Schools Expand Efforts  to Address Equity

Post date: Mar 27, 2014 7:16:59 PM

The Illinois PBIS Network is piloting a Culturally Relevant PBIS (CR-PBIS) self-assessment tool.  The tool was developed based on practices identified by Sugai, O’Keeffe, and Fallon (2012)  to ensure that all students benefit equally from schoolwide PBIS.  Overall consensus from teams using the tool (n=6 schools) indicated that it generated awareness of the importance of culture, and provided insight on how to integrate more diverse perspectives into PBIS implementation. 

Examples of activities that were planned or implemented as a result of completing the CR-PBIS include: 

• ŸForming a student council to incorporate youth voice in PBIS at the building level.

• Ÿ Incorporating a cultural perspective into “Cool Tools.”

• Ÿ Sending letters home written in Spanish and following up with phone calls placed by Spanish-speakers to  encourage parent involvement.

• Ÿ Translating the behavioral expectations into Spanish and posting in all public areas.

 For more information about disproportionality, please visit www.pbisillinois.org/curriculum/equity. 

Sugai, G., O’Keeffe, B., Fallon, L. (2012). A contextual consideration of culture and school-wide positive behavior support.  Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions,14(4) pp. 197-208.