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Getting teachers “up and running” at the beginning of the school year in terms of classroom management is critical to the behavior and academic success of students. The first few weeks can make or break the school year. This is particularly true in many of our schools that have historically struggled with misbehavior. Teacher attrition statistics reflect that around 50% of teachers entering the field leave within 5 years, most claiming issues with behavior as one of their greatest concerns. Since many teachers receive little to no training in classroom management prior to entering the field, this is not surprising. Teacher attrition not only costs the district money, but it also compromises student achievement and bankrupts organizational memory. It is my charge to influence teacher preparation programs toward putting a greater emphasis on classroom management strategies. However, until that time comes, one strategy that districts and schools might pursue is to build competency with classroom management by addressing it in 3 areas:
- Training: More intensive pre-school training for new teachers and targeted schools. When I say more intensive, I’m not necessarily saying more.I mean providing increased practice with feedback to build fluency in targeted skills like reinforcing and correcting behavior. We need folks actively doing what they are being taught so that trainers can observe and provide feedback in a way that helps them improve and retain what they are learning. Incidentally, one strategy for achieving this is by providing performance-based tasks through scenario-based training. Sit and gets are not cutting it, and the research supports this. Showers, Joyce, and Bennett did some well-known research on professional development (PD) outcomes. They actually found that there is 0% transfer of skills after professional development focused only on theory, and only about a 5% transfer of skills, even with PD that includes practice and feedback. Don’t lose hope though. While the same research demonstrated that the folks who exclusively received theory-based PD only retained about 10% of the knowledge and 5% of the skills taught participants actually retained 60% of the knowledge and skills learned during the trainings that provided the opportunity for practice with feedback. This is extremely important as this increased capacity accelerates the coaching process, which was shown to have a 95% plus impact on the generalization of skills into the classroom.
- Building coaching capacity and increasing the number of folks who have the ability to provide classroom management coaching (at the district and school level) is needed to ensure that the skills taught to teachers will effectively transfer into the classroom. The behavioral sciences are very clear on this. Trainings are antecedent strategies. The job of antecedent strategies is to get behavior moving. However, movement will only be short term if the behaviors of concern are not quickly met with reinforcement. It is the coaches’ job to bridge that gap between attempting the skills and utilizing the skills in a way that results in naturally occurring reinforcement. In other words, help move the teacher to a point where they are able to recognize that his or her classroom management skills are resulting in improved behavior. The coach should provide feedback and encouragement related to targeted skills in order to bridge this gap. Once folks can see that it’s working, they will continue to do it, even in the absence of the coach because of the resulting meaningful consequences.
School personnel to develop as coaches might include:
- AP’s in elementary schools
- Deans
- Academic Coaches
- Guidance Counselors
- ESE Chairs
- Designees (e.g. lead teachers, mentors)
District Personnel to develop as coaches might include:
- Professional developers
- Psychologists
- Program Specialist
- Instructional Partners
- Behavior Analyst
- Social Workers
- Designees (e.g. consultants, district mentors)
3. Using Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS) Utilizing the MTSS logic to provide Systematic Tiered support of targeted schools at the beginning of the year from stakeholders is intended to be simple and efficient. District level personnel (listed above) might be trained in a “train the coach” model in order to initially provide support with Tier I strategies during the first few weeks. These personnel would then quickly fade to deliberately support school personnel by coaching them through Tier II (i.e. targeted group interventions) and Tier III strategies (i.e. individualized coaching).
The use of district staff to provide greater support of Tier I at the beginning of the year is not intended to compound their workload. In fact, the deliberate support to targeted schools in this area will decrease the focus and size of their workload by reducing the frequency of misbehavior and therefore unnecessary intervention (e.g. unneeded behavior intervention plans; unwarranted evaluations; unnecessary consultations); moreover, supporting Tier I early in the year will allow for increased focus and effectiveness of support and intervention to the schools and classrooms who have the greatest need.
Tiered Strategy Examples
Tier I strategies might include very brief but frequent walk-throughs by all involved to observe and reinforce very simple things like the posting of expectations and rules, the completion of a daily self-assessment checklist, reviewing and reinforcing expectations, or the completion of simple student involved formative assessments related to classroom management. Here is a example by Randy Sprick called CHAMPs versus Daily Reality Rating Scale that can be used as a self assessment or used by the teacher to have the whole class self-assess after activities.
Tier II strategies might include retraining a group of teachers by school coaches in targeted skills, and then deliberately focusing on those skills through increased follow up and feedback. Teachers might then be supported with brief weekly follow ups as group. And finally, Tier III strategies would likely involve individualized coaching to meet the needs of the teachers who are still struggling. District personnel support can be more peripheral…primarily a support for school coaches to reach out to for consultation.
Note: Prior to any large initiative (not just classroom management), a school leadership team with key stakeholders should develop an action plan with the following key elements that can be applied at each Tier for shaping organizational behavior:
- Desired results (what do you want to see happen) and behaviors (what do folks need to do to make this happen) that align with these results
- Identify a system of measurement
- How will these results be measured?
- How will staff behaviors (performance) be measured?
- A system of feedback
- Who, when, and how feedback will be provided to staff on results?
- Who, when, and how feedback will be provided to staff on performance?
- Will it be individualized?
- Will it be group?
- A system of reinforcing behavior and celebrating success using targeted short and long term goals.
Utilizing a Tiered Approach may be worth the initial investment, especially if you support a school that struggles with behavior. Strategically, this procedure is intended to capitalize on simple and time-efficient processes through a collaborative approach as a basis for systematically strengthening and supporting classroom management skills. If you are interested in learning more about performance management strategies to help your organization, school (or classroom!) be successful, my absolute favorite book on the topic is entitled Bringing Out the Best in People by Aubrey Daniels. You will not be sorry.
Dr. Paul Gavoni has successfully supported multiple struggling schools in the turnaround process. As a behavior analyst who focuses on organiz
ational behavior management and behavioral leadership, Paul provides administrative teams, teachers, and staff with coaching and consultation in analyzing and developing behavior and performance management systems directly aligned with student achievement. Contact Paul at gavonip@hotmail.com or check out more articles at schoolleadershipsolutions.com
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