Illinois Statewide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports

Abstract

More than 1,000 Illinois schools are implementing schoolwide positive behavior support (SWPBS) to enhance outcomes for students and staff. Consequently, Illinois established layered support structures to facilitate scaling up SWPBS. This paper describes the development of this infrastructure and presents the results of HLM analyses exploring the effects of implementing SWPBS, with and without fidelity across time, on student behavior and academic outcomes (office discipline referrals, suspensions, and state-wide test scores in reading and math) for a sample of 428 Illinois schools implementing SWPBS. Results indicate that (a) most schools implemented with fidelity and maintained or improved student performance across time and (b) implementation fidelity was associated with improved social outcomes and academic outcomes in math. Study limitations and implications are discussed.

Updating and expanding systematic reviews and meta‐analyses on the effects of school‐wide positive behavior interventions and supports

“…Studies that focused on specific interventions implemented as part of SWPBIS implementation (e.g., Benner, Nelson, Sanders, & Ralston, ; Wills, Kamps, Abbott, Bannister, & Kaufman, ) or those that focused exclusively on teacher outcomes (e.g., teacher self‐efficacy) were removed (e.g., Ross, Romer, & Horner, ). Also, studies with control groups that also received SWPBIS training (e.g., Simonsen et al, ; Vincent, Randall, Cartledge, Tobin, & Swain‐Bradway, ) were excluded. Two studies that examined the same outcomes with the same sample but at different periods, one with a 3‐year trial (Bradshaw, Koth, Bevans, Ialongo, & Leaf, ) and one with a 5‐year trial (Bradshaw, Koth, Thornton, & Leaf, ).…”

The Relationship Between School-Wide Implementation of Positive Behavior Intervention and Supports and Student Discipline Outcomes

“…This warrants an analysis of whether there are, in fact, particular critical features that are necessary or sufficient to produce changes in student outcomes (OSS, in-school suspension [ISS], and ODR). Simonsen et al (2012) attempted to address the relationship between fidelity of implementation and student outcomes by analyzing historical school-level data from Illinois. The authors modeled longitudinal differences in the number of ODR, ISS, and OSS by fidelity status, defined as a SET score of 80 or above.…”

Longitudinal disciplinary and achievement outcomes associated with school‐wide PBIS implementation level

“…However, some of these studies did not comprehensively consider implementation fidelity, which refers to the degree to which the core features of SWPBIS are implemented exactly as they are designed and intended. This is problematic considering the research that has found positive associations between implementation fidelity and positive academic and behavioral student outcomes (Marin & Filce, ; Pas & Bradshaw, ; Simonsen et al, ). Some of the studies that did not find a significantly positive relationship between SWPBIS and academic achievement either did not consistently measure implementation fidelity (e.g., Caldarella et al, ) or categorized or dichotomized implementation fidelity variables (e.g., Freeman et al, ; Gage, Sugai, Lewis, & Brzozowy, ; Noltemeyer et al, ), which limits the variability within these fidelity measures and also makes it more difficult to detect small changes in implementation.…”