6 Components of RtI - Positive School Climate and Culture
Why: The core principles of a multi-tiered RtI model support and embrace positive school climate within all school settings. Positive school climate depends on four essential elements: 1) creating a caring school community; 2) teaching appropriate behavior and social problem-solving skills; 3) implementing positive behavioral interventions and supports (PBIS); and 4) providing rigorous academic instruction. Essentially, a positive school climate provides the foundation on which instruction will occur and all students will be engaged in learning.
Positive School Climate and Culture Across the Tiers: A positive school climate is observed when key elements are solidly in place. These include:
- Defining and consistently teaching expectations of behavior for students, parents and educators;
- Students and adults are acknowledged and recognized consistently for appropriate behaviors;
- Behavioral and instructional errors are monitored,
corrected, or re-taught;
Teachers are engaged in a collaborative team problem-solving process using data to design instruction and behavior intervention plans - Families are included in a culturally-sensitive, solution-focused approach to support student learning.
Understanding the elements of a positive school climate is vital; however, equally important in maintaining a positive school climate is the development of systems to support school personnel in implementing the identified research-based practices to improve student outcomes. Naturally, the identified practices to support student achievement and social competence are dependent on a clear understanding of the information and data available to decision makers. The school staff needs to understand what data to collect, how frequently to use them, and the purpose for collecting data. CDE has taken a leading role in the implementation of the Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) Initiative currently being put into practice in 563 Colorado Public Schools. PBIS is an integrated approach that clearly identifies systems, practices and the use of data to improve student outcomes. It is a broad range of systemic and individualized strategies for achieving important social and learning outcomes while preventing problem behavior with all students. PBIS is consistent with RtI.
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