Rewards in Huron County

We have 7 secondary settings implementing a PBIS model  Bad Axe  Caseville  Huron Area Technical Center  Laker  North Huron  Owen-Gage  Ubly HATC

REWARDS Frequency Daily Weekly Monthly Semester/Trimester Special Events Grade Competitions Logistics & Troubleshooting Student involvement Staff involvement Community involvement Budget/Fundraising

Daily Rewards Types Ticket for drawing  More frequent distribution of tickets  Lottery type system which is motivating to some  Public recognition Ticket for immediate chosen reward  Less frequent distribution of tickets  Used rarely and more often in our smaller schools with relatively “good” school-wide behavior  Immediate reinforcement

Example: How to Implement Drawing  Students receive SPARK ticket for demonstrating expectation  Students turn daily SPARK tickets into “electrical box” for weekly drawing.  Weekly drawing occurs every Friday by 2 PBIS team members

 8 students receive a SPARK buck good for items or services at the Tech Center. Each program offers some resale item (hair cut, oil change, store snack, printing services, portfolio materials, vendors promotional items, tools, etc)  SPARK bucks distributed to students on Monday by assistant principal who takes the SPARK buck to the student’s program & provides acknowledgement.  PBIS team is considering publicizing weekly winners on TV screens or with some other school-wide approach

Examples of Daily/Weekly Rewards Early lunch with a friend Dance pass Athletic pass Homework pass Preferential parking pass 5-minute early release pass Al a carte item at lunch School spirit item/clothing School store items Candy School supplies Pop/water Community donated items (gift card, gas card, bowling, ice cream, roller skating, etc) We have found that social opportunities tend to work better at secondary settings than anything else!

Monthly Reward Systems Use to target a specific school-wide behavior  Examples: lack of tardies, minors, majors, etc Advantages  Data driven….Use data to identify what specific behaviors to target for improvement  System driven….Provides opportunity for all students to receive recognition who display the target behavior

Example: Implement Monthly Reward Bad Axe High School  PBIS team sets schedule for year to block off reward dates, times, and incentive  PBIS team looks at SWIS data and identifies target behavior for month or designated period of time  At the designated cut-off time, team leader reviews list of eligible students using SWIS  List of students is distributed to all staff  Principal and/or team leader checks off student name as they enter the room for the reward

Examples of Monthly Reward Pizza party Bar-B-Q Ice cream social Movie at theatre Dance Shopping trip to the mall Luau at lunch Extended lunch Special assembly Free time in gym Community activity Movie and popcorn in classroom or the auditorium

Show Data to Staff & Praise Their Efforts! Dear Staff, As you can see by the above graph, student tardies continue to be 50% lower now compared to our baseline data (currently averaging about tardies per day versus about 20 per day without interventions). When we analyze the data in more detail, we recognize that 1st hour continues to be when we experience most of the tardies….especially on poor weather days. The graph below displays the average number of office referrals per day per month for all behaviors….not only tardies. Nationally, high schools average about 1 referral per 100 students per day. Thus our goal at BAHS is about 4 referrals per day or less. We are currently meeting this goal! We greatly appreciate your efforts to implement sweep. We also value your continued patience and support with the rewards system we are implementing this year.

Other Times for Larger Rewards Marking Periods Semester Trimester Special Events (ex. Homecoming)

Grade Competitions Advantages  Motivating to students  Promotes community within grade levels  Provides opportunity for all students in a grade to receive a special incentive  Encourages pro-social peer pressure  Promotes fairness among all students - eliminates the stigma of “teacher pet”

Grade Competitions Examples North Huron Secondary  Each week, the daily PRIDE tickets students earn are counted by the designated teacher for each grade  That number is turned into a staff member with scheduled released time. That staff member determines which grade had the highest number of PRIDE tickets.  The grade with the most PRIDE tickets receives a “feather” for the school “Warrior” head. Each grade has a specific colored feather.  At the end of each trimester, the grade with the most feathers on the Warrior head earns a special reward.

Reward System Road Blocks Lack of student involvement Negative student perception of PBIS  childish/unfair Negative staff perception of PBIS Staff not wanting to reward “bad” students Lack of consistent administrator support Lack of time/too many demands for staff Overworked behavior team Lack of adequate funding & resources Inexperience/lack of knowledge & research of PBIS at secondary level  Trying to make an “elementary” model work at secondary settings

Show Data to Students! Bad Axe HS Percent of students by grade with no tardies or office referrals tracked weekly for 1 month Chart updated each Friday Chart set us with “CAR” bar graphs to match “CARS” PBIS model theme Posted in hallway across from cafeteria for all students to see Weekly grade received a special activity The “progress monitoring” by grade was very motivating to students

Ideas to Overcome: Lack of Student Involvement Seek student opinions and interests so PBIS model becomes theirs Infuse PBIS expectations in all groups and settings (prom committee, athletic events, classrooms, etc) Provide opportunities for students to be involved: Poster contest T-shirt design Create teaching tools (videos, skits, lesson plans, raps) Plan assemblies and special events Survey students Student team Provide meaningful lessons & rewards

Sample Student Survey Results Free food Treat/Candy Homework pass Lunch line pass Recognition Raffle/prizes Gift certificate Money

Student Involvement Example Laker Secondary School Student PBIS Group About 27 students participate (mix of random students based on teacher recommendation as well as student volunteers) Meets bi-monthly, goal will be monthly Principal & coach facilitate meeting Students give ideas for PBIS activities & rewards Students help to plan “Fun-Days

Ideas to Overcome: Negative student perception of PBIS Key is to create social opportunities tied to PBIS activities/rewards Create opportunities for friendly competitions Use negative comments as opportunity to change

Ideas to Overcome: Negative staff perception of PBIS Strong, enthusiastic team Consistency! Tie PBIS into all staff meetings & PD without adding extra work and meetings. Administrator support Share the data regularly Include 1-2 “negative” staff members on the team to help work out the kinks before implementing a PBIS activity Follow-thru with all PBIS activities so staff have reduced opportunities to complain Recognize when the “negative” staff do participate and point out the PBIS like strategies that they do

Ideas to Overcome: Not wanting to reward “bad” students Reteach staff the goal is to acknowledge behavior regardless of who displays the behavior Concrete expectations without subjectivity or emphasis on good or bad behavior (ex. no tardy instead of general responsibility) Share available data Collect data on number of tickets each student receives per class (would be hard for larger schools/classes, but could target a couple rather than all. Could also have students keep track on individual progress monitoring chart) Find staff members who are willing Provide more information about reward systems and need for creating opportunities for sense of belonging Reteach purpose of school-wide PBIS Provide multiple levels of rewards with school-wide opportunities for acknowledgement that do not rely on staff to give out tickets

Ideas to Overcome: Lack of consistent administrator support Designated administrator representative when administrator is unable to attend meeting Prioritize agenda so items admin has to be present for, are lumped together Scheduling team and staff meetings at time convenient for administrator Take attendance at meetings

Ideas to Overcome: Lack of time/too many demands for staff Consolidate initiatives and activities Be willing to let some activities go Start small (ex. target one grade) Provide time during PD & staff meetings for PBIS training and problem-solve difficulties with implementation Make reward systems easy to implement

Ideas to Overcome: Overworked behavior team Put time limit on meetings Seek out staff members who are not on other teams to participate Consider rotating members Consistent, regularly scheduled team meetings….scheduled all at beginning of year

Components of a Strong Behavior Team Ubly Secondary School  Set meeting schedule at the beginning of each year  Meets at least monthly  Review SWIS and other data  Attend all trainings as a group  Administrator fully supportive and actively participates in PBIS activities & meetings  Well-representative of staff who are respected by staff  External coaches support team  Enthusiastic team members with specific roles on team

Ideas to Overcome: Lack of adequate funding & resources Obtain district support to secure school budget funding (ex. present at board meetings) Solicit community donations Fundraising (student groups, PTO, boosters, etc) Focus on social opportunities rather than tangible rewards Start small and go slow

Creative Funding Ideas Bad Axe Junior High  Behavior team received a grant for $600 to start a bi-weekly Friday popcorn sale  Parent volunteers help a group of students pop, bag, and distribute the popcorn  Profit from sale supports PBIS reward system Caseville Secondary  PBIS team requested financial support from the booster club Owen-Gage Secondary  Behavior team has the idea of working with the school year book ad department to solicit additional funds for PBIS (extra $5 donation per ad for PBIS activities)

Ideas to Overcome: Inexperience/lack of knowledge & research of PBIS at secondary level External coach involvement Attend and seek out secondary conferences/schools implementing PBIS Collaborate with others within the building Collaborate with others from different areas and be willing to share Be up front at the beginning of implementation that the PBIS model is a work in progress and WILL change

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