Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) is an evidence-based three-tiered framework for improving and integrating all of the data, systems, and practices affecting student outcomes every day. It was a way to support everyone - especially students with disabilities - to create the kinds of schools where all students are successful.
PBIS isn't a curriculum you purchase or something you learn during a one-day professional development training. It is a commitment to addressing student behavior through systems change. When it's implemented well, students achieve improved social and academic outcomes, schools experience reduced exclusionary discipline practices, and school personnel feel more effective.
Educational systems cannot not be considered effective until they are effective for all student groups. PBIS provides an ideal framework for increasing equity in student outcomes. Research shows that schools implementing PBIS with fidelity have greater equity in school discipline, specifically for African American students. However, PBIS teams may need to include equity-focused strategies in their action plans to achieve equitable outcomes for all student groups.
The Mood Check program has been increasingly successful over the past four years and remains especially relevant now, given the additional stress that many adolescents may be experiencing during this difficult time. The Mood Check program in conjunction with the Interface Referral Network will be an ongoing resource to families and to school personnel despite the challenges of COVID-19. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic we continue to adapt our education and screening process during the 2020-2021 school year, while building other educational opportunities that would benefit all students. Working with Mood Check we are assessing all 7th, 9th and 11th grade students who would complete an online self-report questionnaire at the start of a class period. This is a comprehensive preventative mental health care program focuses on depression, anxiety, and suicide prevention through a screening and referral program for students in grades 7, 9, 11.
SEL advances educational equity and excellence through authentic school-family-community partnerships to establish learning environments and experiences that feature trusting and collaborative relationships, rigorous and meaningful curriculum and instruction, and ongoing evaluation. SEL can help address various forms of inequity and empower young people and adults to co-create thriving schools and contribute to safe, healthy, and just communities.
Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.
-Aristotle
The Holliston Public Schools believe that social and emotional learning (SEL) as an integral part of education and human development.
SEL is the process through which all young people and adults acquire and apply the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to develop healthy identities, manage emotions and achieve personal and collective goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain supportive relationships, and make responsible and caring decisions.
