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Once upon a time, students ran amok at Fern Ridge Middle School in Elmira, Oregon. 鈥淭he school was really in disarray,鈥� vice principal Doug Kartub recalls. 鈥淜ids were doing just about anything they wanted to do.鈥� The 560-student school, in a working-class community about 20 miles from the University of Oregon, had severe problems with discipline. Principal Susan Taylor-Greene says as many as 200 students were referred to the office each week. 鈥淭he teachers felt that, if they were consistent enough, the referrals would change the students鈥� behavior,鈥� she says.

But they didn鈥檛. Desperate, the school agreed to try a new behavior-management system developed by researchers at the University of Oregon. Dubbed Effective Behavior Support, the system is a schoolwide approach to student discipline. After everyone in a school-from the principal to bus drivers-agrees to make discipline a top priority, a smaller group maps out a comprehensive plan to create a schoolwide system.

At Fern Ridge, a faculty team agreed on five goals, which they called 鈥淗igh-Fives": Be respectful, be responsible, hands and feet to self, follow directions, and be there/be ready. As rewards for meeting those behavior goals, staff members gave out tickets that could be redeemed for treats such as popcorn and snow cones or extra time during lunch breaks. Teachers plastered printed signs advertising the High-Fives throughout the school, and students soon coveted the coupons.

After four years, the faculty committee in charge of the Fern Ridge project reported that office referrals had declined by 68 percent. The panel also wrote that 鈥渢he school climate has changed significantly.鈥�

Over the next few years, Fern Ridge officials will analyze links between the schoolwide program and academic improvements. Faculty members say it鈥檚 worked well so far. 鈥淭he success of the program has done more than anything to empower people,鈥� Taylor-Greene claims. 鈥淲e have a sense of pride, and it鈥檚 a very different place now.鈥�

Effective Behavior Support works because it is more than a school discipline code, say University of Oregon professors George Sugai and Robert Horner, the architects of the program. Horner describes it as 鈥渁n application of things we鈥檝e known for a long time but never used on a large scale.鈥�

Designing the model, the two special education professors studied more than 600 research papers on disruptive behavior in schools. So-called positive behavior supports-verbal praise, tangible rewards, and the like-had shown promise when used with severely disabled students, and the duo concluded they might work for entire schools.

The program they developed doesn鈥檛 do away with punishments altogether. Schools still need a 鈥渂asic lid鈥� system to handle office referrals, suspensions, and expulsions, particularly when students pose a danger to themselves or others. But Horner and Sugai say the program aims chiefly to prevent disruptive behavior, not punish it. Adults have to identify ideal behavior, teach what鈥檚 expected, and constantly model and remind students what is appropriate. 鈥淎ll the research shows that if you鈥檙e only reactive and only punitive, you鈥檒l fail,鈥� says Horner.

Administrators who adopt the Effective Behavior Support system must first create a data-collection system to track the number of students referred to the principal鈥檚 office, their offenses, and the location of the violations. Horner and Sugai consider such systems key to helping a school target problem areas. Often, violations involve a large number of students in one area-such as the lunchroom or playground. That could point to a problematic archi tectural feature, such as a too-narrow entry between classes. The data also could indicate that one type of behavior problem is more prevalent than another, or that a few students are causing a disproportionate share of the problems.

Once these trends are identified, a team of staff members identifies behavioral goals and their corollary rules. For example, at Patterson Elementary and Family School in Eugene, Oregon, another program site, the 鈥渂e safe鈥� goal requires students to walk facing forward on the right side of the hall. In the cafeteria, 鈥渂e responsible鈥� means raising a hand to ask to be excused.

Teachers undergo training to learn to teach the goals and reward students for positive behavior. Each student is required to memorize the goals. Before the start of the school year, Fern Ridge brings in its incoming 6th graders for a full day of tours and training. Then the goals are re-emphasized in January, when students return from winter break.

The Oregon model seeks to use only existing resources and usually costs schools $2,000 to $3,000 a year for supplies and additional staff time. Though such schoolwide discipline programs may seem like an easy concept, researchers emphasize that rethinking a school鈥檚 structure requires heavy lifting. Some schools, once they realize the time and commitment involved, decline to take part. 鈥淓veryone鈥檚 interested in buying in,鈥� says Terrence Scott, a professor of special education at the University of Kentucky who is working to implement the program in several Lexington-area schools. 鈥淏ut they want to take the pieces that don鈥檛 involve so many hours.鈥� Once schools implement the system and see the benefits, though, most acknowledge that the effort was worth the time. 鈥淲hat we found is, after the first year, the data keep them going,鈥� says Scott.

Horner and Sugai admit that their program doesn鈥檛 always work. One challenge is to consistently maintain a system through changes in administration and teaching staff. Larger schools also find it harder to make the approach work. Finally, the program has not been tried with older students, although Sugai and other researchers are attempting to modify the model for high schools in Hawaii and British Columbia. 鈥淗igh schools are very different animals,鈥� Sugai observes. 鈥淭he challenge for us in high schools is that the students have another option-to drop out.鈥�

--Joetta L. Sack