Highly Effective Teachers Understand

Highly effective teachers understand the immense value of providing both academic and behavior feedback to students.

Academic feedback helps students grasp their strengths and overcome deficits in various subjects, enabling them to focus on areas that require improvement and reinforcing their confidence in their abilities. It also guides them toward effective learning strategies, fostering a growth mindset.

Behavior feedback, on the other hand, instills crucial community values such as being Kind, Respectful, and Responsible, shaping not just their academic success but also their overall personal development. By offering positive reinforcement, effective teachers create a supportive learning environment where students feel motivated to excel academically while honing essential behavioral traits.

This holistic feedback approach not only enhances students’ academic performance but equips them with lifelong skills crucial for their future endeavors, making it an invaluable aspect of a student's educational journey.

Create a 4-Part Reinforcement Matrix

Many people equate reinforcement tickets or points with PBIS/MTSS. But that is only one part of the practices that make this system effective. Tickets and points are not effective in isolation! What makes reinforcement so effective is realizing that they build relationships and connectedness with students. Tickets are for the adults. Tickets remind adults to reach out and acknowledge our students for meeting our school-wide values and expectations.

Four Part Reinforcement System

1. Frequent Reinforcement - Something tangible (usually a ticket or coupon) given to students immediately upon demonstrating a specific skill from your Expectation Matrix. Electronic points/apps can also be used, but are only effective when given to students immediately upon demonstrating a specific skill from your Expectation Matrix.

2. Intermediate Reinforcement - A weekly or monthly drawing/raffle from frequent tickets for an item, activity or privilege that is reinforcing to students. We encourage schools to create a Reinforcement Menu of several non-tangible items that students can choose from.

3. Long Term Reinforcement - A quarterly or semester drawing/raffle from frequent tickets for an item, activity or privilege that is reinforcing to students.

4. Staff Reinforcement - When students tickets are drawn, the staff who reinforced the student should be recognized - verbally or with an item, activity or privilege that is reinforcing to staff.

By leveraging a 4-Part Reinforcement system, schools grow beyond thinking that tickets are simply randomly handed out for a “good job”. Having a multi-tiered systems approach increases the visibility of acknowledging students for meeting expectations rather than a focus on discipline or disapproval. A system that instead focuses on teacher-student relationships will not only improve school climate and culture, but will most surely be embraced by families in the school community. Better together.

Parts of this article are a direct excerpt from Chapter 7, Reinforcement System, from the PBIS Tier 1 Manual. KOI Education offers multiple paths to learning how to implement PBIS/MTSS with fidelity.

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