Effects of SWPBS Undetectable in the Long-Term

By Claire Chuter, Johns Hopkins University

Interventions that focus on the reduction of problem behaviors and support of emotional well-being and social relationships have become increasingly popular around the globe over the past two decades. One such program, School Wide Positive Behavior Supports (SWPBS) has a solid base of evidence for improving social, emotional, and academic outcomes in the short-term. However, there is still little evidence regarding the long-term effects of this popular intervention.

Borgen and colleagues examined the long-term effects of SWPBS on students’ academic failure and marginalization. Specifically, they examined short-term test scores and long-term academic grades, high school dropout, school behavior, and youth crime using population-wide Norwegian register data (N = 964,924). All Norwegian primary schools (grades 1–7) were included in the study (N = 2,366), where 216 of the schools in our sample (9%) had implemented SWPBS. The authors compared these individual-level variables between students who had attended SWPBS schools with those who had not, using a difference-in-difference (DiD) design. They also examined whether program effects were more substantial for students at risk of academic failure and behavioral problems.

The study found no evidence of long-term effects for at-risk students or the larger population. However, even the most effective interventions tend to see diminishing returns over time. The lack of positive long-term effects of SWPBS here does not negate past evidence of positive short-term outcomes, but points to a need for further research clarifying this finding.

Evidence supports Foundations: Establishing Positive Discipline Policies

Safe and Civil Schools’ Foundations: Establishing Positive Discipline Policies is a program designed to create a safer climate within a school and its surrounding grounds. It focuses on using proactive techniques instead of punishment to facilitate change, a technique referred to as schoolwide positive behavioral intervention and support (SWPBIS). Foundations helps schools adopt and maintain these techniques by providing school teams with training and data-gathering materials, multiyear training, coaching support, and school visits. The program requires a team at each school to teach the staff these techniques, and data related to safety and behavior is used to gauge what is working and what is not.

A randomized controlled trial  in 32 elementary schools in a large urban school district demonstrated that Foundations yielded improvements in school discipline, student safety policy and training, staff perceptions of student behavior, and suspension and tardiness rates over a two-year period. Specifically, staff reported improvements in a safe and secure environment (+0.44), that training about school safety increased (+0.35), and that a discipline policy was in place (+0.31) and enforced (+0.34). Staff reported decreases in bullying (ES= -0.24), widespread classroom disorder (ES= -0.67), and disrespectfulness/defiance (-0.15). Students in the experimental group were also less likely to be suspended than those in the control group.  To determine if positive results of the program would generalize into a “real world” setting, a second study continued to evaluate these elementary schools for two more years while also scaling up to add all remaining elementary and secondary schools in the district, when these schools adopted the program without support from research funding.

74 regular public schools participated in the scale-up study: the 17 elementary in year 1 and 15 elementary in year 2 from the first study, adding 2 middle and 8 high in year 3, and 22 more elementary in year 4. All schools received 2 years of Foundations training in May, June, October, and February where school teams learned how to implement improvements related to safety, behavior, and discipline, and to collect and analyze related data to set goals for the next year. District personnel were trained as coaches by the program’s staff. School teams taught all school staff, from paraprofessionals to busdrivers, techniques to teach the students about expectations, provide active supervision, give positive feedback, and calmly and consistently correct behavior and emphasize school policies.

As in the randomized study, schools in the current study showed gains in all areas. Specifically, after Foundations training, staff reported improved student behavior, with fewer suspensions, absenteeism and tardiness, with a positive relationship evidenced between years of implementation and rates of effectiveness. This held true for both studies, showing that results were not dependent upon random assignment of training, and were apparent only after the program was implemented. Therefore, authors concluded that the improvements from the Foundations training were evidence that the program generalizes well into the real world setting.

Which schools abandon interventions?

A new study published in Prevention Science looks at which schools persevere with interventions and which abandon them.

Led by Kent McIntosh from the University of Oregon, the researchers looked at 5,331 schools during five years of implementing schoolwide positive behavioral interventions and supports (SWPBIS) – a school-wide behavior management program. The extent to which a school was implementing the program was measured using three surveys completed by the schools each year. Analyzing this data, the researchers identified four different kinds of schools:

• Sustainers (29% of schools) had a high likelihood of meeting the fidelity criterion across all years of implementation.
• Slow Starters (13%) had an inconsistent pattern of reaching the fidelity criterion across the first three years of implementation that then increased to nearly the level of the Sustainers in the fourth and fifth years.
• Late Abandoners (24%) were more likely than not to reach the fidelity criterion in the first three years of implementation, but then were very unlikely to reach the criterion in the fourth and fifth years.
• Rapid Abandoners (34%) had a high probability of reaching the fidelity criterion in the first year, but dropped off rapidly and remained low in subsequent years.

Schools were more likely to abandon if they were middle or high schools, smaller, and had fewer schools locally that were already using SWPBIS. The researchers suggest that their results highlight the importance of supporting those schools implementing programs, particularly in Year 1 (when Rapid Abandoners are already struggling) and Year 3 (when Late Abandoners are more likely to quit).

Behavior program shows promise

Researchers from the University of Western Sydney in Australia have published new research detailing a study of Positive Behavior for Learning (PBL), a schoolwide systemic approach to promoting both positive behaviors and student learning. PBL is based on Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports, one of the most widely used positive behavior programs in the U.S. It aims to establish strong systems that involve all staff and students, and to implement evidence-based practices that support behavior and learning.

The participants in this study were 2,129 students from 18 schools in Australia. A total of 827 boys and 888 girls from four primary and eight secondary schools implementing PBL (the experimental group) were compared with 188 boys and 226 girls from two primary and four secondary schools (the control group).

Using a structural equation modeling technique to test group differences, the authors found that the students in schools that had implemented PBL for over nine months had higher scores in both self-reported behavioral and adaptive motivational factors. Specifically, they found higher scores in:

• Behavioral management input (the students’ perceptions of behavior interventions);
• Positive behaviors (following school rules);
• Knowledge about behaviors (schools’ expectations);
• Effort goal orientation (motivation); and
• The value of schooling.

They conclude that PBL may benefit all students, but more work may be needed for boys.