Fidelity of the initial implementation of universal expectations of school-wide positive behavior support (SWPBS)

Abstract

The study addressed two research questions. The first research question was to what the extent Central Intermediate Leadership Team implemented evidence-based practices of School-wide Positive Behavior Support (SWPBS) universal expectations. The second research question was to what extent teachers used the evidence-based practices from the SWPBS leadership team with fidelity. A mixed method design was used to report on the research questions. The Central Intermediate Leadership team was found to use data to support decision making, support student behavior with data, and support staff behavior with data with fidelity. The teachers were found to use common SWPBS language throughout the day and identification of student behaviors as minor and major challenging behaviors with fidelity. However, the researcher did not find fidelity practiced by the teachers for (a) teaching identified behavior lessons in their classrooms and (b) identifying positive student behaviors and rewarding the students with an incentive.