A Qualitative Research Study of PK-5 Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports in a Title I Schoo

The purpose of this qualitative action research was to assess teacher perceptions and experiences with Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports implementation and challenging behaviors at one NYC PK-5 Title I school. Students of color and students with disabilities who attend schools with a negative environment tend to experience the school to prison pipeline. The final purposive sample for the study were 17 teachers who were appointed, educated students with disabilities and/or of color, and participated in the Positive Behaviors Interventions and Supports intervention workshop September 2016 and/or 2017. Bandura's social-cognitive theory was the proper framework to discourse the effective implementation of Positive Behaviors Interventions and Supports. Data was gathered through an anonymous post-intervention online survey using Survey Monkey and analyzed with the software Dedoose (Dedoose, 2016). Four major themes were identified during analysis: (a) Teacher buy-in had not reached full capacity regarding PBIS; (b) Behavior had improved due to positive reinforcement; (c) PBIS training helped with promoting positive behaviors, and (d) PBIS was effective in Title I schools because of the communication between teacher and student. Three recommendations for practice included (a) develop pedagogies prepared to utilize PBIS, and to focus on buy-in to expand the efficiency of practice (b) offer PBIS professional development to occur over a duration of days and divided into tiers so that pedagogues can gain a complete comprehension of the intervention; and (c) ensure educators gain proficiency and comfort with the use of positive approaches for behavior management and the revocation of negative reprimand. Recommendations for future research were to conduct (a) single qualitative case study of perceptions experiences with middle school teachers who might more rapidly buy-into PBIS; (b) quantitative a quasi-experimental study of SWDs from a Title I school and a non-Title I school where stakeholders employed PBIS as noted in theme 2; and (c) a qualitative narrative study of untenured teachers until they reach tenure for the use of PBIS from introduction to mastery, and the impact of their utilization on classroom removals and referrals of SWD.