A Case for Adding a Social—Behavioral Standard to Standards-Based Education With Schoolwide Positive Behavior Support as Its Basis

Abstract

A B S T R A C T There is a growing recognition of the importance and effectiveness of instruction not only in academics but also in social and character development. This new understanding has provided the impetus for reforming how schools address behavior and discipline to foster an environment that facilitates learning. Attention to standards-based education, though currently focused exclusively on academic learning, provides a tried and tested conceptual approach to student achievement that can be used to adopt a social and behavioral standard for holding schools accountable for providing an environment that facilitates learning. Efforts to align special and general education systems provide a context in which a social—behavioral standard and its indicators can be addressed. Instruction and assessments that encompass the individualized approach of special education as well as the school improvement and accountability approach of standards-based education can then be referenced against new social— behavioral standards and indicators. This article analyzes current policy and recommends schoolwide positive behavior support (SWPBS) as a specific strategy to form the basis for such standards. SWPBS provides an empirically validated means for integrating essential social—behavioral development pedagogy into current curricular and instructional efforts to produce higher academic achievement for all students.