for a free reproducible version of this figure.
Next, consider your behavioral priorities in greater detail in the context of our behavioral RTI framework. You will find a simple template in figure 1.3 (page 26) for categorizing behavioral priorities into the five areas Farrington et al.’s (2012) framework defines. Within each of the five areas, we suggest identifying three key behaviors to focus on. While PBIS-oriented behavioral models typically include three to four skills, and Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) schools very successfully emphasize seven, our behavioral RTI template suggests fifteen behavioral skills to prioritize (see figure 1.3, page 26, and, as examples, the Key Behavioral Skills row in figure 1.4, page 27). KIPP schools are charter schools whose emphasis on developing skills within students that research indicates are most necessary for success—skills described in this book—was profiled in How Children Succeed (Tough, 2012). Though this may seem like a large number, I urge educators to consider that there are forty-two English language arts standards in each grade within the Common Core State Standards (ten reading literature, ten reading informational text, ten writing, six language, and six listening and speaking, plus four foundational skill standards in grades K–5)—and that’s before we further define the sub-standards and learning targets within each standard (National Governors Association Center for Best Practices & Council of Chief State School Officers, 2010). If behavior is as critical as academics for success in school, college, career, and life, then we should be open to prioritizing a few more critical behavioral skills than we are used to. Of course, each school and school system should decide what is most necessary for its students—indeed, you may choose more than three per factor. The fifteen skills that I suggest simply provide more detail and definition to the categories Farrington and her colleagues (2012) describe.
Consider this important note: I have not included precognitive self-regulation as a separate column within the behavioral skills template. While I acknowledge the critical importance and presence of these foundations, schools and educators will not and cannot “teach” basic health, nutrition, and sleep into existence in the same way that we can and must nurture the skills in table 1.1 (page 21). Instead, we can and must work with families, social agencies, and governmental groups by proactively and passionately striving to determine family needs and reimagining schools so that they represent hubs of community to ensure that the students’ physiological and safety needs are met. Additionally, we will discuss ways to mitigate the impact of needs in the area of precognitive self-regulation in chapter 4, page 120. We can positively impact students’ precognitive self-regulatory skills through emphasizing their practice both within and outside schools and by supporting students’ emotional coping skills, which we believe are subsumed within the five skill areas in figure 1.3 (page 26).
To define the behaviors that staff have prioritized, teams should describe what the displayed behavioral skills will look like and sound like. To illustrate how to fill out the template, figure 1.4 (page 27) contains a suggestion for behavioral skills that schools may prioritize. It also provides examples of how to describe each of these behaviors. The examples of behavioral priorities in figure 1.4 are suggestions only; we strongly recommend that staff analyze their students’ specific needs and select the essential behaviors that they feel will best prepare students in their particular neighborhoods and districts for the next year of schooling and for life. The following recommended categories of behaviors—categories that are used and further described throughout the book—are simply the categories that Farrington and colleagues’ (2012) review of the research indicates are most critical for success. They include needs that educators probably recognize in their students and about which educators have been reading, including mindsets, grit or perseverance, and social-emotional learning.
Teacher or staff teams can identify and describe these behaviors within their teams or in collaboration with students. One principal who utilizes the collaborative process when prioritizing and defining behavioral skills is Jon Swett, principal of Shaw Middle School, Washington, and noted pioneer of behavioral RTI. He says:
At Shaw, we establish schoolwide and classroom agreements with our students rather [than] dictate rules. This opens the door for us to ask students to tell us how they want us to hold them accountable to the social and academic goals we set. (J. Swett, personal communication, June 9, 2017)
Principal Swett’s point is important: students and parents, in addition to teaching and support staff, should be involved in the process of determining and defining these behavioral skills, attitudes, attributes, and habits. We want and need the support and involvement of parents and students’ voices about skills they need for success in school, college, career, and life. Additionally, this will lead to a greater student understanding of why these non-academic skills are being emphasized.
Figure 1.3: Template for identifying and describing key behavioral skills.
Visit go.SolutionTree.com/RTI for a free reproducible version of this figure.
Figure 1.4: Examples of behavioral priorities.
What you choose to name your behavioral priorities isn’t as important, and the specific behavioral priorities that teams select are not as important, as the selection of a viable quantity of behavioral priorities that you can consistently define, teach, and reinforce. Just as with academic skills, depth is more important than breadth. Schools may choose to begin by prioritizing behavioral skills with what they see as the greatest student need. As an example of prioritizing behavioral skills, behavioral RTI consultant Jim Wright believes that:
A prime inhibitor of student success is learned helplessness, the self-reinforcing syndrome in which the student assumes that poor school performance is tied to their own lack of ability rather than a need to apply more effort. So … the behavioral skill most critical to success is self-efficacy, the confidence within the student that he or she can meet any academic task through the application of effort and self-regulation skills. (J. Wright, personal communication, May 23, 2017)
Thus, prioritizing self-efficacy-related attributes such as engaging, believing, belonging, persevering, adapting, and advocating (from figure 1.4, page 27) may be a first step for schools with which Wright works.
Consistency is key. When different expectations, interpretations, and applications of the behaviors that they expect students to display exist between classrooms, educators will be frustrated and students will be unsuccessful. Wright notes:
[The] variability
