Bulling Prevention Program – New Research

While I’m the first to acknowledge that there are no simple solution for complex problems such as bullying or other disruptive and dangerous behavior issues that effect our school children, I wanted to share one program that is being received well by school. While no one program will change our schools, bully prevention programs can be effective for targeted school students in conjunction with a school-wide system for preventing behavior problems. 

Education Conference

This week the International Bullying Prevention Association is meeting in Pittsburgh. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazzett reports that:

One report released today by the Highmark Foundation shows that the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program can decrease bullying in schools. The report showed that within three months of starting the program, bullying decreased by 14 percent among elementary students and 25 percent among high school students. After at least six months, 14 percent of middle school students said they would try to help another student who was being bullied.
Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09321/1014201-100.stm#ixzz0XKAe5DWL

The survey from this foundation was given to 56,000 students and 2,400 teachers, the Olweus program was distributed to over 200 schools. According to the Olweus websit, The Olweus program has been studied since the 1990’s in America and was first introduced in the 1970’s in Norway.

Bully Prevention and PBIS

I mention this article and program because some of the PBIS schools I work with have adopted this program in conjuction with their school-wide Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports approach to school. They use it as a secondary or tier 2 intervention for targeted students. It might be worth checking out for your school.

Do you have personal experience with the Olweus program or other bully prevention programs in school? Leave a comment and let me know.

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Best Application of Applied Behavior Analysis

I just returned from taking my daughters (age 4 and 1) to their weekly swimming lesson. I love the swim school (Hubbard) and I just figured out why. This swim program and these swim teachers have a better grasp of behavior management and learning principals then many teachers in our school system today.

Here are my arguments to support this assertion:

1. Fading – when first teaching a skill, teachers use physical prompts and supports to keep students afloat and then gradually fade to partial-physical, verbal, and gestural prompts, until the student demonstrates a skill independently.
2. Shaping – teachers begin the journey of teaching students to swim across the pool by first asking them to swim 1′, then 2′, then progressively extending the distance as the student experiences success until they can swim from wall to wall.
3. Task Analysis – teachers break down all skills into their component parts and teach the students each step in systematic and consistent manner. Even when a substitute teacher is brought in, the sequence remains the same for the student.
4. Positive Reinforcement – not only do teachers reinforce students verbally at a very frequent rate, but students also receive award ribbons and their name (along with the skill they mastered) are announced for the whole pool to hear.

Imagine if every one of our teachers had these skills and tools for teaching our students?

If you’re a teacher or principal, a university instructor, or you work in any segment of education I’m interested to hear your take on this. Am I way off or do all teachers need more training in basic principals of behavior management?

122 Web Apps for Educators

This blog has nothing to do with EBD or behavior specifically, but it is incredibly useful for educators (and others) who need a short list of technology application that can help them manage their life in this new millennium.

Check out the Cool Cat Teachers blog of 122 favorite web apps. I find this list very helpful for many reasons:

1. It reviews sites I am familiar with and help me reassess their usefulness to me.
2. It introduces me to tools I have heard of but not yet used.
3. It shows me new tools and explains why I might need them.
4. It gives me example of how one educator is using these tools on a regular basis, not just to blog, but to teach her students how to use these tools to complete assignments and create digital content.

I read the entire list and will be using several of these tools in the near future. Enjoy.

 

New Disability Statistics Available

For those of you interested in the BIG PICTURE of disability in our culture, there is a new source from which to quote. According to the CEC Policy Insider eNewsletter:

This week, the Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Disability Statistics and Demographics (StatsRRTC) released the first Annual Compendium of Disability Statistics. The Compendium is a compilation of the most recent disability statistics published by federal agencies and includes data on special education gathered from the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP), which is housed within the U.S. Department of Education.

Download the entire report from http://www.disabilitycompendium.org/.

$650 million Investing in Innovation Fund (i3)

ARRA Grant:

On October 8, 2009, the federal government hosted a webinar to explain a new grant promoting innovation in education. The actual grant was published in the Federal Register on 10/9/09 and included $650 million in funding.  To view the presentation and links to information check out the Ed.gov blog. This money is available to local education agencies and non-profits in conjunction with LEA’s. So check out the timelines and talk with your school/district leaders.

Timeline:

• Release of Public Notice – 10/9/09
• Public comments due – 11/9/09
• Release of final Notice – early spring 2010
• “Development” Pre-Applications Due – spring 2010
• “Validation” and “Scale-up” Applications Due – spring 2010
• “Development”  Full Applications Requested – early summer 2010
• “Development” Full Applications Due – summer 2010
• Award Grants for “Validation” and “Scale-up” – early fall 2010
• Award grants for “Development” – early fall 201o
  

  Recovery.org

You don’t know jack!

Richard Van Acker delivered a Keynote with this title today at the TECBD conference. Here are some highlights. I was blogging from the presentation.

Issues

1. What we know doesn’t translate to what we do.
2. Increased number of youth with mental health issues.
3. Our EBD kids are expelled, unemployed, drop out, and are in Juvenile Justice far more then the general population.
4. There is a lack of a continuum of care in school – either full inclusion or restrictive placements.
5. 2/3 of states have non-categorical systems of teacher certification, no more specialists in EBD or other disability categories.
6. Teachers praise academics and reprimand behavior.

Needs

1. Systems to reduce reprimands in the classroom.
2. Use group contingency systems.
3. Social emotional instruction.
4. Teach self-management and self-regulation skills
5. Teach social skills, but embed them into the whole school program.
6. Realize that academics and behavior cannot be taught separately.

Outcomes

1. Train and hope doesn’t work.
2. Drive-by inservice training doesn’t work.
3. Peer Triad Support – a weight watchers style program for supporting teachers works.
4. We need to better train pre-service teachers to support behavior.
5. We need to research if non-categorical certifications are working or not.

Dr. Van Acker led a great keynote speech and everyone left with a call to action to find out what works and to support teachers to succeed.

Rich and Famous attend TECBD Conference

This blog isn’t about the Rich and Famous as defined by TV host Robin Leach. This is about people rich in knowledge and famous in the field of emotional and behavioral disorders.

I’m blogging from the Teacher Educators of Children with Behavioral Disorders conference. Now in it’s 33rd year, this conference is a Mecca and magnet for the best and brightest in our field. The program reads like a who’s who in behavior research:

• Maureen Conroy
• Steve Forness
• James Fox
• David Houchins
• Kristine Jolivette
• James Kauffman
• Mary Margaret Kerr
• Dean Konopasek
• Tim Landrum
• Kathleen Lane
• Tim Lewis
• Matthew Meyer
• C. Michael Nelson
• Alec Peck
• Terry Scott
• Russ Skiba
• Richard Van Acker
• Hill Walker
• Mitch Yell

If you are in the field of education and work with students with behavior problems, these researches are the celebrities of our world. Each one is genuine, approachable, and truly concerned about making our world a better place for our students.

If you haven’t heard of these people check them out – they are worth listening to and their published works are worth reading.

Do you Know about the PBIS Ning Community?

This past spring I founded the PBIS Ning community to give implementers of Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports a place to gather and discuss this amazing behavior intervention. Recently I added a screen cast video to showcase some of the great features this Ning has to offer. Ning, by the way, stands for NetworkING, and is a place where on-the-ground professionals involved with PBIS can communicate, collaborate, and share ideas. A Ning is like a Facebook page where any member can contribute blog posts, start forums, and post pics and videos related to PBIS.

Here is a quick tour of our site:

Come and join the PBISning, it’s free!

H.R. 2597: Positive Behavior for Safe and Effective Schools Act

from flickr

This bill was reintroduced on 5/21/09. It was initially introduced into the House last year and also appeared as a Senate bill sponsored by then Senator Obama. Here is a summary provided by GovTrack.us:

Positive Behavior for Safe and Effective Schools Act – Amends the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA) to allow states to allocate school improvement funds under title I of the ESEA for coordinated, early intervention services for all students. Includes among such services, schoolwide positive behavior supports, defined as a systematic approach to embed proven practices for early intervention services in order to achieve important social outcomes and increase student learning, while preventing problem behaviors.

Talk to your fellow educators and state and local civic leaders about this bill. A PBIS approach to school-wide behavior management helps all our students succeed and achieve. It’s a win-win for our students, teachers, and community.

What’s your opinion, leave me a comment.

EBD Fellowship Available

from Flickr

Calling all people interested in perusing a doctoral degree in emotional and behavioral disorders. A colleague has just announced that Fellowships are available from the University of Arizona. Here are some details:

The University of Arizona seeks applications from highly qualified individuals who want to become Special Education Professors in Colleges and Universities. Each Fellowship includes:

• A stipend of $29,000
• A tuition waiver
• Research experience
• Practice in University-level teaching and supervision
• Involvement in statewide and individualized positive
• behavior support projects
• Travel to research conferences

For more information please contact Dr. Carl Liaupsin @ 520-626-2960. Tell him Mr. ChuckChuck sent you!!