Milwaukee Public Schools

Implementing district-wide behavioral supports

Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) began implementation of PBIS with their first cohort of schools in August 2009, with a new cohort beginning in August 2010, and the final cohort beginning in August 2011. MPS is now in their third year of implementation of PBIS in the district, with every school implementing PBIS. During the academic school year 2010-2011 with 95 schools implementing Tier 1 of PBIS the district was able to recover 40,317 student days lost to the process of being suspended. The percent of suspensions due to learning environment violations decreased from 61% of all referrals, to 46%; allowing more time for all students to learn. With the continued implementation in 2011- 2012 the district was able to recover 1,555 student days lost to suspensions and 2,784 hours of administration time handling all incident referrals in the buildings.

One Team, One Goal

Following the district motto of “One Team, One Goal, One MPS,” everyone has worked together in this large endeavor of making PBIS successful in the entire district to ensure all students are successful. The district has provided a variety of resources and general information for all staff, students, parents, and other interested parties to use to help increase their understanding of PBIS and to help with their implementation of PBIS within their building. The district has an up-to-date RtI Website, a YouTube Channel, regular training sessions, and a bi-weekly PBIS newsletter. Over 840 staff members have attended at least one training this year on tier 1, tier 2, or tier 3. Many staff members have attended multiple trainings. The district has also encouraged all schools to share their best practices and resources with other schools so all students can benefit from the positive affects of PBIS.

A post-SET was conducted at 53 schools in March with 46 meeting fidelity with expectations taught and 50 meeting fidelity overall. All 143 schools took the BoQ and 112 met fidelity.

The positive impact of PBIS in all school buildings has been felt throughout the district even more this academic year with all 141 schools implementing some tier of PBIS. For the school year 2011-2012, 46 schools began to implement tier 1 in their buildings, with 95 beginning tier 2, and tier 3 interventions. Throughout the entire district 62 schools have decreased their suspensions from 2010-2011. District suspensions were down 3,712. For the entire 2011-2012 school year, 69,958 students were never suspended, which is 81% of all students in the district. Total days students have been suspended were down 7,126 from the year prior, with total suspensions down 2 years in a row over a total of 13%.

With the 95 schools implementing tier 2, there are 3, 979 tier 2 Interventions documented online with the progress monitoring software, EXCEED RtI. For 2012-2012 all schools will be implementing additional tier 2 interventions of Social Academic Instructional Groups (SAIG) and Behavior Assessment/ Intervention Plan (BA/IP) as more intense interventions. During the school year 30 schools will also be implementing tier 3 Interventions of Wraparound and RENEW.

Celebrating Success

Having PBIS throughout the district has really changed the climate throughout every building. Staff members have been given the tools to work with all students and interventions to work with students in need of additional supports. Students are no longer being suspended at the rate they once were, so all students are receiving more instructional time. Staff members are also using less of their time managing behavioral errors and can spend more time teaching and engaging students in the learning process.

http://mps.milwaukee.k12.wi.us/en/District.htm