Do you ever think about where you are and how you got there? I don't mean logistically how you got to this physical place. What I mean is, do you think about the series of events that led you to the profession, or the relationship, or yeah, maybe the actual city where you live? Every decision, big or small, when you could have gone one way and instead chose another. I think about it all the time. I can trace my current job back to a casual conversation sitting on the sideline at my little brother's soccer game nearly 20 years ago.
The moments that set off a series of events and culminate in something new go by a few different names:
- Ripple effect: a spreading, pervasive, and usually unintentional effect or influence[1]
- Butterfly effect: a property of chaotic systems by which small changes in initial conditions can lead to large-scale and unpredictable variation in the future state of the system[2]
- Happy accident: something good that happens as a result of chance instead of skill or planning[3]
All of these definitions describe the unintended results of the decisions we make. Coincidences we can trace back to a moment. What about the intended outcomes? Those go by another name: domino effect.
A domino effect is a "cumulative effect produced when one event initiates a succession of similar events."[4] If you’ve ever set up a domino run, the expression makes a lot of sense. Line up a series of dominoes standing on their short edge, one in front of the other. It’s a precarious lineup. If one domino falls, the rest are sure to follow. And that’s the difference! You know what’s going to happen once you tip that first domino. It’s predictable, intentional even. These are the systems and practices we want to implement.
Mechanical vs. Complex Systems
The most predictable systems are mechanical ones like engines, clocks, and assembly lines. They're the kind of things that are repeatable. They generate the same outcome every time. Some of the least predictable systems are complex. These systems are made up of many independent systems that work together to create an outcome. Healthcare, our government, and education are all examples of complex systems.[5],[6]
While individual schools operate on defined policies, schedules, and rules, it's the human element that makes them complex. It's us, team!
We bring experience, creativity, and independence to the equation. Students add their own colorful blend to the mix. Each day is different because we're different. That kind of unpredictability seems like the least likely environment to experience a domino effect, and yet...Research demonstrates that PBIS is an evidence-based practice for reducing exclusionary discipline and improving social, emotional, and behavioral outcomes.[7] In spite of the very human element guiding the way, it would seem PBIS implementation creates the predictability you need to set up your dominoes. How can that be?
The Predictability of PBIS
The PBIS Implementation Blueprint defines PBIS as “an evidence-based, multi-tiered, problem-solving, and team-based framework educators use to build a continuum of supports to promote all students’ social, emotional, behavioral, and mental health.”[8] PBIS is also the most widely implemented multi-tiered system of support (MTSS). Because it’s a framework, not a curriculum, it serves as the foundation for everything else you do as a school. The same set of systems, data, and practices serving one school are the same ones serving every school implementing PBIS, only the context changes.
While systems and practices make PBIS visible in your school, consistent, reliable data help you sustain those efforts over the long haul. Data not only give you feedback about student outcomes in your school, they also keep us on track to implement the systems and practices with fidelity. Data are one way to keep the human element of our complex PBIS system predictable.
If ever there was a time to invest in evidence-based practices creating predictable, positive spaces with the potential to achieve high-priority outcomes, it's now.
Here are just some of the dominoes research tells us PBIS implementation can set off in your school.
Improved Outcomes for Students with Disabilities
PBIS is implemented schoolwide. All students experience the continuum of support. The Tier 1 systems, data, and practices you implement serve as the foundational elements of the support you provide at Tiers 2 and 3. When all students access Tier 1 support, outcomes improve, including for students with disabilities.
How you incorporate schoolwide systems and practices into your classroom setting is one of the most influential ways to support students with disabilities. Some really good classroom practices to improve outcomes for all students...including students with disabilities are:
- Adapting the physical layout of the classroom to meet students’ physical needs.
- Developing and teaching predictable classroom routines to help students navigate their learning as independently as possible.
- Posting, defining, and teaching how your schoolwide expectations look and feel in your classroom.
- Offering pre-corrections or reminders to students before certain times of the day when behavior is likely to be more challenging.
- Positively acknowledging students when you notice them following expectations...correct them when they don’t.
Domino Effect in Action: When teachers implement PBIS in their classrooms, students with disabilities are:
- More likely to be academically engaged
- Less likely to experience suspensions and other exclusionary discipline
- More likely to improve social, emotional, and behavioral skills
Increased Student Engagement and Academic Achievement
Students spend the majority of their time in classrooms, which means classrooms are their primary place to experience your school's PBIS implementation. For schoolwide outcomes to improve, classroom-level implementation has to be done with fidelity. There are five classroom supports you won't want to skip. Make sure to:
- Link classroom practices back to your schoolwide framework
- Integrate instructional and social, emotional, and behavioral practices
- Make classroom support decisions guided by classroom data.
- Implement effective, equitable, culturally-relevant, evidence-based, preventative instructional practices based on student needs.
- Implement positive, proactive systems to support educators in each classroom
Domino Effect in Action: When teachers implement PBIS in their classrooms:
- Classroom disruptions decrease
- Academic performance improves, especially for students receiving additional behavior support
- Student attendance improves
- Students feel better about their own academic performance
Improved Mental Health and Wellbeing
As a multi-tiered framework, PBIS offers the structure you need to embed social, emotional, and mental health support directly into your schoolwide implementation. In this way, PBIS isn't an extra thing you do. It's an integrated model capable of organizing all the work you do as a team. Social workers sit at the table on Tier 1 teams. Students and families extend their voices to provide a wider context of your community than just what's in the walls of your building. At Tier 1, your team focuses on:
- Promoting wellness and mental health literacy for everyone, schoolwide.
- Using universal screening data to uncover externalizing and internalizing needs
- Embedding social, emotional, and behavioral curriculum in academic content with coaching support
Domino Effect in Action: When schools integrate school mental health within their PBIS framework, students experience:
- Greater access to targeted and intensive support
- Improved social, emotional, and behavioral skills and wellness
- Reduced referrals for intensive support.
On the surface, PBIS is a complex framework with lots of moving parts implemented by one of the most chaotic drivers of all: us. But, maybe that's the beauty of it. Every school is as unique as the community it serves. PBIS offers the structure we need to organize and prioritize the systems, data, and practices associated with the positive outcomes we know are possible. When we do it well, we create the predictability we need to lay out our dominoes and start knocking them down one at a time.
Over the course of the school year, we'll explore the domino effect PBIS implementation can have on the outcomes that matter most to you. From academics to attendance and your ability to predict the future, we'll talk about it all. We hope you'll join us.