each and every day. Behavior is a key component to learning. Our efforts have focused on being proactive rather than reactive when issues occur. There will always be behavior challenges but we now focus on explicitly teaching behavior expectations. As we continue working together to provide clear and consistent expectations and consequences, our school will continue to be a place where all students can learn and be successful.”