Tertiary Center Project
The Tertiary Center Project is based
on a partnership between the Beach
Center and the Illinois-PBIS
Network. It addresses the issue of how
to establish a sustainable, systemic approach to building school and district-wide
capacity to support students with complex behavioral/emotional and academic
needs within School-Wide Systems of Positive Behavior Support (SWPBS). The
project is designed to recognize and address the system-level challenges
inherent in meeting the needs of all students, especially those with tertiary-level
needs, and their families within the context of the school setting including:
- Students who are at-risk for not receiving
timely and effective early intervention services
- Students identified for special education who
have limited rates of success, especially students who have emotional/behavioral
disabilities
- Students with internalizing problems (i.e.
withdrawal, depression) who are not being identified
- Lack of data-based decision making, resulting in
reactive system responses (i.e., punishment, suspension, exclusion) which often
leads to escalation of problems and high rates of restrictive placements
- Lack of comprehensive planning time among key
stakeholders (e.g., family, teachers, specialists) resulting in interventions
that do not have adequate intensity, are not comprehensive enough, or are not
implemented with sufficient fidelity to produce meaningful and sustainable
behavioral change.
The project is designed to:
- Establish a rigorous yet replicable professional
development system integrated into schools and district structures
- Develop a school-level, data-based
decision-making system with rigorous supporting measures and tools that is also
consistent with a Response to Intervention (RtI) logic model (e.g., use of
differentiated instruction, multi-tiered interventions, data-based
decision-making, systematic problem-solving approach, continuous progress
monitoring,)
- Develop a national dissemination process that
partners the Tertiary
Center outcomes with the National Technical Assistance
Center on Positive
Behavioral Interventions and Supports;
- Develop, test, and refine a broad range of
products for dissemination, including online modules, a website, a book, and a
minimum of five journal articles and six conference presentations;
- Establish a full integration of home, school,
and community intervention components incorporating mental health and other
community-based partners who embrace the system of care (SOC) principles needed
to be effective with the 1-3% of students and their families who require highly
specialized interagency supports; and
Establish
a fully integrated evaluation system designed for easy access and use by local
implementers (teachers, families, instructional and behavioral coaches,
administrators, etc.) organized to provide aggregate information to inform and
guide district, regional and state infrastructures using rigorous and
comprehensive formative and summative evaluation methods.