Illinois Statewide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports

TLDR

More than 1,000 Illinois schools are implementing schoolwide positive behavior support (SWPBS) to enhance outcomes for students and staff. The study aims to develop infrastructure for SWPBS implementation and analyze its effects on student behavior and academic outcomes across 428 Illinois schools. Illinois created layered support structures and used hierarchical linear modeling to evaluate SWPBS implementation across schools. Most schools implemented SWPBS with fidelity, sustaining or improving performance, and fidelity was linked to better social and math outcomes. The paper discusses study limitations and implications.

Abstract

More than 1,000 Illinois schools are implementing schoolwide positive behavior support (SWPBS) to enhance outcomes for students and staff. Consequently, Illinois established layered support structures to facilitate scaling up SWPBS. This paper describes the development of this infrastructure and presents the results of HLM analyses exploring the effects of implementing SWPBS, with and without fidelity across time, on student behavior and academic outcomes (office discipline referrals, suspensions, and state-wide test scores in reading and math) for a sample of 428 Illinois schools implementing SWPBS. Results indicate that (a) most schools implemented with fidelity and maintained or improved student performance across time and (b) implementation fidelity was associated with improved social outcomes and academic outcomes in math. Study limitations and implications are discussed.