Positive Behavior Support Project (PBS) Professional Development Clusters

The Office of Management and Budget has put a moratorium on all clusters, and providers are only allowed to submit one more final list of completed participants. The PBS for Individual Students Cluster is no longer open to participants. The School-wide PBS Cluster is open for pre-registered participants to complete by November. All materials must be submitted by November 3, 2008 to Sarah Hearn at the Center for Disabilities Studies.

The Positive Behavior Support Project is currently sponsoring two professional development clusters. 

• School-wide PBS Cluster
• PBS for Individual Students Cluster

Frequently Asked Questions

Overall Questions
Cluster Enrollment Policy
School-wide PBS Cluster Questions
PBS for Individual Students Cluster Questions

Survival Guides: Step-by-Step outline of cluster process

School-wide PBS Cluster Survival Guide
PBS for Individual Students Survival Guide

Cluster Hours Log Sheet

School-wide PBS Excel Sheet for Hours
PBS for Individual Students Sheet for Hours

School-wide Cluster: Individual Project

What is the Individual project for the School-wide PBS Cluster?
What is the Individual Professional Development Plan guide?
What are some ideas of projects? 

PBS School-wide Cluster Reflection Prompts

Cultural Competency and PBS Training Response Prompt
School-wide PBS Training Response Prompt
Family School Collaboration Training Response Prompt
Assessment Training Response Prompt

PBS for Individual Students Cluster Reflection Prompts

Functional Behavior Assessment Response Prompt
Behavior Support Plan Response Prompt
Person Centered Planning Participant Response Prompt

Frequently Asked Questions:

Overall Questions

What is a professional development cluster?

It’s the latest craze in professional development.  Everyone is doing it!   Clusters are a focused group of professional development experiences that lead to new and measurable knowledge and skills

What are the different types of hours required? 

There are three types of hours required by the professional standards board for the clusters.  First are training hours that are provided by the PBS project or approved PBS District Cadre person.  The application hours can include a variety of activities such as, time you spend on program development, meetings, presentations, data collection, calculation, analysis, individual project work, etc.  Finally the reflection hours include time you spend on writing your responses to trainings provided and goal setting with the knowledge gained. 

Why was the PBS Cluster developed?

These PBS clusters were developed as a way to compensate those team members who attend the team trainings and who actively participate in developing and implementing their school-wide PBS system, and/or develop and implement strategies to support students with more intensive behavioral needs. 

What is the review process? 

Where can find out additional information? 

http://www.doe.state.de.us/ProfStandardsBoard/index.htm

Cluster Enrollment Policy

Download this document for policy.

School-wide PBS Cluster Questions

What is the School-wide PBS Cluster? 

This cluster was designed based on training and activities that had been pre-established through the Delaware PBS Project.  Schools must have a participating, representative school team for implementation, but not all members of the team have to participate in the cluster.  

Who is eligible for the School-wide PBS Cluster?

A school may have a team of no more than 10-12 people, unless the number has to be higher to make the team representative.  For example, two fifth grade teachers cannot be on the team if it already has 12 members.  However in a large school with multiple departments, grade level teams and/or staff a single representative from each area may put the team over 12 members and this is permissible.  Administrators are eligible for the cluster, but at this time paraprofessionals are not.  It’s not our rule; it’s the Professional Standards Board’s rule.  Realize this does not mean that you should not have paraprofessionals on your team.  They’re a great resource!  If other school staff wish to participate on the team and in the cluster, they may rotate in next year.  So a teacher may step down as the second grade representative so another second grade teacher my take that spot on the team for the following year. 

How long does it take to complete the SW PBS Cluster? 

The cluster training and activities can take from one to two school years to complete.  All required training will be provided in a year’s time, but if you miss a session, it will be offered the next school year by project staff or by a district cadre person. 

When do I submit my pre-project essay? 

The pre-project essay should be submitted when you decide to participate in the cluster.  If you submit the essay that addresses the three main areas requested, it will receive a 3 on the scoring rubric and your name will be entered in the master list of participants.  If there is a concern with your essay you will be notified so you may address any missing areas.

What if I had a training which covered the same content but was provided by someone not part of the PBS project?

We will review training to see if it covers the same knowledge and skills integral to this cluster.  The training cannot of have occurred prior to the start of this Professional Development Cluster (July, 2002).  Please contact Sarah Hearn to find out if your training applies.

PBS for Individual Students Cluster Questions

What is the PBS for Individual Students Cluster? 

This cluster was designed based on training and activities that had been pre-established through the Delaware PBS Project.  Schools must have a participating, representative school team for implementation, but not all members of the team have to participate in the cluster.  

Who is eligible for the School-wide PBS Cluster?

A school team for individual supports is usually about 6.  Administrators are eligible for the cluster, but at this time paraprofessionals are not.  It’s not our rule; it’s the Professional Standards Board’s rule.  Realize this does not mean that you should not have paraprofessionals participate with the team.  They’re a great resource!  If other school staff wish to participate on the team and in the cluster, they may rotate in next year. 

How long does it take to complete the PBS for Individuals Cluster? 

The cluster training and activities can take from one to two school years to complete.  All required training will be provided in a year’s time, but if you miss a session, it will be offered the next school year by project staff or by a district cadre person. 

When do I submit my materials? 

It is best to hold on to all materials until you have completed the work.  If you have questions about any particular product you are always welcome to ask your district coach or PBS staff.  All team materials that are to be submitted once, but count for all participants, can be submitted upon completion. 

What if I had a training which covered the same content but was provided by someone not part of the PBS project?

We will review training to see if it covers the same knowledge and skills integral to this cluster.  The training cannot of have occurred prior to the start of this Professional Development Cluster (July, 2002).  Please contact Sarah Hearn to find out if your training applies.

School-wide Cluster: Individual Project

What is the individual project for the School-wide PBS Cluster?

The individual project is decided on by the participant.  Discuss your project ideas with Sarah Hearn to receive guidance, learn what others are doing, and ensure you are moving in the right direction.    You may take any aspect of the training and demonstrate how this impacted an aspect of your personal practice or what you created that was beyond the products covered in the training.  When possible identify a data source to be used to evaluate effectiveness.   This can include anecdotal sources of data (discussions w/ staff, students or families) as well as quantitative data(school referrals data; pre-post questionnaires, etc.).  It is possible to pair up or work in small groups with other team members for your personal product if you are working on something that extends beyond the School-wide required team products.  When deciding on the individual project let the 6 questions adapted from the Individual Professional Development Plan below be a guide and when writing up the project summary.  See examples of project ideas below. 

What is the Individual Professional Development Plan guide?

1. Goals - what are your goals and how do they relate to the school-wide PBS program goals?
2. Objectives - what specific objectives do you expect to accomplish?
3. Potential activities - what specific activities will you undertake that are directly related to the objectives?
4. Relevance - how is the scope of the plan relevant to your role in the school or the PBS team, your students, your building goals, etc.?
5. Evaluation criteria - what are the criteria for determining the success of your objectives? When and how will you adjust your plan if needed?
6. Portfolio - What evidence from your proposed activities will you collect for each goal and objective?

What are some ideas of projects? 

• Describe how you taught school-wide expectations in your classroom.  Data source could be comparison of classroom referrals from previous year and implementation year. 
• Select books to use with students which reinforced school expectations or character education components.  List discussion prompts you used with students or have students respond to written prompts.  Reflect on how effective these were in reinforcing the expectations. 
• Submit a special project you did for the School-wide program beyond the required products – such as developing a PBS website, a special brochure, or special presentations you did to the community or family groups.  Write briefly about the effectiveness of the product or presentation. 
• Describe special boosters you did in your classroom or in other school settings throughout the year and how they worked – used discipline data if possible. 
• Use of CORE Model in conferencing trained in Collaboration with Families Training.  Data source could be a brief student or parent/guardian questionnaire about the process.  
• Set a target number of positive contacts home to parents to make each week and reflect on how this improved relationships with families or student behavior.
• Develop a parent brochure/information packet.
• Survey different stakeholders in the school to develop a list of quotes about how PBS has impacted them personally, their school or their child. 
• Keep a tally of the number of positive reflections you make compared to questions, directions, or suggestions in 10 meetings with family members (or even other staff in meetings).  Note any differences in the other person’s responses when you are being more reflective.
• Write an article about PBS for a district or community newsletter (outside the school).
• Make a workbook for incoming grade students that would include an explanation of the school PBS program, reinforcement system, etc.  The workbook can include morning activities such as reflection questions and different scenarios for students to solve.  The final activity will be a writing prompt. 
• Paint lines (one for each grade level) out in front of the school where students congregate before school.  Data collected may show a decrease in the number of behavior referrals in that location due to the new imposed structure.
• With the School-wide program utilized on the busses, measure the difference in bus behavior referrals before and after the bus drivers use reinforcers.
• Use grade level meetings with students and staff to set goals for the upcoming month for decreasing behavior referrals and increasing collected reinforcers.  Data can be used to compare previous months and also against previous years.
• Strategy for improving student pro-social skills includes saying “good morning” to all students coming down the hallway each morning.  Count the number of times a “good morning” response is given and established a base line.  Continue to say “good morning” everyday, and pick another day to take data.  Ideally an improvement in the response rate would improve.  The use of the social skill of saying “good morning” would need to be tied into students understanding and meeting the school expectations.
• To reduce the number of office referrals from the classroom try conducting a training session on specific classroom management procedures.  Referral data can be collected to ideally show the improvement after the training.

(Thanks to the teachers who shared some of the ideas above)

PBS School-wide Cluster Reflection Prompts

Cultural Competency and PBS Training Response Prompt

In one or two words, sum up your feelings after participating in this training?  (e.g.  Wow, eye-opening, fun, scary, etc.) What activity conducted at this training has been most influential to you?   What activity in which you participated in did you find to be the most difficult?  How can you use the activities and knowledge gained today when implementing school-wide PBS? 

School-wide PBS Training Response Prompt

What brought you here today?  What do you see as the reason for putting a consistent school-wide system in place?  What changes to you expect to see after developing and implementing school-wide PBS?  How do you think it will affect your personal practice? 

Family School Collaboration Training Response Prompt

(Choice either #1 or #2, you do NOT need to respond to both)

1)  A.  Think about the operation of your school-wide team. Describe:

• the ways in which your practices have changed (if any) as a result of what you learned in the summer family-school collaboration workshop;
• your plans for further development of family-school collaboration in your practice (if any);
• barriers that must be overcome in order for change to occur.

     B.  Think about your personal interactions with families so far in this school year. Describe:

• the ways in which your practices have changed (if any) as a result of what you learned in the summer family-school collaboration workshop;
• your plans for further development of family-school collaboration in your practice (if any);
• barriers that must be overcome in order for change to occur.

2)  A.  Think about what you have done this past year to collaborate and engage with families either as a team or individually.   Describe what has gone well and what was challenging.

     B.   Given the information shared in this training on Family-School Collaboration, describe what would you do to further develop family school collaboration in your school and/or in your practice.

Assessment Training Response Prompt

Reflection in this area can be completed by analyzing your data sources as a team, and sharing results with fellow staff members. 

PBS for Individual Students Cluster Reflection Prompts

Functional Behavior Assessment Response Prompt

Why is it important to determine the function of the problem behavior?  What similarities and differences do you see between the FBA process and your school’s current problem-solving method for students with challenging behavior? How can you use the knowledge gained today when correcting and preventing behavior problems? 

Behavior Support Plan Response Prompt

How might one of your students benefit from having a Behavior Support Plan (behaviorally, academically, emotionally, socially, etc.)? Describe any organizational changes that may need to take place within your school or classroom in order to effectively implement Behavior Support Plans.  How do you envision Behavior Support Plans fitting in with your School-wide PBS program?

Person Centered Planning Participant Response Prompt

What brought you here today? What are the benefits of using the Person-Centered Planning strategies (MAPs, PATHs, Circle of Friends, Support Circles) in your work with individual students and/or for school-wide action-planning? How do you think that creating a MAP or PATH with an individual student might change the way you work with and/or view that student?