and noncognitive skills measured by the Rotter Locus of Control scale, the Rosenberg Self-Esteem scale, and Deming’s (2015) social skills index. These multiple measures were compiled to measure attitudes about work and reward, self-esteem, and general social skills. The research drew the following seven conclusions.
1. The U.S. economy is demanding more noncognitive skills.
2. There are strong labor-market payoffs to both cognitive and noncognitive skills.
3. The labor market is increasingly rewarding noncognitive skills.
4. Those in the bottom quartile of noncognitive skills are only about one-third as likely to complete a postsecondary degree as are those in the top quartile.
5. Noncognitive skill development interventions improve student achievement and reduce behavior-related problems.
6. Preschool interventions emphasizing cognitive and noncognitive skill development have long-term economic benefits for participants.
7. A teacher’s ability to improve noncognitive skills has more effect on graduation rates than does his or her ability to raise test scores.
The conclusions of this research are clear: noncognitive skills matter during and after a student’s schooling, and behavioral skills are as important as academic skills. Research confirms that behavioral skills are the product of the interaction between students and educational contexts, rather than being predetermined characteristics of individual students (Deci, 1992; Ericsson & Pool, 2016; Farrington et al., 2012; Hattie, Biggs, & Purdie, 1996; Masten & Coatsworth, 1998; Stipek, 1988; Wang, Haertel, & Wahlberg, 1994; Yair, 2000).
Student behavior is neither innate nor fixed. We as educators can influence student behaviors—and we must. Many of the preceding studies aim to identify skills students need to develop now for use in the future. Because society and systems are continually evolving, it’s difficult to pinpoint exactly what the schools of the future will look like. In many ways, we’re in the process of retrofitting our schools, enhancing established structures with new principles and practices. As we continually question better ways of doing things, implement those ideas, and reflect on evidence of student success, more students will leave high schools ready for college and a skilled career. Schools will continue down a path of more innovation, inquiry, and integration of concepts, ideas, and processes. They will continue to find new ways of blending academic learning, behavioral skill development, and authentic student engagement into a rich and meaningful experience. Education holds the greatest promise to positively impact students’ futures, and we as educators must be inspired to fulfill this promise. It is my hope that Behavior: The Forgotten Curriculum; An RTI Approach for Nurturing Essential Life Skills will support schools’ continuous improvements.
In This Book
Behavior: The Forgotten Curriculum; An RTI Approach for Nurturing Essential Life Skills provides practical assistance, ideas, and resources for K–12 educators, administrators, teacher teams, and educational leaders as they strive to help students develop behavioral skills and self-regulation, with the ultimate goal of achieving better student outcomes. It provides administrators and teacher teams with both background and practical knowledge about how to design and implement comprehensive, RTI-based behavioral supports within their schools. Teachers who read this book on their own will gain insights into the most recent research in the area of behavioral skills and the best practices that they can use in their classrooms. Throughout the book, you’ll also learn from educators—some researchers, some practitioners—who are pioneering behavioral RTI across North America and making the ideas presented within this book come to life.
This book is a doing book, chock-full of templates and tools for staff. There is a great need for behavioral supports for students, and an equally great need to build the capacities of staff to support student needs. As educators, we are simply less well-equipped and prepared to support students’ behavioral needs and to help students develop mastery of critical behavioral skills than we are to support their academic needs. If best student outcomes are to occur, educators need to develop skills in teaching and supporting learning behaviors—and that is exactly what the tools in this book aim to do.
chapter 1 provides tools for assessing your staff’s readiness for behavioral RTI before introducing readers to the first two steps of the behavioral RTI model—identifying and defining and making sense of behavioral skill priorities. This chapter emphasizes the power of high expectations, the importance of proactively preparing supports, and the need to plan for core behavioral curricula in the same ways that we educators plan for academic units. After first discussing the collaborative culture of commitment and foundational beliefs required to implement behavioral RTI in schools and providing tools to measure such mindsets in staff, chapter 1 then provides tools to identify and define key essential student behaviors and describes how educators can establish both overarching and content-area-specific curricula to prepare them for consistently, comprehensively, and explicitly teaching these critical behavioral skills.
Next, chapter 2 delves into the effective modeling, teaching, and nurturing of behavioral skills within a Tier 1 environment. Within this chapter, readers will find a compelling rationale and specific suggestions for screening students; explicitly and comprehensively modeling, instructing, and reinforcing specific behaviors within the classroom; and nurturing these skills through supportive teacher-student relationships. Just as we incorporate sound instructional pedagogies and high-yield strategies for academics, we must apply sound instructional design to the learning of behavioral skills.
Chapter 3 focuses on assessment, differentiation, and intervention. It provides examples of formative assessments teachers can use to gather evidence of student success in displaying positive and productive behavioral skills, allowing educators to analyze performances, provide immediate and specific feedback, provide differentiated supports, and intervene appropriately, when necessary.
Anticipating that some students will need more time and alternative supports to confidently and consistently display the behaviors that we model, teach, and reinforce within Tier 1, chapter 4 thoroughly defines the Tier 2 and Tier 3 supports that educators can proactively prepare and provide when a student needs intervention. It provides tools for determining the causes or antecedents of student difficulties and suggests a set of research-based intervention strategies for use with students in Tiers 2 and 3.
The book concludes in chapter 5 with the challenges that practitioners of behavioral RTI have encountered (and that you might experience as well) along with the strategies that we employed to address them.
I and many other educators have experienced the impact that a greater focus on behaviors can have on schools, staff, and, most importantly, student outcomes. I hope the resources in this book will equip your schools to experience similar successes.
Next Steps
The following are next steps in introducing behavioral RTI to your school or team.
■ With your staff or teacher teams, have open and honest conversations about the current state of behavioral supports for all students at all tiers.
■ Build consensus among your staff or teacher team on the role of schools and educators in developing the habits and attributes associated with behavioral skills.
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