Common features of school-wide programs include total staff commitment to managing behavior and improving instruction to facilitate teaching and learning, clearly defined and communicated universal expectations and rules for appropriate behavior, common consequences and clearly stated procedures for correcting problem behaviors, and inclusive support plans for addressing special learning and behavioral needs. The intervention requires the full-time involvement from school personnel. Additional costs are related to printing behavior cards and other monitoring measures. Introducing the Intervention A series of 1-3 hour presentations is used to introduce the interventions. Each is focused on illustrating key concepts underlying effective practices.
Final use occurs within the context of ongoing school schedules.
Supporting Implementation Administrative support for school-wide practices is essential. Additionally, since interventions were implemented across classrooms within grade levels and across grade levels within an elementary school, consistent and persistent faculty and staff interest is important. Primary barriers to success include inconsistent implementation by teachers and staff, high staff turnover creating conditions of continuing need for inservice, and inadequate monitoring as a result of competing priorities within the typical school curriculum. Areas of continuing concern include maintaining order in a constantly changing environment, addressing beliefs that special education remains a place, not a process, establishing ownership for innovation and change, supporting change in context of district inflexibility, dealing with constraints of site-based management in absence of power, separating children from programs to support individualized learning environments. Primary facilitators of success include frequent monitoring of progress to illustrate improvements and need for change in the processes of teaching and learning, stepwise implementation plans building on success in a small number of classrooms, and adequate capacity within a school to take advantage of technology-based interventions.