Effective Behavior Support: A Systems Approach to Proactive Schoolwide Management

Being an educator in today’s American schools demands more than teaching reading, math, science, arts, and other academic content.Today’s educator must be able to accommodate students with significant learning and behavioral problems, teach in communities that are unable to support the school, and to work under conditions that are often counterproductive to teaching and learning.The impact of these conditions is felt in schools, neighborhoods, and families in a variety of ways.• Problem behavior is the single most common reason why students with disabilities are removed from regular school, work, and home settings (Reichle, 1990).• Up to 25.6% of eighth grade students reported they have been involved in a physical conflict with peers (U.S.Department of Education, 1995).• Only half of American school children report feeling safe in their schools (Leitman & Binns, 1993).• One third of parents nationally do not think their children are safe at school or in theirneighborhood (Rose & Gallup, 1998).• Three years after leaving school, 70% of antisocial youth have been arrested (Walker, Colvin, & Ramsey, 1995).• 82% of crimes are committed by people who have dropped out of school (APA Commission on Youth Violence, 1993).• More than half of all crime in the United States is committed by 5%-7% of youth between 10 and 20 years of age.(APA Commission on Youth Violence, 1993).• Almost 16% of high school students report being threatened with a weapon (U.S.Department of Education, 1995).• Eighth grade students report that up to 16.9% of their peers bring weapons to school (U.S.Department of Education, 1995).• “If antisocial behavior is not changed by the end of grade 3, it should be treated as a chronic condition much like diabetes.That is, it cannot be cured, but managed with the appropriate supports and continuing intervention” (Walker, Colvin, & Ramsey, 1995, p. 6).