Sustaining Positive behavior Support in a Context of Comprehensive School Reform

Abstract

Beginning about 1999, researchers at the University of Kansas Beach Center on Disability began studying schoolwide positive behavior support (SW-PBS) in urban schools, specifically the processes associated with and the effects of implementation (cf. Lassen, Steele, & Sailor, 2006; Sailor & Roger, 2006; Sailor, Zuna, Choi, Thomas, McCart & Roger, 2006; Turn-bull et al., 2002; Utley & Sailor, 2002; Warren et al., 2003, 2006). Much of this work has been in association with an ongoing research partnership of the University of Kansas and USD 500, Kansas City, Kansas. The framework of research that forms the basis for this chapter also includes results from an ongoing program of research within the Ravenswood City School District, East Palo Alto, California (cf. Sailor & Roger, 2005; Sailor et al., 2006) and, most recently, a program of research in conjunction with the Recovery School District (RSD), New Orleans, Louisiana.All three of these districts are located in urban, low-income, multicultural areas with high crime rates, unemployment, and urban blight. Each of these districts has struggled and continues to struggle with the federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act requirements for demonstration of adequate yearly progress (AYP) each year based on grade level, annual, standardized state assessments. All of the schools that we have studied through this ongoing research agenda have experienced high rates of poverty among their children and families. All are schools with high percentages of free and reduced price lunch eligibility.