| School-Wide Positive Behavior Support (SWPBS) is a program that can be described as a proactive measure to decrease incidences of misbehavior requiring school discipline while increasing academic achievement. Many studies have measured the impact of school-wide PBS by comparing academic achievement of a single school before and after the program was implemented; however, few studies have compared PBS schools to other schools that have not implemented the program. This study compared two schools that have implemented the program for 8 years to two schools that have never implemented the program. In order for a school to be considered a PBS school, a school must publicly post rules and expectations for all areas of the school, have a universal system for teaching rules and expectations, allow students to practice expected behaviors, have a universal system for rewarding students, conduct the School-Wide Evaluation Tool (SET) and score at least 80%, and have ongoing professional development for faculty and staff. All four schools had approximately the same demographics and were located in the same rural area. Data were obtained from the National Curve Equivalent scores in reading/language arts, math, science, and social studies on the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program for eighth-grade students. The study had a total of 280 participants, 70 from each school. The results of the study showed that there was a significant difference between the two types of schools in the areas of reading/language arts, math, and science. Of the three subject areas, reading/language arts and science showed the highest level of achievement in the schools that had implemented school-wide PBS with a significance level of .000 and .000 respectively. In the area of math, there was also a significant difference in the two schools that implemented school-wide PBS with a significance level of .046. The study also showed that social studies was the only subject that did not show a significant difference between the two types of schools with a significance level of .727. |
