Accentuating the positive is not as easy as it looks.

Surprisingly and not so surprisingly, schools and districts implementing Positive Behavior Support (PBS)  are finding that working with students with problem behaviors is not the most challenging part of implementing PBS.

The most challenging part is the most positive part--teaching behavioral expectations to all students and providing rewards and reinforcement to students who meet those expectations.

Except for laying down the ground rules at the start of each school year, educators are not used to devoting a lot of thought and effort to educating students about desirable behavior.

For hundreds of years, most educators have taken a reactive rather than a proactive approach to student behavior--expecting and largely ignoring good behavior and responding only to the negative behavior. Even the word "behavior" connotes an infraction, an interruption of the educational process.

Now educators must learn how to accentuate the positive, and it can feel like an unfamiliar and redundant process.

A recent study on how well Maryland schools were implementing PBS recommended that educators teach behavioral expectations in a similar way to academics--with lesson plans. The authors recommend that lessons  be reviewed on a daily basis for the first week of school, on a monthly basis thereafter, and after all vacations and breaks.

On the checklist they used to evaluate fidelity of implementation were these questions on defining and teaching behavioral expectations: Has the school agreed upon 3 to 5 positively stated rules that are publicly displayed in 8 to 10 locations? Does the school have a behavioral rewards system?

Don Kincaid, director of the Florida Positive Behavior Support Project at the University of South Florida, says elementary school teachers expect to teach behavior more than teachers in the upper grades. " A frequent response is, 'They should know how to do that (behave) before they come to see us.' That's a valid point. But the point is, they don't. We have to set up a system to make sure that we are still able to address positive behavior and teach appropriately. It is kind of like saying, 'they should know how to read before they come to us.'"

Read about the latest research study:
Maryland study finds biggest challenge of PBIS is accentuating the positive

Would your school be the Gypsy school?

Truancy among Gypsy, Roma and Traveller (GRT) children has long been an issue for education authorities around the world. While there have been increases in school attendance by GRT children since the 1960s, truancy remains an important issue. And it's not just because of their distinctive culture and way of life. One of the major obstacles to school attendance cited by GRTs is their concerns about discrimination, bullying and safety.

I recently read a research article about an English school in an unnamed city that had become known as the "Gypsy school" because it had earned the trust of GRT families who had settled in the area. GRT families sent their children to this school because the school had succeeded in fostering a strong and safe community and building relationships with GRT parents and children.

Teachers exhibited a knowledge of children's personal backgrounds and culture and children liked being with the other GRT children in the school. They felt as though school officials were watching their back.

Threats of bullying, an argument with a teacher or an unexpected domestic crisis were understood as reasons to stop attending school, the researcher writes. The school operated a literal open door policy to promptly manage these situations. GRT parents could arrive unannounced at the school and be seen in the head office. Parents owned up to their responsibilities to go immediately to the school and resolve problems face to face.

A Gypsy has been described as an "exaggerated stranger." How many of the students in your school are "exaggerated strangers" because of ethnicity, religious beliefs or even temperament and personality? How many see your school as the school that welcomes and protects them--the Gypsy school?

They give wrong answers to questions about how many speech sounds and morphemes are in words and in a multiple-choice question, many are unable to identify the correct definition for phonemic awareness.

Most people can be forgiven for this, but not reading teachers.

A new study tested college instructors of reading teachers and found that they performed just as poorly. Was this a matter of differences in reading teaching philosophy? No, most study participants said they believed that good phonics instruction is fundamental to teaching children how to read.

So what gives? There are many factors at play, I'm sure, but I'll wager that the "overconfidence bias" is one of them. The overconfidence bias can be downright hazardous. I saw it with my teenage daughter when she was first learning to drive. If I could drive and her father could drive and every other dim-witted adult could drive, how hard could it be? But she eventually learned that driving a car is a more sophisticated skill than she at first appreciated.

Drinkers are also known to be overconfident about their ability to drive and even to fly an airplane. Construction crews are overconfident about their ability to meet a deadline and aging parents overconfident about their ability to live independently. Writers (guilty as charged) are often overconfident about their mastery of grammar and of the English language. And I believe many teachers may be overconfident about their knowledge of phonics.

"Of course, I know how many speech sounds are in box," might be the natural reaction of a teacher to such a question. Only many reading teachers and college instructors got this wrong in the research study. (Did you know there are 4 speech sounds in box?) OK, that was a tough one, but you get the point.

As skilled readers and users of the language, it would be natural for teachers to assume that they know more than they really know about phonics. A recent study in the Journal of Learning Disabilities serves as a reality check that many teachers need training in this area even if they have newly minted teaching degrees.

The good news is that many educators accept that phonics instruction is very important to reading and that with professional development can easily become more skilled and knowledgeable about phonics.

Read about the latest research study:
College instructors of reading teachers flunk phonics test

Many of today's youth--perhaps as much as 75% of the 17-24-age group--are unfit for the military either because they don't have a high school diploma, can't pass the military's entrance exam, are obese or have a criminal offense on their record, says a recent report "Ready, Willing, And Unable to Serve" by the group  Mission: Readiness Military Leaders for Kids.

Group members include Generals Hugh Shelton and John Shalikashivili, both former chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (CJCS) and General Wesley Clark, former NATO commander and Presidential candidate. High school dropouts aren't eligible to enlist and about 30% of potential recruits with high school degrees do not pass the Armed Forces Qualification Test (the AFQT), a test used by the military to determine math and reading skills.

The solution, say the military leaders, is early childhood education. "More than half of all states are reaching only 30% or less of their four-year-old children through state and federal programs, and 10 states serve 20% or less of the four-year-olds in their state," the report says.

Could your students pass the Army test? Follow the link for a sample of some of the questions students must be able to answer.

http://todaysmilitary.com/before-serving/asvab-test/asvab-sample-page