We have tried zero tolerance to combat violence in our schools. We have added locker searches, safety assistants and police, security cameras, door buzzers and metal scanners. Milwaukee Public Schools even considered giving school officials the authority to handcuff out-of-control students.

We have suspended and expelled students at record numbers to the point where Milwaukee has had one of the highest rates of suspensions and expulsions in the nation. But all these actions only made our schools marginally safer. Some would argue our actions increased violence.

How about more preventive actions? MPS introduced a number of mentors in several secondary schools with the program, Violence Free Zone. These adults work with teens to combat conflicts to lower the tensions in our schools. The results have been dramatic and positive.

Another program used by both the primary and secondary schools is “Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports” (PBIS). The goal here is to improve students’ interpersonal skills so they can cooperate with others and avoid conflicts. PBIS is a national program which has been implemented in schools across the nation often lowering the violence in the schools using the program. 

But there are schools across the nation where PBIS has been less than successful. And most of those failures have one thing in common: the over utilization of external rewards.

It is one thing for a ten year old to learn that acting out in class isn’t going to get you what you want, that you are disrupting the education of everyone else, and that you will feel better if you ask nicely. Good behavior is internalized.

But it is quite another thing to tell a child that, if you act appropriately, you will get school tokens that you can use to buy prizes at the school store. Here good behavior is not internalized; external rewards rule. And when the prizes are taken away, children often revert back to their old disruptive behaviors.

The people at the national PBIS center know this and warned schools that external rewards can be used but only as a first step as students begin to internalize proper behaviors. External rewards can’t be the primary motivation for good behavior.

Unfortunately, too many schools don’t properly implement PBIS, and so the program fails at those schools. So how are we doing in MPS? Frankly we really don’t know because we don’t have the right kind of data. 

Suspensions and expulsions are down, but Superintendent Thornton told schools to get those numbers down in no uncertain terms. Some school principals just aren’t suspending students no matter what they do in school. At these schools, behavior is no better, but the data does look better.

We have school climate surveys which show that students, teachers and parents all believe that their schools have gotten safer, but the data collection system is hardly scientific and can be easily manipulated by the principal picking the optimum settings for individuals to fill out the surveys.

An unpublished MPS study of the first year of implementation of PBIS in several MPS schools showed that these schools actually had an increase in suspensions, not the other way around. This study begs for additional research, but MPS isn’t drilling down to find out just how effective PBIS is.

I personally believe that PBIS can be an effective program but we have to implement the program with fidelity, and right now, I don’t know one way or another whether this is being done.    

We have tried zero tolerance to combat violence in our schools. We have added locker searches, safety assistants and police, security cameras, door buzzers, and metal scanners. Milwaukee Public Schools even considered giving school officials the authority to handcuff out-of-control students.

We have suspended and expelled students at record numbers to the point where Milwaukee has had one of the highest rates of suspensions and expulsions in the nation. But all these actions only made our schools marginally safer. Some would argue our actions increased violence.

How about more preventive actions? MPS introduced a number of mentors in several secondary schools with the program, Violence Free Zone. These adults work with teens to combat conflicts to lower the tensions in our schools. The results have been dramatic and positive.

Another program used by both the primary and secondary schools is “Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports” (PBIS). The goal here is to improve students’ interpersonal skills so they can cooperate with others and avoid conflicts. PBIS is a national program which has been implemented in schools across the nation often lowering the violence in the schools using the program.

But there are schools across the nation where PBIS has been less than successful. And most of those failures have one thing in common: the over utilization of external rewards.

It is one thing for a ten year old to learn that acting out in class isn’t going to get you what you want, that you are disrupting the education of everyone else, and that you will feel better if you ask nicely. Good behavior is internalized.

But it is quite another thing to tell a child that, if you act appropriately, you will get school tokens that you can use to buy prizes at the school store. Here good behavior is not internalized; external rewards rule. And when the prizes are taken away, children often revert back to their old disruptive behaviors.

The people at the national PBIS center know this and warned schools that external rewards can be used but only as a first step as students begin to internalize proper behaviors. External rewards can’t be the primary motivation for good behavior.

Unfortunately, too many schools don’t properly implement PBIS, and so the program fails at those schools.

So how are we doing in MPS? Frankly we really don’t know because we don’t have the right kind of data.

Suspensions and expulsions are down, but Superintendent Thornton told schools to get those numbers down in no uncertain terms. Some school principals just aren’t suspending students no matter what they do in school. At these schools, behavior is no better but the data does look better.

We have school climate surveys which show that students, teachers, and parents all believe that their schools have gotten safer, but the data collection system is hardly scientific and can be easily manipulated by the principal picking the optimum settings for individuals to fill out the surveys. 

An unpublished MPS study of the first year of implementation of PBIS in several MPS schools showed that these schools actually had an INCREASE in suspensions, not the other way around. This study begs for additional research, but MPS isn’t drilling down to find out just how effective PBIS is.

I personally believe that PBIS can be an effective program but we have to implement the program with fidelity, and right now, I don’t know one way or another whether this is being done.    

We have tried zero tolerance to combat violence in our schools. We have added locker searches, safety assistants and police, security cameras, door buzzers, and metal scanners. Milwaukee Public Schools even considered giving school officials the authority to handcuff out-of-control students.

We have suspended and expelled students at record numbers to the point where Milwaukee has had one of the highest rates of suspensions and expulsions in the nation. But all these actions only made our schools marginally safer. Some would argue our actions increased violence. 

How about more preventive actions? MPS introduced a number of mentors in several secondary schools with the program, Violence Free Zone. These adults work with teens to combat conflicts to lower the tensions in our schools. The results have been dramatic and positive.

Another program used by both the primary and secondary schools is “Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports” (PBIS). The goal here is to improve students’ interpersonal skills so they can cooperate with others and avoid conflicts. PBIS is a national program which has been implemented in schools across the nation often lowering the violence in the schools using the program.

But there are schools across the nation where PBIS has been less than successful. And most of those failures have one thing in common: the over utilization of external rewards.

It is one thing for a ten year old to learn that acting out in class isn’t going to get you what you want, that you are disrupting the education of everyone else, and that you will feel better if you ask nicely. Good behavior is internalized.

But it is quite another thing to tell a child that, if you act appropriately, you will get school tokens that you can use to buy prizes at the school store. Here good behavior is not internalized; external rewards rule. And when the prizes are taken away, children often revert back to their old disruptive behaviors. 

The people at the national PBIS center know this and warned schools that external rewards can be used but only as a first step as students begin to internalize proper behaviors. External rewards can’t be the primary motivation for good behavior.

Unfortunately, too many schools don’t properly implement PBIS, and so the program fails at those schools. 

So how are we doing in MPS? Frankly we really don’t know because we don’t have the right kind of data. 

Suspensions and expulsions are down, but Superintendent Thornton told schools to get those numbers down in no uncertain terms. Some school principals just aren’t suspending students no matter what they do in school. At these schools, behavior is no better but the data does look better. 

We have school climate surveys which show that students, teachers, and parents all believe that their schools have gotten safer, but the data collection system is hardly scientific and can be easily manipulated by the principal picking the optimum settings for individuals to fill out the surveys. 

An unpublished MPS study of the first year of implementation of PBIS in several MPS schools showed that these schools actually had an INCREASE in suspensions, not the other way around. This study begs for additional research, but MPS isn’t drilling down to find out just how effective PBIS is.

I personally believe that PBIS can be an effective program but we have to implement the program with fidelity, and right now, I don’t know one way or another whether this is being done.