PBIS Review: Does PBIS Work?

Teachers across many different schools and educational environments are sometimes tasked with using Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports, or PBIS. PBIS can be a great way to create a more positive classroom environment. Many educators can attest to it helping to boost students’ behavior and engagement at the same time. In this post, we’ll explore how PBIS can work and offer tips on how to use PBIS in an effective way.

What is PBIS?

PBIS is an evidence-based, behavioral management system that has been gaining popularity among educators over the past few decades. It’s designed to create an environment of mutual respect and specific behaviors in the classroom. PBIS is divided into three fundamental tiers, similar to Response to Intervention, or RTI:

• Tier 1: This tier is for universal prevention for all students. It sets the foundation for all other levels of support in your school. It includes general behavior expectations and teaching these rules to all students. This tier promotes learning in a safe environment throughout the student’s school life.
• Tier 2: This tier is designed for students who need a little extra help by targeting behavioral needs. Schools often provide this level of support to students who may also need assistance from a behavioral specialist or counselor.
• Tier 3: This PBIS tier is aimed at students who display behaviors that are especially disruptive to learning and require intensive, individualized support. Determining tier 3 needs requires formal assessments. Actions can be customized with a personalized plan developed by the student’s educators. 

The pros and cons of PBIS

What are the pros of PBIS?

Schools that implement PBIS focus on both behavioral expectations and academic curriculum. The goal is to create an educational environment where students feel valued and part of a community that includes caring adults. According to the Center on PBIS, this attention to both behavior and academics results in improved student outcomes, like increased prosocial behavior, reduced teacher burnout, and increased student engagement.

“Implementing a PBIS framework can have broadly positive effects for students and staff,” write Petrasek et al. in a study from 2021. They expand on some of the benefits called out by the Center on PBIS and describe additional effects too, such as more instructional time and improved student attendance. “Student success is facilitated in an environment, undergirded by supportive and positive relationships, where the social norms and supports are oriented more clearly toward a shared culture of social, academic, and behavioral success.”

A different study from Bradshaw et al. examined the impact of PBIS on school organizational health across 37 elementary schools and over 2,000 staff members. They also found broad benefits, focusing their study on the educators in particular. “Training in PBIS appears to have made the school a more friendly, positive, and collaborative work environment for staff,” they write.

What are the cons of PBIS?

Like every instructional method, there are PBIS criticisms, too. There is the upfront time required to implement the framework, which can cut into the time needed for planning, teaching, and evaluating. There are also students who don’t have a clear stake in the appraisal process who may feel frustrated when they don’t earn privileges.

Another challenge is that what counts as good behavior is contextual. In a 2015 study by behavioral analyst Alyssa N. Wilson, she explains that some school administrators may select behaviors associated with their own backgrounds and experiences and offers ways to think about these biases and implement PBIS through a more universal lens.

Many educators are also wary that PBIS relies on extrinsic motivation to decrease problematic behaviors. While this might seem like a con at face value (shouldn’t educators focus on intrinsic motivation?) psychologist Michael Petrasek and colleagues explain the full picture is more nuanced. “Extrinsic motivation can be useful to prompt individuals to behave in ways that may not be inherently interesting to them,” they explain. “Extrinsic motivation often plays an essential role in adopting and internalizing behaviors that may be come intrinsically motivated over time.”

Does PBIS work?

In my experience, it certainly does! No question it has plenty of research to support it as well. An influential study from the National Institutes of Health concludes that it “appears to be a promising approach for reducing problems and promoting adjustment among elementary school children.”

Putting into practice is always easier said than done, however. Actually implementing PBIS is a complex problem that involves the individual students and educators using it. I had to find a way for it to work with the students I was teaching. One successful approach I used was giving out points and stickers in connection with a PBIS school store to set up a PBIS rewards system. The premise is simple: students earn stickers or points for appropriate behaviors to then cash in at the PBIS store.

In my classroom, we valued earning privileges instead of taking them away. However, it’s important to remember that when you start using this method with your students, it may take some time before the conduct improves. No matter how PBIS is implemented in your classroom, be patient with your students and look for ways to improve outcomes for all.

This article was adapted from a blog post initially developed by the education technology company Classcraft, which was acquired by HMH in 2023. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of HMH.

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