Explore every episode of the podcast Expert Instruction: The Teach by Design Podcast

We’re continuing our yearlong exploration of the impact of PBIS by looking at where students spend most of their school day: the classroom. Joining us are three experts who created the Promoting Positive Practices in the Classroom webinar series:

• Dr. Ruthie Payno-Simmons is an international speaker, the owner and executive consultant of RPS Educational Impact, and serves as a director at the Center for Education Equity at Mid-Atlantic Equity Consortium, where she leads the U.S. Department of Education's Region III Equity Assistance Center. With more than 25 years of experience, Ruthie partners with schools, districts, state education agencies, and national technical assistance centers to strengthen equitable educational systems.

• Dr. María Reina Santiago-Rosario is a nationally certified school psychologist and research associate at Educational and Community Supports, a research unit at the University of Oregon and home to PBISApps. She is an implementation partner with the Center on PBIS and specializes in PBIS implementation, culturally responsive and equitable practices, and supporting students receiving special education services as they transition from middle to high school.

• Dr. Brandi Simonsen is a professor of special education in the Neag School of Education at the University of Connecticut. She is also the co-director of the Center on PBIS and a member of the MTSS Leadership Collaborative. In her research, Brandi focuses on supporting educators' implementation of PBIS/MTSS across a continuum of settings.

In this episode, we explore how positive classroom practices can create a domino effect that extends across an entire school. Our guests share how intentional partnerships with students and families, culturally sustaining practices, and safe and inclusive environments can strengthen relationships, belonging, engagement, learning, and well-being. We also discuss how small, evidence-based practices, like greeting students by name, can help create classrooms where students feel seen, valued, and ready to learn.

We’re kicking off a new season of Expert Instruction and our yearlong exploration of the impact of PBIS. Joining us are four regional partners from the Center on PBIS:

• Brian Meyer is the co-executive director of the Midwest PBIS Network. From general education to higher education, residential care, to state departments down to the local level, Brian has worked with them all. As a partner with the Center on PBIS, he coordinates technical assistance offered to state education agencies, the National Leadership Forum, the workgroup on Juvenile Justice and Alternative School settings, and internal evaluation supports.
• Kelly Perales is the co-executive director of the Midwest PBIS Network and an implementer partner with the Center on PBIS. She provides professional development and technical assistance for state and local leaders in the implementation and scale up of PBIS. Kelly has also led local, regional and state-level implementers in the Interconnected Systems Framework, focusing on the integration of mental health and education systems.Dr.
• Brandi Simonsen is a professor of special education in the Neag School of Education at the University of Connecticut. She is also the Co-Director of the Center on PBIS and a member of the MTSS Leadership Collaborative. In her research, Brandi focuses on supporting educators' implementation of PBIS/MTSS across a continuum of settings.
• Dr. Jessica Swain-Bradway is the executive director for Northwest PBIS Network – an organization providing professional development and support around PBIS and MTSS. In her work, Jessica focuses on equipping teachers with strategies for instruction, relationship-building, and designing effective learning environments.

In this episode, we explore how PBIS can influence far more than student behavior. Our guests share how the framework supports priorities such as attendance, academics, mental health, school climate, staff well-being, and family engagement. We also discuss how relationships, local capacity, and a shared commitment to safer, more predictable, equitable, and nurturing learning environments help sustain PBIS implementation over time.

Guest Bios

Dr. Ambra Green

Dr. Ambra Green is an associate professor of special education within the Teacher and Administrator Preparation Department at The University of Texas at Arlington. She is a national scholar with publications and research focused on students of color with and at-risk for disabilities, issues related to inequitable school practices, behavior disorders, positive behavioral interventions and supports, and teacher use of evidence-based practices.

Dr. Kathleen Strickland-Cohen

Dr. Kathleen Strickland-Cohen is an associate professor in special education at the University of Utah. She has extensive experience conducting research with and training both preservice teachers and in-service district and school personnel in the implementation of multi-tiered systems of behavior support in schools. Her research interests include: designing inclusive educational environments, using efficient methods to train school professionals how to design individualized student behavior plans, and enhancing family-professional partnership within PBIS.

Links to Additional Resources

• Creating Calm: 5 Ways to Prevent Big Behaviors
• Ep. 22: School-wide Strategies for Preventing Escalated Behavior
• Slow the Climb: 4 De-escalation Strategies to Keep Behavior from Going Downhill
• Ep. 23: How to De-escalate Student Behavior

Questions

When schools think about de-escalation, what are they most often getting wrong—and why do we need to rethink who owns the work?

What role do adult systems, policies, and practices play in preventing escalation before a crisis ever occurs?

What are the strategies that you would recommend that other school leaders lean on within their PBIS implementation to strengthen their de-escalation efforts?

Guest Bio - Kristin Bailey

Originally from Charleston, Kristin Bailey experienced twenty six hurricane seasons in South Carolina before moving to Denver for work in 2010. She began her work in Denver as a Colorado State Public Defender in Arapahoe County as a dedicated advocate for kid clients. In 2018, she transitioned to Denver Public Schools as part of the in-house counsel team. In this role, Kristin works to keep more kids in schools rather than pushing them into the delinquency system. She devotes every day to helping ensure schools are welcoming, inclusive, and safe environments for all students, while striving to reverse the school-to-prison pipeline.

Crisis Prevention Bonus Episode 2 with Kristin Bailey

1. Let’s start with some definitions: In the context of crisis prevention, when we say “Ethical Protection Without Criminalization”, what are we talking about?

• What does ethical protection mean?
• Protection for whom or from what?
• What are some of the typical crisis responses we see in schools?

2. What does safety look like when it is not rooted primarily in exclusion or punishment?

3. When schools are trying to respond to harm, protect students, and maintain a safe learning environment, what should educators and administrators keep in mind so their responses do not unintentionally create more harm or exclusion?

• Follow-up: What role can systems like PBIS play in helping schools balance accountability, support, and belonging?

Over the 2025–26 season of Expert Instruction, we explored how data help schools make better decisions for students. In this year-end reflection episode, Megan Cave and Danielle Triplett look back on the conversations, lessons, and stories that shaped the season. Together, they revisit favorite moments from guests across the PBIS community and reflect on what they learned about prevention, relationships, systems, and data-based decision making.

We're coming to you LIVE from the NWPBIS Conference in Tacoma, WA to explore another PBIS myth. Joining us today are Becky Gawenit and Charisse Elliott.

• Becky is from Battle Ground Public School District in Battle Ground, WA. She's been a part of that district for the last 18 years as either a school psychologist or as a district MTSS coach.
• Charisse is a behavior program associate with Salem-Keizer Public Schools in Salem, OR. In her role, she works as an advocate for what teachers, students, and families need by focusing on systems to create supportive, inclusive learning environments.

In this installment of our Mythbusters series, we discuss whether districts use the data you submit as a gotcha. We talk about how data work best when they inform the decisions you make, but when you submit those same data to the district, they seem work as a punishment. Charisse and Becky help us understand that finding the middle ground involves trusting relationships, honest coaching, and a culture prioritizing improvement over accountability.

We continue our exploration of Tier 3 support by focusing on an important and often misunderstood part of behavior support plans: measuring fidelity. Joining us today is Rose Iovannone.

• Rose is a research professor at the University of South Florida and a Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA). She also serves as director of the University of South Florida Interdisciplinary Center for Evaluation and Intervention, where she supports individuals with complex needs from early childhood through young adulthood. In addition to her research, Rose works closely with educators through training and professional development to support practical, real-world implementation of behavior support systems.

In this episode, Rose helps us reframe fidelity as a way to evaluate whether a behavior support plan is actually feasible, effective, and aligned with classroom realities, rather than a measure of teacher performance.

She also gives us actionable ideas for how teams can build buy-in, start small, and integrate fidelity into their ongoing problem-solving process.

For more information about the resources shared in this episode, check out the following links:

• Expert Instruction Ep. 58: Tier 3 Supports in General Education Classrooms

• Teach by Design: The Fit Check Your Behavior Plan Needs

• Prevent–Teach–Reinforce (PTR) Model

• Technical Adequacy Tool for Evaluation (TATE)

Some of the most important systems and practices you can implement are the proactive things you do to prevent behavior from escalating. This episode is part of a special Crisis Prevention Series produced in partnership with the Center on PBIS Crisis Prevention Workgroup, where we explore how PBIS systems can support schools in preventing, preparing for, and responding to crises.

When we talk about preventing crises, we’re talking about:

• Your response to the needs in your schoolwide community
• How you ensure physical and emotional safety in your building
• The interventions you implement to support student outcomes
• How you help everyone know how to respond if a crisis occurs

All of this starts by considering the culture you foster schoolwide. In this episode, we’re talking about how creating a culture of belonging can play a foundational role in your school’s crisis prevention strategies. Joining us today is our special co-host from the Center on PBIS’ Crisis Prevention workgroup, Janelle Hughes and our guests, Dr. Nikole Hollins-Sims, Dr. Becky Millspaugh, and Kelly Perales.

• Nikole is an educational leader, consultant, and speaker known for her expertise in equitable practices, systems transformation, and leadership coaching.
• Kelly is the co-executive director of the Midwest PBIS Network and an implementer partner with the Center on PBIS. She provides professional development and technical assistance for state and local leaders on PBIS implementation.
• Becky is a project consultant for the Montgomery County Intermediate Unit and a school improvement facilitator for Montgomery County Schools in Pennsylvania. She provides professional learning and data analyses strategies for complex mental health support planning for teams across the Commonwealth.

We continue our exploration of Tier 3 support by focusing on the way systems make it possible to get students the level of support they really need. Joining us today are Mara Lynaugh and Jess Olson.

• Mara is a member of our PBISApps training team. She brings to the team over 25 years of experience in public education as a special education teacher and a Student Services coach where she supported schools to implement multi-tiered systems and practices focused on meeting students’ social, emotional, behavioral, and mental health needs. Her passion for helping educators, students, families, and community partners create learning environments where every student achieves their goals.

• Jess is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA) and doctoral student in Special Education at the University of Utah. Her work centers on helping schools implement function-based, individualized behavior support with strong alignment to PBIS and a clear focus on teacher implementation fidelity. Before this, Jess spent several years as a district BCBA, partnering with educators and school teams across general and special education to design behavior support plans, coach implementation, and build sustainable routines that fit the realities of busy classrooms.

Tune in to hear Jess tell the story about how she and her colleagues implemented a system of support that allowed the three of them to manage their work in a district of 60,000 students spread across 92 schools. It’s an approach that resulted in fewer students referred to special education for their behavior and more students getting the support they needed right within their general education classrooms.

For more information about the resources shared in this episode, check out the following links:

• Expert Instruction Ep. 57: Mythbusters — Functional Behavioral Assessment is Only for Special Education

• Additional resources from Jess’ story including powepoint presentations, meeting templates, data review questions, and more

• Basic FBA Training

When targeted interventions don't improve the behavior you hope to see, what's the next step? Today's guest might tell you to check the function of that behavior. Today, we're talking with Dr. Chris Borgmeier and exploring the myth: Functional behavioral assessment (FBA) is a process only meant for special education.

Chris is a Professor and the Doctoral Program Director in the College of Education at Portland State University. He is co-author of the Basic FBA to BIP training series and developed the Basic FBA to BIP e-learning series. His research focuses on using multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS) to support students with challenging behavior. He has been a trainer and consultant for MTSS for Behavior implementation across the North America and internationally.

During our conversation, we talk about where this myth comes from and how schools can use the elements of FBA to make function-based thinking a schoolwide practice.

For more information about the resources shared in this episode, check out the following links:

• ABC Tracker
• Practice Brief: When to Use Functional Behavioral Assessment? Best Practice vs. Legal Guidance

When we talk about Tier 2 support, we usually talk about the support we offer students. Today, we're talking about the ways we support the adults in our building to implement Tier 2 with fidelity...and maybe even a little enthusiasm. Back with us again are our colleagues Dr. Billie Jo Rodriguez and Noah Van Horn.

• Billie Jo is an Associate Teaching Professor and the School Psychology director of clinical training at the University of Oregon, a nationally certified school psychologist, and a doctoral board-certified behavior analyst. She has over 20 years of experience supporting students with diverse needs and helping schools implement increasingly intensive function-based supports.
• Noah is a nationally certified school psychologist and PBIS coach for Springfield Public Schools in Springfield, OR. He is also a trainer and PBIS coach for the NWPBIS Network. In addition to his work leading district initiatives to support PBIS, he is a lead trainer for district professional development on topics ranging from Tier 1 practices to more intensive, individualized support.

For more information about the resources shared in this episode, check out the following links:

• Expert Instruction - Ep. 54: Mythbusters - Student Behavior is More Significant Now Than Ever
• Tiered Fidelity Inventory
• Overview of Tier 2 Support
• Cooking with Fidelity: How Smart Adaptations Improve Tier 2 Outcomes
• Tier 2: A District-Level Systems Guide

In this episode, we're sharing some of our favorite things from past lists...including one of our favorite episodes. This month, we're revisiting a conversation from 2021 with Drs. Erin Chaparro and Ginny Joseph about Tier 2 teams and the foundations of decision making at the Tier 2 level.

Dr. Chaparro is a Research Associate Professor at the University of Oregon and the Principal Investigator for the TIPS project. For more than a decade, Erin has worked with districts and schools to implement multi-tiered systems of support for literacy as well as PBIS. She is also the co-author of the book Assessment in Special and Inclusive Education.

Dr. Ginny Joseph is the Coordinator of PBIS and Mental Health at Orange County Department of Education. She trains and supports school teams implementing a multi-tiered framework for behavior supports. Her experience ranges from function-based support planning, to using data to drive decisions, to planning behavioral support for small groups of students.

For more information about some of the resources mentioned in this episode, check out these links:

• Favorite Things 2025
• PBISApps Community
• Ep. 16: Adding Student Voice to Leadership Teams
• Ep. 43: Mythbusters - Rewards Don't Work to Improve Student Outcomes
• An overview of the TIPS model
• TIPS Meeting Minutes Template
• Tiered Fidelity Inventory

We're continuing our year-long series exploring the way data play a crucial role in our PBIS implementation. In this episode, we’re going to put those data to use as we look to address the myth that student behavior is more significant now than ever before. Joining us are Dr. Billie Jo Rodriguez and Noah Van Horn.

• Billie Jo is an Associate Teaching Professor and the School Psychology director of clinical training at the University of Oregon, a nationally certified school psychologist, and a doctoral board-certified behavior analyst. She has over 20 years of experience supporting students with diverse needs and helping schools implement increasingly intensive function-based supports.
• Noah is a nationally certified school psychologist and PBIS coach for Springfield Public Schools in Springfield, OR. He is also a trainer and PBIS coach for the NWPBIS Network. In addition to his work leading district initiatives to support PBIS, he is a lead trainer for district professional development on topics ranging from Tier1 practices to more intensive, individualized support.

This episode doesn't start the same way our other mythbuster episodes start. Where we typically look to bust the myth, this myth isn't so easily busted. If student behavior truly is on the rise, we ought to look for ways we can reverse the trend. One way is to lean into our multi-tiered systems and start layering on Tier 2 support for groups of students who might benefit. Listen in as we hear from these coaches how their schools have started small, implementing efficient, practical strategies, to improve student outcomes and make every classrooms feel just a little calmer.

For more information about the resources shared in this episode, check out the following links:

• Schoolwide Information System (SWIS)
• Check-In Check-Out SWIS (CICO-SWIS)
• SWIS Data Summary 2024-25
• PBISApps Community
• Your Data Story Doesn't End Here: Tier 2 Can Flip the Script
• Webinar: CICO in Practice: A Proven Tier 2 Behavior Intervention That Builds Connections

All this month we’re looking at the ways we can use data to guide our decisions on how to get students the additional support they need sooner. There are some common decision rules your team can follow, but what does that look like in practice? Our guests today will share their experience.

Joining us in conversation are Dr. Lisa Friesen from North Kansas City Schools and Jamie Ferguson from Oak Park High School, both in Kansas City, MO.

• Lisa has been with North Kansas City Schools for 22 years. She is a former elementary and high school special education teacher and currently serves as a District Instructional Coordinator for MTSS, organizing and supporting academic and behavior interventions and systems K-12.
• Jamie has been part of the North Kansas City School District for the past 16 years. She spent 11 years at Linden West Elementary co-leading Tier 1 interventions and served on the Tier 2 and Tier 3 support teams. At Oak Park High School, Jamie focuses her time on academic intervention and student success through programs like Missouri Options and Check-In/Check-Out.

Listen in as they share how they learned the value of Tier 1 systems to support their efforts at the Tier 2 level and how getting students the support they need involves both personal relationships and consistent data.

For more information on the resources shared in this episode, check out the following links:

• Missouri PBIS
• CICO in Practice: A Proven Tier 2 Behavior Intervention That Builds Connections (Free PBISApps Webinar)
• An Overview of Targeted Interventions

In this episode, we continue the conversation around our year-long theme: Data in PBIS. Collecting data is an important step in your PBIS implementation. Using data to drive decisions is how those data truly come alive. How do you do that? Well, the Team Initiated Problem Solving (TIPS) framework is the only scientifically-based data-based decision making practice available to schools. Joining us today to talk about the fundamentals of the TIPS framework is Dr. Erin Chaparro.

Dr. Chaparro is a Research Associate Professor at the University of Oregon and the Principal Investigator for the TIPS project. For more than a decade, Erin has worked with districts and schools to implement multi-tiered systems of support for literacy as well as PBIS. She is also the co-author of the book Assessment in Special and Inclusive Education.

Listen in as we share how to get more out of your team meeting time, make more informed decisions, and get students the support they need faster than ever.

Don’t forget to check out the TIPS website and click “Submit Inquiry” at the bottom of the page to learn more about participating in their upcoming study!

For more information about the resources shared in this episode, check out the following links:

• TIPS Fidelity Checklist
• Upcoming SWIS Drill Down Webinars
• Teach by Design “Start With Why: How to Put Purpose Back in Your Work”
• *NEW* TIPS meeting minutes template

This episode kicks off PBISApps’ 2025–26 school year theme: data in PBIS. Our guest today is a true PBIS pioneer: Dr. Rob Horner. Dr. Horner is an emeritus professor at the University of Oregon and a key figure in developing PBIS. He brings with him a 40-year history of research, grant management, and systems change efforts related to school reform and PBIS. He has published over 390 professional papers and directed over $200 million dollars in federal grants. Among many past national awards, in 2020 he won the Association of Positive Behavior Support Leadership Award. During our conversation, we talk about the early days of PBIS, when Rob and colleagues worked directly with schools to address challenging behaviors. They discovered that individual behavior plans could help—but lasting change required schoolwide systems and a preventative culture. PBIS emerged as a framework with core features that could adapt to local cultures, from rural schools to Native communities. Data always played a key role in this work. Listen in and learn how collecting and analyzing data can help your team see what’s really happening, ask better questions, and identify the smallest changes that make the biggest impact.  

In this episode, we’re looking back at the podcast over the past school year and sharing our favorite episodes and lessons learned. We’ve interviewed 16 guests across nine episodes. Every conversation gave us something to think about and find ways to infuse it in our work moving forward. Today, we wanted to highlight just five of those episodes and encourage you to take another listen over these summer months.

To travel back in time to any of these episodes mentioned today, check out the following links:

• Ep. 43: Mythbusters - Rewards Don't Work to Improve Outcomes
• Ep. 45: Mythbusters - Students Today Don't Care About School Like They Used to
• Ep. 46: Creating Equitable PBIS Solutions that Work for All Students
• Ep. 47: Cultivating a Culture of Belonging in Your Classroom
• Ep. 48: All Means All - Inclusive Practices in Tier 1 PBIS

...and don't forget to sign up for more information about our PBISApps Community. We've got some great topics coming next year. You won't want to miss out of these conversations. Sign up for our email list!

In a perfect world, there would be a mental health professional embedded in every school across the country. Students would have immediate access to the support they need and the resources they deserve. The reality is, there is a workforce shortage among mental health providers and community resources are overwhelmed by the need. More students need support than we can serve efficiently. If we could change that outcome, shouldn’t we?

That’s exactly what our friends and colleagues at The Ballmer Institute are trying to do! The Ballmer Institute offers an ground breaking undergraduates an opportunity to earn a bachelor’s degree in child behavioral health. Graduates will enter the workforce with specialized training to:

• Identify youth who can benefit from early intervention or referral to mental health services
• Teach youth to label and regulate emotions and develop other skills to support well-being
• Deliver evidence-based prevention and intervention programs to prevent or disrupt the progression of youth mental health concerns
• Collaborate with other professionals (like teachers, psychologists, and social workers) to support health and wellness among young people

Joining us today is Dr. Miriam White-Pedeaux, an assistant clinical professor at the Ballmer Institute. In her work, Miriam supervises undergraduates completing their bachelor’s degree and she mentors youth-serving professionals earning a graduate-level microcredential in evidence-based mental health practices. Miriam has supported K-12 students at various school districts in Southern California, Oregon, Ghana and Ecuador. She is deeply passionate about increasing access to high-quality care and improving healthy literacy in youth and families.

Listen in as we talk about the current mental health realities facing schools today and the low-level, high-impact strategies you can use right now to support all students in your building. For more information about the resources shared in this episode, check out the following links:

• What Works Clearinghouse  
• National Center for School Mental Health
• Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration ‍
• Resources about mental health and social-emotional well-being from The Center on PBIS

As we explore what inclusive education means, we need to talk about what it means to create truly inclusive schoolwide systems, data, and practices. If schoolwide means all students have access to the same foundational features, how do you ensure “all” really means “all” in your Tier 1 PBIS implementation?

Joining us to help answer this question is Dr. Sheldon Loman from Portland State University (PSU).

Sheldon is a Professor in the Special Education Department at PSU. He has a passion for researching and teaching about inclusive practices to support students with extensive support needs. Most recently, his research explores universal design and how to make schoolwide PBIS more inclusive of students with extensive support needs. Before his work at PSU, Sheldon was a special education teacher and positive behavior support coordinator in a diverse, urban school district in California. 

For more information about the resources shared in this episode, check out the following resources and links:

• Research Findings: Walker, V. L., & Loman, S. L. (2021). Strategies for Including Students With Extensive Support Needs in SWPBIS. Inclusive Practices, 1(1), 23-32. https://doi.org/10.1177/27324745211000307
• Research Findings: Walker, V. L., Loman, S. L., Mickelson, A. M., & Lyon, K. J. (2022). Participation of students with extensive support needs in SWPBIS: Administrator and educator perspectives. Psychology in the Schools, 59(8), 1623-1642.
• The TIES Center. This center works with states, districts, and schools to support moving students with disabilities from less inclusive to more inclusive environments.
• The TIES Center resources on PBIS
• The TIES Center PBIS video series on how to make PBIS more inclusive

Join us this month with guest Dr. Nikole Hollins-Sims as we discuss how to cultivate a culture of belonging in your classroom. Using the elements of PBIS, Dr. Hollins-Sims helps us break down how students thrive at school when they feel they belong. For starters, the ABCs of student wellbeing, Agency, Belonging and Connectedness, have a tremendous influence on whether students feel like they are part of your school. When educators focus on cultivating each of these components in their classroom climate through greetings, exercises and class culture, students thrive. We also visit how your own SWIS data results can tell a story of class belonging.

Nikole Y. Hollins-Sims, Ed.D., is an internationally recognized speaker, author and facilitator. She currently serves as a research associate for Educational and Community Supports (ECS) as a research unit within the University of Oregon’s College of Education. Nikole has formerly served as a technical assistance coordinator for the Midwest PBIS Network and is a former Special Assistant to the Secretary of Education at the Pennsylvania Department of Education.

For more information about the resources shared in this episode, check out the following links:

• Expert Instruction Ep. 21: Benefits & Examples of Creating a Schoolwide Purpose Statement with Dr. Nikole Hollins-Sims
• School Climate Survey
• Feedback & Input Survey
• Tiered Fidelity Inventory (TFI)
• Teach by Design “Proven Ways to Make Schoolwide Feedback Work”

As we explore what it means to achieve equitable solutions in PBIS implementation, we start by defining what equity looks like. So, what happens when our definitions of equity are different from each other? In this episode, learn how one coach successfully collaborates with the whole schoolwide community to create shared definitions and equitable systems that work for everyone.

Joining us is Mari Meador from the University of Washington’s School Mental Health Assessment Research and Training (SMART) Center. As an implementation coach, Mari supports schools in their implementation efforts. She has been a PBIS state facilitator, an assistant coordinator for the Northwest PBIS Network, and a school-based counselor and mental health associate. Mari is a forever advocate for system-level change, culturally responsive practices, and social-emotional learning.

Listen in as Mari shares her strategies for working with community and family members to define their shared values and identify interventions that are culturally responsive. Additionally, we’ll discuss the importance of mental health screening in schools and how it serves as a powerful foundation within any multi-tiered system of support.

For more information about the resources shared in this episode, check out the following links:

• SMART Center
• Behavioral Health Audit
• PBIS Community of Practice!
• Intervention Map Template

Whether its students clutching their phones or endlessly scrolling YouTube shorts, there is a sense student apathy is real and rampant. In this episode, we’re out to bust the myth that students today just don’t care about school like they used to. Joining us are Marisa Cardenas-Joslyn and Aydree, from Silverado High School in Mission Viejo, CA. Our colleague and friend, Mimi McGrath Kato is also a special guest cohost today while Danielle Triplett is out of the office.

Marisa is a member of the Silverado’s PBIS team and an instructional coach supporting teachers and administrators to use data to enhance their instructional practices. She comes to our conversation with a passion for continuous improvement and helping everyone achieve their fullest potential for student success.

Aydree is an 11th-grader at Silverado and a student in the school’s Peer Assistance Leadership (PALS) class.

When the Silverado PBIS team needs to reteach an expectation, the PALS class comes up with the lesson plan and delivers it to their peers. The class is new this year, but Silverado has already seen more active engagement from students and an increase in the behaviors they hope to see. For her part, Aydree says the class makes her feel more involved at school and more confident in her skills as a leader. If students didn’t care about school, a class like this wouldn’t work…but it does!

For more information about the resources shared in this episode, check out the following links:

• PBISApps Job Posting
• Expert Instruction Ep. 42: Creating and Sustaining Positive School Climate
• School Climate Survey

In this episode, we’ve tracked down some hilarious teacher stories from around the internet about the goofy things students say and do in school. From fart jokes, to the 1990s as the “old days,” to a student bringing in a live goat, this podcast will have you in stitches. The guests this month are our very own PBISApps trainer Nadia Sampson and Customer Support Manager Diertra Lomeli. Give it a listen and enjoy your winter break!

We’re back with another episode of Mythbusters where we explore some of the critiques about PBIS. Along with our guests, we’ll declare the criticisms true or busted! The myth we’ll explore today is: Rewards don’t work to improve student outcomes. Joining us in our conversation are Erica Bauer, Joya Mitchell, and Jaymz Keller Jr.

Erica is a school counselor and the Green Local School District’s PBIS coordinator.

Joya is the Student Services Director at Green Local Schools. She’s been an educator for over 20 years working in both special education and as an assistant principal before transitioning to her current position.

Jaymz W. Keller Jr is the store manager at the local Starbucks in Green, OH.

Erica, Joya, and Jaymz, have established a staff recognition system for Green Local School District like no other we’ve seen. Their partnership was only made possible because of the district’s focus on building strong relationships and supporting everyone in their larger schoolwide community. Listen to how they leveraged the power of recognition to uplift their staff, encourage students, and engage the entire town of Green, OH in their PBIS implementation.

For more information about the resources shared in this episode, check out the following links:

Tiered Fidelity Inventory

5 Ways to Reward Students the Right Way

Are Schoolwide Tickets the Secret to Better Classrooms? Here’s the Truth

Find your state-level PBIS coordinator

There’s a feeling you get when you walk into a school. You get a sense for the kind of place it is when you look at the people’s faces, or the way the light that comes through the windows. It’s even in the colors and art on the walls in the hallway. This intangible thing is your school’s climate and it’s something you co-create with your schoolwide community.

In this episode of Expert Instruction, we’re joined by three educators who know how to create that positive school climate we all want to experience: Dr. Ginny Joseph, Kathy Stauffer, and Sun Saeteurn.

Ginny is a PBIS and Mental Health Coordinator for the Orange County Department of Education in Costa Mesa, CA. She supports schools and district in their efforts to implement a multi-tiered framework for inclusive behavior supports. Ginny is passionate about creating safe learning spaces by engaging the entire schoolwide community.

Kathy comes to us from the Saddleback Valley Unified School District in Mission Viejo, CA where she trains and supports school teams in their implementation of multi-tiered systems of support. In her work, she focuses on fostering respectful, responsible, and inclusive communities.

Sun has been the principal at Monroe Middle School in Eugene, OR for the last six years. Before that, he was a high school assistant principal and a middle school teacher. Everywhere he goes, no matter what his role, Sun creates supportive spaces by engaging students, staff, and the larger community and building strong relationships.

For more information about the resources shared in this episode, check out the following links:

School Climate Survey

Tiered Fidelity Inventory

Turquoise or Blue? How One Test Uncovers the Hidden Assumptions in Our Classrooms

Proven Ways to Make Schoolwide Feedback work

Start With Why: How to Put Purpose Back in Your Work

When educators are in the classroom day after day, year after year, the focus on fresh authentic, genuine PBIS implementation gets harder. In this episode, we’re talking about how to adapt, evolve, and continuously improve your efforts over the long term. Joining us in conversation are the three co-directors of the Center on PBIS.

Dr. Brandi Simonsen is a professor of Special Education in the Department of Educational Psychology at University of Connecticut. She is also the co-principle investigator of the National Multi-Tiered System of Supports Research Network. She's an advocate for supporting educator implementation across a continuum of settings.

Dr. Kent McIntosh is the Philip H. Knight Chair of Special Education at the University of Oregon and the Director at PBISApps. His current research focuses on increasing racial equity in school discipline, and sustainability of systems for social, emotional, and behavior support in schools.

Dr. Heather George is a professor in the Department of Child and Family Studies at the University of South Florida, the director of the Florida Center for Inclusive Communities and the co-director of Florida's Statewide PBIS Project. She's a longtime colleague of ours in this implementation work, and she's a continued advocate for supporting system level implementation to support all students wherever they learn.

Our experts offer some timeless tips for continually improving your PBIS. These include focusing on building genuine relationships with your students right at the start of the school year and building relationships with families. In fostering meaningful bonds with students, educators approach PBIS in the classroom from a more holistic, respected position with students that is less about compliance and more about connection and kindness. We also share what it looks like to make an intentional effort to build an inclusive classroom that feels safe and welcoming to everyone.

Resources

• PBIS Implementation Blueprint

• Tiered Fidelity Inventory

• Crisis Recovery

In this episode, we’re looking back at every podcast we had over the past school year and sharing our favorite episodes and lessons learned. We’ve interviewed 16 guests across nine episodes. Every conversation gave us something to think about and find ways to infuse it in our work moving forward. Today, we wanted to highlight just five of those episodes and encourage you to take another listen over these summer months.

To travel back in time to any of these episodes mentioned today, check out the following links:

Ep. 32: The Fundamentals of Schoolwide Teams

Ep. 34: Conferences as Professional Development

Ep. 36: Culturally Sustaining Practices

Ep. 38: Mythbusters — There are Some Students Skewing Our Schoolwide Data

PBISApps Community

Let us know you want all the details about our free PBISApps Community events by signing up with your email address. If you already know you’ll want to come to our August event, register today so you’ll be all set up when the school year starts!

By the end of the school year, you have a lot of data at your fingertips. There are two important actions to take. The first is to share it with your schoolwide community as part of your annual PBIS evaluation. The second is to plan how you’ll build on your success next year.

In this episode, we’re talking about what it takes to evaluate PBIS implementation and use data to create an action plan at the end of the year. Joining us in our conversation are Diane LaMaster, Michele Cook, and Kim Barker.

Diane LaMaster is a technical assistance coordinator with the Midwest PBIS Network. Diane brings with her decades of experience in various roles including as a special education teacher, behavior interventionist, and a district coach.

Michele Cook has been a special educator, PE teacher, PBIS coach, building principal, and executive director of student support services in the Gresham-Barlow School District in Gresham, OR. Now she works part time to support multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS) implementation in the district.

Kim Barker is a long-time educator from Gresham-Barlow School District, too. This year marks her 21st year with the district where she now works as an administrator for Deep Creek Damascus K-8 School.

During our conversation, we explored the way data serve as historical references for where implementation has been and where it will go in the future.

For more information about the resources shared in this episode, check out the following links:

• Tiered Fidelity Inventory
• Self-Assessment Survey
• SWIS Suite

Have you heard this before in your teams: If we removed these students from our schoolwide data, our trends would look better. In this episode, we’re tackling the myth that some students’ behavior data skew our schoolwide data. Joining us in this conversation are Rayann Silva and Mari Meador from the University of Washington’s School Mental Health Assessment Research and Training (SMART) Center.

Rayann has done it all in education. From classroom teacher to district administrator, to state/regional school mental health training and technical assistance provider, she centers social-emotional well-being in every role she holds. In her current work, she supports education agencies and school districts to deliver evidence-based strategies that improve social, emotional, and behavioral outcomes for all.

As an implementation coach, Mari supports schools in their implementation efforts. She has been a PBIS state facilitator, an assistant coordinator for the Northwest PBIS Network, and a school-based counselor and mental health associate. Mari is a forever advocate for system-level change, culturally responsive practices, and social-emotional learning.

Together, we talked about the unintended consequences of excluding some students from schoolwide data, and what it truly means to include every student’s experience in our schoolwide decisions.

For more information about the resources shared in this episode, check out the following links:

Role of social worker at all three tiers from Washington State Association of School Psychologists Behavioral Health Coalition

There are two primary questions every team should ask related to their PBIS implementation:

• Are we doing what we said we would do? (Fidelity)
• How does our implementation affect the people in our school? (Outcomes)

Because PBIS is an evidence-based framework, you know there are data to help you answer these questions. Which brings us to today’s topic: How do you choose a system to store and monitor the fidelity and outcome data you collect? Joining us today to help us answer that question are Diertra Lomeli and Seth May.

Diertra is the PBISApps Customer Support Manager. She leads the team of people who connect with our users, set up every account, invoice every subscription, and problem-solve every bug as it comes in. Diertra is also a member of several project teams dreaming up new app features to address emerging needs related to data-driven decision making in PBIS implementation.

Seth is the PBISApps IT Director. He started as a developer creating the very first version of the Schoolwide Information System (SWIS). Now, he leads a team of developers and IT professionals to create the applications schools use everyday.

For more information about the resources mentioned in this episode, check out the following links:

• More information about SWIS
• More information about PBIS Assessment
• PBIS Assessment Coordinator Form to sign up for PBIS Assessment
• Options to integrate your student information system with SWIS
• Sign up for more information about the new PBISApps Community

For PBIS implementation to feel authentic to your school’s culture, it’s important to ask your larger schoolwide community for their feedback about the systems and practices you’ve put in place AND to use that feedback to improve your implementation.

In this episode, Dr. Ambra Green joins us to talk about how you can implement the foundational features of PBIS to create culturally sustaining, truly inclusive spaces.

Ambra is an Associate Professor of Special Education at The University of Texas at Arlington. She is a national scholar with publications and research focused on students of color with and at-risk for disabilities, inequitable school practices, behavior disorders, PBIS, and the use of evidence-based practices. Ambra currently serves as a member of the Center on PBIS Equity workgroup and provides technical assistance at the school, district, and state levels.

During our conversation, the three of us talked about how to know when there's a mismatch between your implementation and the lived experiences in your schoolwide community, the way two-way conversations are critical to the process of creating culturally sustaining implementation, and to engage everyone in those conversations requires trust you need to develop over time.

For more information about the resources shared in this episode, check out the following links:

• Tiered Fidelity Inventory (TFI)
• State and Local PBIS Coordinator Lookup
• National Center on Intensive Intervention
• PBIS Cultural Responsiveness Field Guide‍

Today, we’re bringing you another installment in our mythbuster series. In October, we tackled the myth that PBIS is only about rewards. Spoiler alert: Rewards are part of it, but there’s more to it than the myth suggests. In this episode, we’re exploring the myth: There are no consequences in PBIS. Back again to help us bust this myth is Dr. Kent McIntosh.

Kent is the Philip H. Knight Chair of Special Education at the University of Oregon and the Director at PBISApps. He is also Co-Director of the Center on Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports. His current research focuses on increasing racial equity in school discipline, and sustainability of systems for social, emotional, and behavior support in schools.

Together, we talked about the types of consequences we deliver in schools. We really honed in on how our options ought to be instructional whenever possible and removing students from instruction shouldn’t be our option B, C, or even D.

For more information about the resources shared in the episode, check out the following links:

• Tiered Fidelity Inventory
• Consequence Matrix
• Referral Category Definitions
• Practice Guide – Supporting and Responding to Behavior: Evidence-based Classroom Strategies for Teachers

A system-level feature of your PBIS implementation involves the professional development you offer to all staff.

Many of us take advantage of conferences to receive professional development, especially related to our PBIS implementation. We love a good conference. We also know lecture-style learning alone isn’t enough to sustain the outcomes we want to achieve. We wondered what it would look like to leverage our conference experience to supplement our on-going professional learning.

We called on some conference organizers for our favorite PBIS conferences to see what they had to say about this idea. Joining us in conversation are Dr. Jessica Swain-Bradway, Kelly Perales, and Dr. Stephanie Martinez.

Dr. Jessica Swain-Bradway is the executive director for Northwest PBIS Network – an organization providing professional development and support around PBIS & MTSS. She is also helps to organize the group’s annual PBIS conference. In her work, Jessica also focuses on equipping teachers with strategies for instruction, relationship-building, and designing effective learning environments.

Kelly Perales is the co-director of the Midwest PBIS Network and she's an implementer partner with the Center on PBIS. As an implementer partner, Kelly helps to organize the annual National PBIS Leadership Forum. Kelly leads schools implementing the Interconnected Systems Framework (ISF) by focusing specifically on the integration of mental health and educational systems. In addition to her work with schools, she researches the effects ISF has on family-school-community partnerships.

Dr. Stephanie Martinez provides training and technical assistance on the Florida PBIS Project at the University of South Florida. She is also a board member for the Association for Positive Behavior Support (APBS). As a tri-chair for the Training and Education Committee for APBS, Stephanie assists with planning the organization’s annual International Conference on Positive Behavior Support. She also helps coordinate the High School APBS Network.

For more information about the resources shared in the episode, check out the following links:

Northwest PBIS Conference

National PBIS Leadership Forum

International Conference on Positive Behavior Support

Society for Prevention Research Annual Meeting

Council for Exceptional Children Convention and Expo

National Center for School Mental Health Annual Conference

California PBIS Conference

Southeastern School Behavioral Health Conference

We’re back with the second installment of our Expert Instruction Mythbusters series. Today we’re exploring the myth: “PBIS is just about rewards and tokens.” Joining us in conversation is Dr. Kent McIntosh.

Kent is the Philip H. Knight Chair of Special Education at the University of Oregon and the Director at PBISApps. He is also Co-Director of the Center on Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports. His current research focuses on increasing racial equity in school discipline, and implementation and sustainability of systems for social, emotional, and behavior support in schools.

During our discussion, we explored the ways rewards are intricately linked with the schoolwide expectations you set. We talked about the purpose rewards play in your PBIS implementation and how they play an important role in establishing the equitable outcomes you hope to achieve.

For more information about the resources shared in the episode, check out the following links:

• Tiered Fidelity Inventory (TFI) https://www.pbisapps.org/products/tfi

• Feedback and Input Survey https://www.pbisapps.org/resource/feedback-input-surveys-fis-manual

• School Climate Survey (SCS) https://www.pbisapps.org/products/scs

• Lesson Plan: Co-creating Classroom Expectations with Students (Elementary Schools) https://www.pbis.org/resource/lesson-plan-co-creating-classroom-expectations-with-students-elementary-schools

• Be+ App https://www.pbis.org/announcements/track-positive-reinforcement-with-our-be-app

Two system-level, foundational features of PBIS implementation relate to your schoolwide team — specifically who’s on it and how it operates. While research tells us team-based decision making is an effective practice, it can’t pinpoint exactly which practices contribute to that success. , That’s because what makes teams so great has a lot to do with how well they fit within the culture and context of their schoolwide community.

So what does a schoolwide PBIS team look like? How does it work? We invited our colleague Danielle Triplett to join us today to share some of her experiences working with teams in every role from team member to district-level coach.

Danielle is a Senior Research Assistant and member of our PBIS Apps training team. She is passionate about schools. In her work, she’s particularly interested in exploring how schools can improve educational equity, offer alternatives to exclusionary discipline, use data for decision-making, and implement multi-tiered systems of support for behavior and mental health.

For more information about the resources shared in this episode, check out the following links:

• Tiered Fidelity Inventory
• Centering Equity in Data-based Decision Making: Considerations and Recommendations for Leadership Teams

PBIS has its skeptics — folks who just aren’t so sure the framework is useful. It’s fair to question things and criticisms push us to think about how our implementation can be more inclusive. When you hear a critique or even a misperception, how do you respond?

We thought we’d help you out. Today’s episode of Expert Instruction is the first in our new series: PBIS Mythbusters.

Mythbusters was a television series where the two hosts, Adam and Jamie, would use science to test a myth and determine once and for all if it was true. If it wasn’t, they stamped the myth as officially busted. We’re taking our cue from that show by exploring some of the critiques about PBIS with experts from across the country. Together, we will figure out whether we can declare the statements true or busted!

The myth we’re talking about today is, “Students don’t need to be taught how to behave at school; they should just know.” Joining us in conversation is Dr. Jessica Daily and Mimi McGrath Kato.

• Mimi is a Senior Research Assistant here at the UO. In her research, she focuses on implementing prevention systems at the high school level and improving outcomes for students in those places. She brings with her more than 25 years of experience either working in or alongside high schools across the country.
• Jessica is the Professional Learning Administrator for Michigan’s MTSS Technical Assistance Center. Before working there, she spent time as a school psychologist, a PBIS district coach, a state-wide technical assistance provider, and up until about a month ago, the training team lead here at PBISApps.

For more information about the resources shared in the episode, check out the following links:

• Feedback and Input Survey

Who’s ready for summer? Literally every hand in our office is up…maybe yours is, too. The end of the year is the perfect time to tie up loose ends, pack up your things, and look back on everything you accomplished. Reflection is an active process — one that keeps our work fresh and helps us improve from year to year — and it’s what we’re doing today.

In this episode, we’re looking back at every conversation we had over the past school year and sharing our favorite highlights and lessons learned. We’ve interviewed 21 guests across 10 episodes. Every conversation gave us something to think about and find ways to infuse it in our work moving forward. Today, we’re sharing five of those lessons with you.To travel back in time and dive into any of these episodes mentioned today, check out the following links:

• Ep. 21: Benefits & Examples of Creating a Schoolwide Purpose Statement
• Ep. 24: The Benefits of Play‍
• Ep. 26: Vulnerable Decision Points
• Ep. 27: Neutralizing Vulnerable Decision Points‍
• Ep. 29: Integrating Mental Health Supports in Your PBIS Framework

This month, we’re taking the opportunity to explore the ways schools embed school mental health within their existing PBIS framework through a process called the Interconnected Systems Framework (ISF). The ISF offers you a way to take advantage of the expertise within your larger schoolwide community, add it to the systems, practices, and data accessible on your PBIS teams, and get students the comprehensive support they need.

In this episode, we’re talking to two people who have done just that.

• Megan Schultz is the community coordinator for an organization called The 15th Night —"a youth-informed, community movement to end youth homelessness by connecting existing resources and finding innovative ways to keep kids in school and off the streets.” In her role, Megan helps schools and community organizations get connected through a system called the Rapid Access Network (RAN).
• Kelly Perales is the co-director of the Midwest PBIS Network and an implementer partner with the Center on PBIS. She leads schools implementing ISF, focusing on the integration of mental health and education systems. In addition to her work with schools, she researches the effects ISF has on family-school-community partnerships.

For more information about the resources shared in this episode, check out the following links:

• Overview of ISF
• Advancing Education Effectiveness: Interconnecting School Mental Health and School-Wide PBIS, Volume 2: An Implementation Guide: A step-by-step guide for district and school teams implementing ISF.
• The 15th Night Homepage

Teachers across the country say the number of behaviors they manage in the classroom is up this year compared to before the pandemic. We know the first step to improving behavior trends schoolwide is to verify your Tier 1 systems and practices are fully in place. When you’ve verified they are and behavior trends continue to rise, what can you do? In this episode of Expert Instruction, learn how to increase schoolwide support by infusing it with a dose Tier 2 critical elements.

Joining the conversation are Dr. Billie Jo Rodriquez and Noah Van Horn.

• Billie Jo is a Northwest PBIS Network staff member, a senior lecturer at the University of Oregon, a nationally certified school psychologist, and a board-certified behavior analyst. She has over 20 years of experience supporting students with diverse needs and helping schools implement increasingly intensive function-based supports.
• Noah is a nationally certified school psychologist and PBIS coach for Springfield Public Schools in Springfield, OR. In addition to his work leading district initiatives to support PBIS, he is a lead trainer for district professional development on topics ranging from Tier1 practices to more intensive, individualized support.

Surprise! It’s our first bonus episode of Expert Instruction! We’ve been working as a team to bring some new labels and language to the Schoolwide Information System (SWIS). As part of that work, we revisited the category label definitions and gave them a refresh. As that project comes to completion, we realized the work overlapped with the conversations we’ve had over the last two months.

When you talk about solutions to disrupt vulnerable decision points, defining behavior — both what it looks like and the options available to address it — is on the list. We had to get the team together to share a little about what the process was like and how you can do it, too, in your school.

Joining us in conversation are Diertra Lomeli, Katie Schulz, and Seth May.

• Diertra is the Customer Support Team Manager at PBISApps. She leads the team of people who connect with our users, set up every account, invoice every subscription, and problem-solve every bug as it comes in.
• Katie is a Customer Support Specialist at PBISApps. When users have questions, concerns, or feedback about our applications, they get in touch with our customer support team, and often, they get in touch with Katie.
• Seth is the Director of IT at PBISApps. He started as a developer creating the very first version of SWIS. Now, he leads a team of developers and IT professionals to create the applications schools use every day.

For more information about the resources shared in this episode, check out these links:

• Updated SWIS Referral Category Definitions
• Details to Prep You for Changes Coming to SWIS
• Teach by Design: Disrupt Your Vulnerable Decisions With These Simple Solutions

In this episode of Expert Instruction: The Teach by Design Podcast, we’re continuing the conversation from last month’s episode about vulnerable decision points (VDP). Drs. Maria Reina Santiago-Rosaria and Sean Austin are back to share how we can disrupt our decision making in those moments.Today we’re talking about neutralizing routines: brief, step-by-step processes to make our quick decisions more deliberate. During our conversation, we recognized the overlaps between these routines and those we explored in previous episodes related to de-escalation. While both require us to become more present in the moment, neutralizing routines are specifically designed to disrupt our implicit bias—those stereotypes we carry around without even knowing it.María is a researcher at the University of Oregon who focuses on racial equity in school discipline, measuring teacher expectations of students, and supporting students who receive special education services as they transition from middle to high school. Sean is also a researcher at the University of Oregon who focuses on positive behavior support, implementation science, and professional development.The two of them share how they’ve seen these routines implemented, how to know when those routines are working, and how all of this serves the larger goal of making your discipline decisions more equitable for all students.

In this month’s episode of Expert Instruction: The Teach by Design Podcast, we’re diving further into the research and practices surrounding vulnerable decisions points (VDPs). Over in our Teach by Design article, we shared how you can find the VDPs contributing to the disproportionate outcomes you see in your data, but why do we even focus on VDPs in decision making in the first place? Joining us to help answer that question are Drs. María Reina Santiago-Rosario and Sean Austin.

In her research, María focuses on racial equity in school discipline, measuring teacher expectations of students, and supporting students who receive special education services as they transition from middle to high school. She understands what it takes to implement system-level changes and how to guide teams in classroom behavior management and strategic planning for equity in discipline.

In his work, Sean focuses on positive behavior support, implementation science, and professional development. Before completing his PhD, Sean worked for several years as a school psychologist supporting students with behavioral needs.

Speaking of Sean’s PhD, his dissertation revealed some interesting things about the common points in the school day that are most vulnerable to biased decisions. We talked to him about that! Then, we asked him and María what makes a VDP such a good starting point and how do we handle those challenging conversations to create the self-awareness necessary before launching into problem solving?

For more information about the resources shared in this episode, check out these links:

• Don’t Discipline Hangry – a Teach by Design article with more information about unconscious bias and VDPs.
• Ep. 6: Implicit Bias – an Expert Instruction episode with Dr. Erik Girvan talking about implicit bias and its affect on classroom decisions.
• Using Discipline Data within SWPBIS to Identify and Address Disproportionality: A Guide for School Teams– a guide from The Center on PBIS on how to data to address equity in your school
• Registration for the 2023 NWPBIS Conference

We’ve mentioned before the important role coaches play in your PBIS implementation. They help hold you and your team accountable, facilitate your meetings, walk you through intervention options, and guide you through the process of making the systems and practices match your unique context. Coaches are valuable members of any implementation effort, and yet, we haven’t spent much time exploring what it means to be a coach.

In this episode of Expert Instruction: The Teach by Design Podcast, we’re talking with two coaches about what it’s been like to support schools and districts to sustain their implementation in spite of so much disruption. If you’re a coach, a team lead, or you want to hear about these roles from someone else’s perspective, this conversation is for you!

Joining us in that conversation are Drs. Lisa Powers and Kelsey Morris from the University of Missouri Center for Schoolwide Positive Behavior Support.

• Lisa wears many hats in her work, one of which is as a Senior Research Associate at the University of Missouri. She currently supports district-level leadership teams in their PBIS implementation. She has also been a special educator, PBIS facilitator, administrator, and professor. In everything she does, Lisa remains committed to learning with and from the communities she supports and doing whatever she can to make sure every child is successful in school.
• Kelsey is an Assistant Research Professor in the Department of Special Education at the University of Missouri and co-director of the University of Missouri Center for Schoolwide Positive Behavior Support. His work focuses primarily on PBIS, classroom management, data-based decision making, and district-wide PBIS implementation.

For more information about the resources shared in this episode, check out these links:

• Missouri Center on Schoolwide Positive Behavior Support
• Educator's Blueprint Podcast: Lisa's weekly podcast exploring topics currently impacting school systems, behavior, and instructional practices.
• Information about the Tiered Fidelity Inventory (TFI)
• Information about the District Systems Fidelity Inventory (DSFI)
• Evaluation Brief: Collecting Fidelity Data to Support and Sustain PBIS/MTSS in Schools
• Practice Brief: Creating a Classroom Teaching Matrix
• Upcoming Webinars for Using the TFI

This month’s Teach by Design article introduced the continuum of play and how to embed play-based learning in your classrooms. Today, we’re going to take a closer look at one specific type of play on the continuum. Today, we’re talking about free play.

Free play is that dedicated time in the day where your students get to move and explore in unstructured space free of any adult interference. In schools, most of us call it recess! Our students love it, and yet there never seems to be enough time dedicated to it. But what if we made more time for it? What are the benefits? How would it work logistically with the bell schedule? Most of this relates to early childhood and elementary school, but what could it look like in middle and high school?

In this episode, we’re talking about it all with Dr. Michelle Bauml and Nellie Huggins.

Michelle is a Professor of Education and an Associate Professor of Early Childhood Education at Texas Christian University (TCU). She is also a Play Consultant as part of the Let’s Inspire Innovation ‘N Kids (Liink) Project’s Research Team. The Liink Project is an organization dedicated to increasing student access to unstructured, outdoor recess time as a way of improving social, emotional, behavioral, and academic achievement in schools.

Nellie is a veteran in the field of early childhood education and an advocate for young children and their families. She has spent the last 22 years working in every early childhood setting and role possible – from infant care to preschool teacher, to preschool owner and director. Currently, she’s the Parent Outreach Coordinator for Early Childhood CARES at the University of Oregon – an organization providing early intervention and early childhood special education to infants, toddlers, and preschool age children in Lane County.

For more information on the resources shared in this episode, check out these links.

• The Liink Project homepage
• Early Childhood CARES homepage
• Time to Play: Recognizing the Benefits of Recess: The research findings around the percent of students who have dedicated time for recess in their day.
• Super Fun Transitions by Shawn Brown: An album of transition songs to use in early education settings as kids move from one activity to another.

This episode of Expert Instruction is the second in our 2-part series about de-escalation. Last episode, we spoke with Dr. Kathleen Strickland-Cohen and Alex Newsom about the school-wide strategies you can put in place to help prevent behaviors from escalating in the classroom. We know it would be impossible to prevent 100% of behaviors from getting bigger. So, what happens when those prevention strategies aren’t enough? What can you do to de-escalate a behavior before it becomes a crisis?

We invited Ami Flammini and Brian Meyer from the Midwest PBIS Network to help us answer those questions. They are co-authors (along with Kathleen, Alex, Katherine Meyer, Laura Kern, and Robert Putnam) on the new practice brief from The Center on PBIS called, Strategies for De-escalating Student Behavior in the Classroom. Today, they're are sharing how they've used these strategies to stop the escalation cycle and help students return to a place of calm.

Ami is a technical assistance director with the Midwest PBIS Network where she works to integrate trauma-informed practices within a multi-tiered support system. Ami has nearly 30 years of experience in education as a social worker and trainer, so she is intimately familiar with what it takes to create a positive school culture that supports everyone.

Brian is a co-director for the Midwest PBIS Network and a partner with The Center on PBIS. He bring with him experience in just about every educational setting. From general education, to higher education, to residential care, to state departments down to the local level, Brian has worked with them all. In his current work with the Midwest PBIS Network, Brian leads the curricular development of district leadership training, Tier 1, classroom management, and bullying prevention.

Dr. Kathleen Strickland-Cohen is also back for this episode. Kathleen is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Special Education at the University of Utah and a Doctoral-level Board Certified Behavior Analyst. She has extensive experience conducting research and training both preservice teachers and in-service district and school personnel in behavior support implementation at Tiers 2 and 3. Her research interests include: designing inclusive educational environments, using efficient methods to train school professionals how to design individualized student behavior plans, and enhancing family-professional partnership within PBIS.

For more information about some of the resources mentioned in this episode, please check out these links:

• Practice Brief: Strategies for De-escalating Student Behavior in the Classroom
• Expert Instruction Ep. 22: School-wide Strategies for Preventing Escalated Behavior
• Teach by Design Article: Slow the Climb: 4 De-escalation Strategies to Keep Behavior from Going Downhill
• Midwest PBIS Network's Website

In this episode of Expert Instruction: The Teach by Design Podcast, we’re kicking off a two-part series about de-escalating the behaviors you see in your school. Today, we’re exploring the school-wide, classroom-wide systems and practices you can leverage to prevent problem behaviors from escalating in the first place.

Joining us today are two of the authors of a recently published practice brief from The Center on PBIS, Dr. Kathleen Strickland-Cohen and Alex Newson.

Kathleen is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Special Education at the University of Utah and a Doctoral-level Board Certified Behavior Analyst. She has extensive experience conducting research and training both preservice teachers and in-service district and school personnel in behavior support implementation at Tiers 2 and 3. Her research interests include: designing inclusive educational environments, using efficient methods to train school professionals how to design individualized student behavior plans, and enhancing family-professional partnership within PBIS.

Alex Newson is a doctoral student in Special Education at the University of Oregon. She is a recipient of Project COLEAD, which is a leadership grant focusing on autism, evidence-based practices, diversity, and collaboration across universities. Her current research interests include equitable neuroinclusive research methodologies, collaborative trauma-informed teacher education programs for neurodivergent educators and service providers, and the promotion of autistic mental health in schools for students and staff. She has taught throughout in the Pacific Northwest as a certified Special Educator and educational assistant.

Oh, and we’re also welcoming our new co-host, Nadia Sampson! Nad is a veteran in the PBIS game and she’s ready to share her experience and her humor as we all learn more about the topics in each podcast episode.

For more information about some of the resources mentioned in this today, please check out these links:

• Practice Brief: Strategies for De-Escalating Student Behavior in the Classroom
• Expert Instruction Ep. 14: Relieving Staff Stress with System-level Solutions – Staff stress is a systemic issue best addressed with system-level solutions. We talked to two experts about how to do that in your school.
• 10 Strategies to Combat Stress in the Classroom – Check out this article for more information about the affects of chronic stress and the fight, flight, or freeze responses you might see in your classroom.

We all have a reason compelling us to get up and go to work in the morning. Our personal purpose plays a big role in how engaged we are in the work we do. Defining your why is a hot topic of conversation these days, and it’s an important thing to do. Equally important is defining your school’s organizational purpose, but it’s not something we talk as much about.

In today’s episode of Expert Instruction, we’re answering the questions:

• What is a school-wide purpose statement?
• Why is a purpose statement important?
• How do you co-create a purpose statement with your larger school-wide community?

Our guest is Dr. Nikole Hollins-Sims. Nikole is an educational consultant, strategist, and most recently, technical assistance coordinator with the Midwest PBIS Network. Prior to joining up with the Midwest PBIS team, she served as Special Assistant to the Secretary of Education at the Pennsylvania Department of Education as well as an educational consultant working for the Pennsylvania Training and Technical Assistance Network. Nikole is a systems-level thinker who finds transforming educational ecosystems to be some of the most rewarding work she can do.

For more information about some of the resources mentioned in this episode, check out these links:

• Midwest PBIS Network Homepage
• Feedback and Input Survey Manual
• The 5 Whys (The article is about staff buy-in and the 5 Whys are described under the “Keep It Simple” header.)

At the end of any project, it feels right to pause and reflect. The end of the school year is no different. We’re all ready for a break and some relaxation, preferably by a pool, with something cold to sip. It’s also important to take a little time to reflect on everything you did over the course of the past school year. The process of looking back on your accomplishments isn’t selfish, it’s the key to improving the way you do anything in the future.

So, that’s what we’re doing today. We’re looking back on the last 10 episodes of this podcast and sharing our favorite highlights and lessons learned. We’ve interviewed 16 people this year and every single one of them left us some nugget of brilliance to think about long after the episode finished. We hope this episode reminds you of all the good stuff you’ve done this year and all the ways you can continue to support your students and each other in the years to come.

To dive into any of the episodes mentioned today, check out the following links:

• Ep. 12: Effects of Stress in the Classroom with Dr. Geovanna Rodriguez

• Ep. 18: The Fundamentals of Data-driven Decisions with Dr. Jessica Swain-Bradway and Dr. Billie Jo Rodriguez
• Ep. 16: Adding Student Voice to Leadership Teams with Zachary Patterson
• Ep. 15: Uplifting Student Voices in Implementation with Dr. Felicia Singleton and Marcus Jackson

This spring, we were fortunate enough to attend not one, not two, but three, in-person PBIS conferences. We know scheduling conflicts and budget constraints can get in the way of making it possible for everyone to register. So, this month we decided to take some time to share our conference experiences, the conversations we had, and the things we learned during our time at these events.

In our Teach by Design article, we’ve got a list of 12 tips and tricks we picked up from conference sessions devoted to social-emotional learning and mental health. In today’s Expert Instruction episode, we’re bringing together our PBISApps team to share some of the most pressing questions we answered at our vendor booth.

Joining the conversation is Katie Schulz, one of our Customer Support Specialists here at PBISApps. Katie is a 7-year veteran on our Customer Support Team. If you’ve ever had a question about how to use any of our apps, you’ve probably spoken to Katie.

Jessica Daily is our Training Team Lead who’s been with PBISApps for more than 6 years. You may have crossed paths with her when you attended one of our SWIS Facilitator Certification trainings or one of our application webinars. She is a self-proclaimed “data geek” who loves to teach others to use data to inform practices and support positive change in our educational systems.

Robin Spoerl is our Marketing and Design Manager. Everyone gets to experience his work when they land on the PBISApps website, because he designed it! He has edited every tutorial video and designed each piece of swag you’ve ever picked up at our vendor booth.

For more information about some of the resources mentioned in this episode, check out the following links:

• Overview of CICO-SWIS
• Overview of I-SWIS
• Teach by Design article “5 Ways to Reward Students the Right Way”
• The Center on PBIS Homepage
• Midwest PBIS Homepage
• The Association for Positive Behavior Support Conference Website
• The Northwest PBIS Conference Website
• The National Training Institute on Effective Practices: Addressing Challenging Behavior Conference

What does data-driven decision making mean to you? In this month’s Teach by Design, we showed you how researchers found it means something different depending on who you ask. What works for one school may not work for another, but we were also curious to know whether there were some components of a decision-making process that might be similar across most contexts.

In today’s episode of Expert Instruction, we’re exploring those decision-making fundamentals – the components of your decision-making model that make your team more efficient and your solutions more effective.

Joining us is Dr. Jessica Swain-Bradway and Dr. Billie Jo Rodriguez. Jessica is the executive director for Northwest PBIS Network – an organization providing professional development and support around PBIS & MTSS, including restorative practices, Interconnected Systems Framework, equity in discipline, early childhood PBIS, and more. Jessica’s work focuses on equipping teachers with strategies for instruction, relationship-building, and designing effective learning environments. She also has expertise aligning restorative practices, mental health practices, and academic RtI into the SWPBIS framework. 

Billie Jo is a Northwest PBIS staff member, a senior lecturer at the University of Oregon, a nationally certified school psychologist and a board-certified behavior analyst. She has over 20 years of experience supporting students with diverse needs and helping schools implement increasingly intensive function-based supports. She joins NWPBIS after seven years providing behavior support services as a school psychologist and positive behavior support coach in a diverse Oregon district.

For more information about some of the resources mentioned in this episode, check out these links:

• TIPS Meeting Minutes Template
• Culturally Responsive Field Guide
• Tiered Fidelity Inventory