Using PBIS to Ensure Racial Equity in School Discipline

Welcome, everybody,
to our session

on using PBIS to ensure racial
equity in school discipline.

My name is Kent McIntosh.

I am co-director of the
Center on Positive Behavioral

Interventions and Supports, and
I have the extreme privilege

to be able to present
with Dr. Nikole

Hollins-Sims from
the Pennsylvania

Department of Education.

We're going to talk through
for our session here

and we hope you get a lot
of good information out

of what we share.

So we are just super
excited about the chance

to share at this conference.

It's a really important one
and a great place for focus

on equity of all sorts.

And particularly
we're going to be

talking about racial equity
in school discipline.

I want to start with
some acknowledgments.

First, although this is
a virtual conference,

I am sitting at the
University of Oregon

and the University of Oregon is
located on Kalapuya llihi, which

is the traditional Indigenous
homeland of the Kalapuya

peoples.

Following treaties
between 1851 and 1855,

the Kalapuya peoples
were dispossessed

of their traditional
homeland and forcibly removed

to the Coast reservations
in Western Oregon.

Today, members of the Kalapuya
are descendants of the Kalapuya,

are members of the Confederated
Tribes of the Grand Ronde

and Confederated Tribes
of the Siletz Indians,

and continue to make important
contributions to our area,

to the state of Oregon
and to the world.

I also want to thank our
federal sponsors, including

OSEP and OESE, and
as well National

Center for Special
Education Research from IES

that I'll be sharing a
little bit of information.

And last but not least I want to
acknowledge the equity workgroup

of the Center on PBIS.

We have been around for going on
eight years now doing this work.

And although the
members around the table

have changed a
little bit over time,

this group has been
really, really important

in increasing the quality and
the cultural responsiveness

of the work that we're
doing and what we're going

to be able to share with you.

And so as we think
about today's session,

we really want to take
some time and go over

some important pieces of
equity and discipline.

So number 1, we're going to
share the effects of PBIS

on disciplinary equity.

And Ken is going to talk
about the great things

that PBIS can do
for school systems.

But we're also going to
think about introduction

to an equity-focused
PBIS approach,

to ensure that whatever we are
providing from a systems level

lens that with that
there's equity embedded

in everything that we do.

And lastly, we want to
share some resources

for increasing racial
equity in school discipline.

And we know that resources
are highly valued in the work

that everyone does.

And so we want to be
sure that we leave you

with some tangible things
that you can do tomorrow.

And thanks.

So I probably don't
need to describe

to you all the long
standing, as long as we've

been collecting federal data on
inequities in school discipline.

They have been there and
they have been persistent.

And I'm going to share with
you some federal data, these

come from the Civil Rights
Data Collection database.

This is some of the more recent
but not fully recent data

looking at Out of School
Suspension Risk Index,

which basically just means the
percent of students from each

group who have been suspended
out of school at least once

during the 2013/14 school year.

And if you look
across the bottom

if you start actually
on the left side

you can see all students,
that left side 5%.

Meaning that 1 in 20
students was suspended out

of school at least once
K-12 across US schools.

But you can see that risk
is not evenly distributed.

And so you can see if you
look right into the middle,

Black or
African-American students

are the most exposed to
exclusionary discipline

and out-of-school suspensions.

And the next group is
students with disabilities.

And of course, when we start
talking about and thinking

about intersectionality,
the suspension rate

for Black students
with disabilities

would go all the way
off of this chart

because of that compounding
risk that we see.

So many educators, including
Dr. Hollins-Sims and I

have been really
motivated to try

to make this change on
a really broad level.

And a lot of schools are
implementing PBIS or Positive

Behavioral Interventions
and Supports

to be able to not only make
schools more safe, predictable,

and positive, but also
more equitable as well.

What you can see here is
this is schools implementing

PBIS over the years.

And that one on the right
is the 19/20 school year.

So this is our
most current data.

We'll get some new numbers
in the next little bit.

But what you can see is
even in this global health

pandemic that we've had,
more schools than ever

are implementing PBIS.

Almost a third of schools
in the country supporting

over 15 million students.

And that number has just
continues to go up over time.

And one of the
reasons for that is

that if schools implement
PBIS with fidelity

they are likely to see
these really, really

important outcomes.

Reduce problem behavior, reduced
use of exclusionary discipline

in schools, including
those suspensions

as I was describing
before, increased

pro-social behavior,
social skills use,

increased social emotional
competence, improved

academic achievement, improved
perceptions of school safety,

and also improved
organizational health.

So also some adult outcomes.

And then I also want to
share with you some outcomes

for PBIS in high schools.

So you can see this.

These numbers are-- the research
base is a little bit smaller

but it really is emerging you
can see over the past few years

reduced use of
exclusionary discipline,

reduced alcohol and
other drug use, improved

attendance and improved
student engagement.

And so as we think about the
information that Kent just

described looking at high
schools for instance,

and the things that can come
out of implementing PBIS

with fidelity, we
know how important

that is for engagement,
for students

to want to remain in
school and complete it.

Pedro Noguera, who is
one of the, I would say,

premier people in
the equity work,

gave the following quote which
resonates so much with me,

"If you ran a hospital but you
were only known for serving

people who are healthy, well,
then you wouldn't be a very good

hospital."

And I think as we consider
those outcomes of PBIS

that we know can happen
when done with fidelity,

we have to be clear that it's
reaching all of the people

that we want it to.

And there are still some
groups of students that

are not getting what they need.

And that's why equity in
discipline in particular

is so important so those
outcomes that we just saw

are available and accessible
to those students as well.

And I think one of the things
that's really critical with PBIS

is the main focus of it is
building this positive school

culture.

And we've got to be really
careful when we intentionally

build a positive school culture,
whether we're building something

that makes all students
welcome and whether we

do something that makes students
feel like school is for them.

So this is a little bit of
a humorous picture of it,

but it might match unfortunately
the status of schools and maybe

even schools using PBIS.

So you see a big sign
in the middle that says,

welcome home of the dawgs.

And then if you look below,
you see the big sign policy

saying no dogs.

So we've got to be really,
really careful when we do this.

And especially for us and me
as a co-director of the center,

we are really, really concerned
about increasing equity.

And I have heard
over the years people

saying anecdotally things like,
PBIS only works in the suburbs.

Or it only works
for white students.

Or it maybe even increases
discipline disparities

between students of color or
minoritized student groups

and others.

That PBIS is an agent
of white supremacy.

And obviously, that is something
that is a huge concern for me

and a huge concern
for many of us.

And so one of the things
that we did, especially

as I started working more deeply
and took on co-director roles,

is to say, let's look, let's
look at the data that we have

and see whether
things are actually

better with PBIS in terms of
equity, whether things are worse

or whether things
are about the same.

So if you remember
those blue bars

that I showed you before for Out
of School Suspension Risk Index

that were national data.

The reason why I showed
you those ones that

were from a few years
ago is because we

completed an evaluation
brief looking at this.

So you can see the
blue bar on the left

is all schools in the country.

It's over 95,000 schools.

And if you remember
that all students,

that 5% that I was
describing are 1 in 20,

if you look at
the green columns,

those green columns are schools
that are implementing PBIS

with adequate fidelity
of implementation

using a validated measure.

And so if you look, if we
start on the left side,

you can see, OK, 5% nationally
and then 4% for schools

using PBIS.

So that's a 20% reduction
in out-of-school suspension.

That's nice.

But as you can see
the differences

are not even all the way across.

And so you see that where
the green bar is lower,

that means that there are
fewer students receiving

out-of-school suspensions.

And so you can see that bar
is lower for Black students.

That bar is lower for
multiracial students,

and it's lower for
Pacific Islander students.

And then that question of, does
it only work for white students?

If you look all the
way on the right side,

white students are
no more or less

likely to be suspended in
schools using PBIS than not.

So the decreases that
we see nationwide

in out-of-school suspensions are
primarily for, as you can see,

Black, multiracial and
Pacific Islander students,

not white students.

Now, one of the things that
I think is really important

is I look at this
picture and this is not

a high five moment for me.

This is not a, yay,
we've solved everything.

This is a 2%
reduction if you look

for Black students in
out-of-school suspension rates.

But what it tells us,
or at least tells me,

is that at the very least
it's not making a thing--

PBIS is not making things worse.

It's not that PBIS only
works for white students,

but yet it's not the
outcomes that we want to see.

It's a little bit better,
but not nearly as effective

in terms of decreasing that
discipline gap than we want.

So some research teams have
actually looked and said,

are there parts of PBIS that are
more related to racial equity

in school discipline?

And this is particularly
between Black students

and all other students or
black and white students.

And these two separate
research teams

using two separate samples,
even separate fidelity

of implementation measures,
looked and found a few things

of PBIS, a few
critical features were

more related to equity
and school discipline.

Number 1, teams that use
their data for decision-making

more often were
more likely to have

equity in school discipline.

Number 2, teams that implemented
PBIS in classrooms, not just

common areas around the school,
more likely to see equity

in school discipline.

And also actually more
likely to have reduced

use of overall
exclusionary discipline

and increased sustainability
of implementation too.

So if you are
implementing in schools

or supporting schools
that are implementing,

it is absolutely
critically important

that they're using classroom
systems, not just non-classroom.

And then the third one which
both research teams found

is that the greater
implementation of formal reward

or acknowledgment systems, so
we're talking about systems

for recognizing students
when they do things

that we want them to
do, had greater equity

in school discipline.

That is across multiple states
across different samples

in there.

And so what that
tells us is we've

spent a bunch of time talking
about the discipline gap.

We may very well be seeing
an acknowledgment gap

where we're actually
not providing

these evidence-based practices
of behavior-specific praise,

possibly also
opportunities to respond,

things that we know are
absolutely critical,

maybe we're not providing those
equitably across student groups.

And so when I think
about this I go back

to my English teaching days.

And one of the authors
who really spoke to me

was Alex Haley, author
of Roots and also

the ghost author of The
Autobiography of Malcolm X.

When he was talking
about his writing,

and this really resonated
with me, he said in my writing

as much as I could I tried to
find the good and praise it.

When we look for
that behavior that we

want to see and
acknowledge it, we're

going to see it more often.

So taking that research that
I just shared and our practice

experience and other
research over time,

the center has
developed-- and you

can go to the pbis.org,
the equity topic page,

and see all of
our free resources

for increasing equity
in school discipline.

And most of these fit
under this large approach

of talking about what are
the most important things

we can do to increase racial
and ethnic equity in school

discipline.

And because this is
a complex problem,

there is not going to
be any one solution that

is going to fix it all.

Instead, our research
and our experience

tells us that there are five
best bets for doing that.

And Ken, I'm really excited that
you're talking about these five

best bets because
in Pennsylvania,

we've been able to work with
a lot of school districts

around these five.

And number 1 is to collect,
use, and report keyword word,

disaggregated discipline data.

You can look at your
aggregate and come up

with some actions
and some solutions.

But remember we said we want to
know if the hospital is serving

everyone.

The only way for
us to do that is

to get that disaggregated data,
to drill it down and figure out

which groups are not
getting what they need to be

successful in our settings.

And so that's crucial
if your systems,

your data systems
are able to provide

that, that's a necessary piece.

Number 2 is to implement
a behavior framework that

is preventive, multi-tiered, and
culturally responsive ala PBIS.

PBIS is that tiered framework.

It creates the lever
for equity to live.

Again, in Pennsylvania
our definition

really speaks to
giving students what

they need at that right moment.

And that right moment is
in a tiered structure,

when done again with fidelity
and through a culturally

responsive mindset.

So ensuring that
there's relevance there

and connection for the
people that we're supporting.

Number 3 ties
directly into that,

use of engaging
academic instruction

to reduce the opportunity gap.

It's really important to
think about what Kent just

highlighted, that acknowledgment
gap that might also be there.

So those increasing
opportunities to respond,

building and priming
background knowledge,

using explicit instruction,
giving feedback,

those are critical
practices that

are so important for that
engagement to happen.

And we know that when students
are not academically engaged,

behaviors tend to go up
because there's boredom

or there's not a
relevance for them.

So we want to have that happen.

Number 4, develop policies
with accountability

for disciplinary equity.

We know that policy
drives practice.

And so we have to
have policies that

are very explicit about what
it is that we look to do

and what we want to see as it
relates to equitable discipline.

It can't simply be a
nondiscriminatory statement

that's a statement
in and of itself.

We need the action to be very
much outlined in those policies

that we develop.

And number 5, I love this
one, teach strategies

to neutralize implicit bias.

Whether we agree on this or not,
we all have implicit biases.

There are things
that we may not even

be aware of, that's
why they're implicit.

So as we think about the
things that we encounter,

the people that we
encounter, automatically we

have associations going on
in our brain that tells us

certain messages to think
about when we see these actions

or these people in front of us.

We need strategies to help
us check that thinking.

And one of those is
neutralizing routines.

And they need to be
brief if then doable.

And they can be individual,
they can be team-based.

So if you're in a
grade level team,

you could have your own grade
level team neutralizing routine.

And it would say that
if this behavior occurs,

these are the steps
that we are going

to take to ensure that we don't
make quick, irrational decisions

that could ultimately,
unfortunately, lead

to disproportionate outcomes
for certain groups of students.

So these five points are
super critical to this work

and can be easily thought
about in your next steps

as you move forward.

And so as we think about what
I just highlighted and now

putting it all together, we joke
that this is the refrigerator

magnet of PBIS.

So we all have it
tattooed somewhere

to remind us of
how important it is

to keep all of these pieces
connected and intersecting.

Equity as you can see lives
directly in the center.

It has to, it has to drive
everything that we do.

The outcomes that
we hope to achieve

are high expectations
for each student.

But we have to get there
through some guideposts,

through a journey.

So in order to do that, we
have to begin with that data.

What was number 1
in our 5 points?

It was that being able to
look at disaggregated data.

So right there is one
of those key components.

The next piece is
systems, and that's really

focusing on us as adults.

So what can we do
at the systems level

to bring about
significant shift?

And that typically begins
with professional learning.

And that's for any educator.

No matter who is in
front of a child,

whether that's the cafeteria
worker, whether that

is the school
secretary, whether that

is the teacher, the
principal, you name it,

we all need a form of
professional learning

to really help us embrace
cultural humility.

And culture is very
broad when I say that.

So even though our
focus is racial equity,

cultural humility says that, I
don't know Kent's background,

Kent doesn't know my
background, but I'm

willing to learn
about Kent, and I'm

humble enough to know
that I won't know it all.

That's a form of
professional learning

that can be done
through coaching as well

as our traditional methods.

And then lastly, when
we have those pieces

all together intersecting, we
see the practices are informed.

And with that informed
practice we're

now adapting those
practices based

on what we've learned
about the different groups

that we're serving.

And we're meeting the
needs and we're also

respecting the values of
the people we're serving,

whether that's students
and/or staff or communities.

That was great.

Hollin, I wanted
to add one thing,

you've probably seen a lot--
this word equity being thrown

around the last 15 months.

And it's really important
when somebody does something

like slaps equity in the middle
of their refrigerator magnet,

you better be able to ask them,
what does that really mean,

and is that really
driving what you're doing?

Or was that something that
felt good in the moment

to be able to add?

And I think you ought to be
a little skeptical of us just

sharing this information without
being able to share with you

research.

And so the good news is we
have over the past few years

a great deal of new research,
primarily case studies showing

how this can be done.

And in early childhood
education settings,

so from our colleagues
at NCPMI, some

of the work that
we've done at the PBIS

Center and some other projects
all the way through where we're

really excited that this
five-point approach,

this equity-focused
approach actually does

seem to be increasing equity
more than that little bit

that I was sharing before.

And so I wanted to share
with you one particular study

that we've just completed, and
this is with research funding

from the National Center
for Special Education

Research from IES.

We did a one-year professional
development intervention

for all of staff in a
school implementing PBIS.

And what you can see
is the schools in blue

are the ones who received
our intervention.

And then the ones in
orange are the ones

who got it a year later.

So we can see before they
looked very similar and then

afterwards.

And what you can see is
this is the Risk Index.

So this is the risk for
office discipline referrals

of being sent out of the
classroom for discipline

challenges.

So you can see pretty similar.

But for our schools in
the treatment group,

32% of Black students
were sent to the office

at least once, and then that
dropped by more than half,

whereas it stayed about the
same for our waitlist group.

And this was a tightly
controlled randomized trial

that was just accepted
for publication.

So you might be asking, well,
how do we get some of this?

We're implementing PBIS,
but are we really doing it

with an equity focus?

How can we get this information?

So of course, anything
that we do we share out.

And I want to share
with you a few resources

that you can look at on your
own and be able to access.

So number 1 is our PBIS Cultural
Responsiveness Field Guide.

It's just been reformatted
and re-released

with cleaner live links.

And so you can get that, it's
a really, really deep dive

into cultural responsiveness
and picking up

on those elements
of cultural humility

that Dr. Hollins-Sims described.

And then going
specifically within that

and then some elaboration on it,
we have a tool for school teams

to examine, maybe with students,
maybe with families, maybe

with community members, their
school-wide expectations

or values, and that
school-wide teaching matrix

to be able to examine
how well the system fits

the strengths, needs,
and values of the people

who it's intending
to serve, and maybe

identify some of those hidden
biases that were accidentally

baking into our systems.

Also helping with students,
making sure that when

we provide that equitable
acknowledgment that we're

doing it in a way that's
valued by students and students

have some voice in doing that.

So we have this activity
called the Praise Preference

Assessment.

And then Dr. Hollins-Sims talked
about that neutralizing routine.

What can you do in the moment
when your snap decision might

be to send a student
out of the classroom,

and it might be
more likely to send

Black students, or
Black male students,

or Black students
with disabilities

out of the classroom?

How can we actually keep
that an instructional moment?

So you can look at and access
those materials anytime you

like, they're freely available.

And so just to
recap as you think

about that tiered
framework, and as we said,

one of the key
components of those five

was to think about a
behavioral tiered framework.

And so we wanted
to just give you

some go-to's as you
think about next steps

as to what the tiers could
look like as you embed equity

into all of your practices.

So when you think about tier
1, that's that core universal,

equity is tier 1 really.

So it really begins at that
foundational universal space.

Some of the things
we've already said,

however, we just wanted
to reinforce them.

We're honoring
student strengths.

So being asset-based,
focused on what

they bring to the table
rather than the deficit.

And honoring their voice.

Students are so in-tune
with what they want

and what they need.

And so as we're
building these systems,

we have to keep
their voice center

so that we're able to know that
we're making decisions that

ultimately will impact
them in a way that

makes the most sense for them.

We also need to think about
that professional learning.

And even though it might
be difficult sometimes,

self-awareness is a part of
that professional learning.

So as we think about those
implicit biases, those things

that as Kent said,
may accidentally

be misinforming our system,
we have to even know

that that's happening.

And that's that process
of self-awareness

and its things as simple as,
and Kent will attest to this,

looking at the behaviors that
you're sending office discipline

referrals for, are
they subjective?

So disrespect,
defiance, disruption,

the things that are
highly ambiguous

tend to lead to some of those
disproportionate outcomes.

Being self-aware allows
us to be able to drill

down and understand
what might be

causing some of those
referrals to come to us.

We need to always consider and
center the families and students

again when we're looking
at the values and the norms

that they hold.

And also the communities
that we have around us,

what are the norms
there and how can we

start to interface
with our community

to help build out school-wide,
classroom-wide expectations?

And then back to
that acknowledgment

gap, how do we create equitable
acknowledgment systems that

again utilize the voice of
students and communities

to ensure that what
we're providing

is most applicable for them?

At the advanced tiers, I
won't take too much time here,

but I just wanted to
highlight that at tier 2

it's an access concern.

We want students to have
access at that advanced tier

level based on the needs
that they're providing.

Remember, we said it has
to be at that right moment.

Tier 2 creates that space for
students in smaller groups

to get a little bit more than
what they're getting at tier 1.

And it's those increased
opportunities for feedback

or I'm sorry, increased
instructional opportunities,

having more feedback, positive
homeschool communication.

Not always calling to say,
Johnny did something wrong,

but increasing that positive
communication when we catch

him doing something right.

And then at tier 3, it's more
individualized, contextualized.

We're really engaging and
authentically engaging families

at that table to determine what
are the goals we should set,

what makes sense to have
consistency from home to school

to community?

Keyword word, trust.

At that intensive level,
families, communities,

and students need to
be able to trust us.

We need to be able
to trust them.

And that is a piece of
self-awareness as well.

So all of these things
as we said intersect

in some way, that
two-way communication,

it can't be us versus them
or just us talking at them.

Them being student,
family, community.

But how are we talking together
and making shared decisions?

And this last one
is so critical,

limiting those assumptions about
home life and family values

simply because a
family doesn't do

what you did when
you were a youth,

does not mean that the practices
that they have in their home

are not relevant or
are important to them.

So it's important that we
limit those assumptions

and focus on what we can do
together rather than separate

it.

And then as we think about
significant disproportionality

and discipline, particularly as
it relates to special education,

we hope that we've given you
a nice chunk of information

about the importance of
focusing on disciplinary equity

because that is the way that
we can start to mitigate some

of these significant
disproportionate outcomes

that we're seeing in the field.

And so here are a few things
to consider as we wrap up,

policy review.

Looking at your discipline
policies to really see,

are they explicitly tied to
those equitable practices

that we've highlighted
previously?

And if not, what can we do to
start to ensure that they are?

So again, a nondiscriminatory
statement is fine,

but it's just simply not enough.

Those policies have to
be explicit and connected

to the practices.

I've talked a little
bit about this.

It's important for us
to take an overall look

at our disciplinary
decisions and say,

are these decisions
that tend to be higher

on our radar very
subjective or could

be a piece of vulnerable
decision points, which

Kent knows all too well?

As we think about
vulnerable decision points,

there often as a result
of implicit biases

based on ambiguity.

And I'll quote Ken again
because I use his quote often,

"Ambiguity is
disproportionality's best

friend."

And it can't be more true.

That is so important
to remember as we

think about making decisions
that are equitable in nature.

I can't say enough that a
tiered system of support

needs to reflect
the whole child.

So not only academics,
which we know we

focus on a lot, but also that
behavioral component, which

we've highlighted here,
and then social, emotional,

and trauma-informed domains.

All of those create
a whole child.

They come to us in that space
of all of those things operating

together, we can't
silo them out.

And lastly, evaluation
of overall school climate

is really important for that
space of belonging and dignity.

Kent gave a great example
of, we welcome the dawgs,

but the dogs are
not welcome here.

We want every space that our
educators and that our students

occupy to be a place of
belonging and dignity.

That's the goal of equity.

At the core it's
about human dignity.

Now, what a great
way to wrap up.

I want to highlight that you
can get all of our resources

on www.pbis.org.

Come to our site, check
out the Equity page,

and look through all of
the resources that we have.

It's been an absolute
pleasure to get a chance

to work with Dr.
Hollins-Sims again.

It's always great.

If you want to get a
hold of either of us,

you've got our contact
information here.

And then lastly, I
just want to thank

the Office of Special
Education Programs

for the opportunity
to share here.

And thank you all for
watching our session.

Have a great day.