Programs

Effective Behavioral Support

A promising approach to school discipline and student safety is the Effective Behavioral Support (EBS) Model, which is a system of training, technical assistance, and evaluation of school discipline and climate. The EBS model has been developed and field-tested extensively by researchers at the University of Oregon (see Sprague, Sugai, & Walker, 1998; Sugai & Horner, 1994; Taylor-Greene et al., 1995). EBS is a multiple system, whole-school approach to addressing the problems posed by antisocial students and coping with challenging forms of student behavior.

EBS has these essential features:

1. Problem behaviors are defined clearly for students and staff members;
2. Appropriate, positive behaviors are defined for students and staff;
3. Students are taught these alternative behaviors directly and given assistance to acquire the necessary skills to enable the desired behavior change;
4. Effective incentives and motivational systems are developed and carried out to encourage students to behave differently;
5. Staff commits to staying with the intervention over the long term and to monitoring, supporting, coaching, debriefing, and providing booster shots as necessary to maintain the achieved gains;
6. Staff receives training and regular feedback about effective implementation of the interventions; and,
7. Systems for measuring and monitoring the intervention's effectiveness are established and carried out.

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Updated: Thursday, May 25, 2006