1. 1
USING DISCIPLINE
DATA TO SOLVE
PROBLEMS
In-School Coach Training
Summer Institute 2012

2. Exceptional Children Division
Behavior Support & Special Programs
2 Positive Behavior Intervention & Support Initiative

3. Desired Outcomes
3
The goal of this training is to help
schools move beyond simple
collection of discipline data to using
the collected data to solve problems.

4. Rationale
4
Data should be used regularly to problem solve
because it…
 provides an objective viewpoint of the current
state.
 Increases efficiency by making needed action
items clear.
 provides information about effectiveness of
practices so modifications can be made in a
timely manner.
 ensures that strategies and interventions are

5. 5
USING DISCIPLINE
DATA TO SOLVE
PROBLEMS
Data Sources

6. Data Sources
6
Discipline data is collected in many
ways:
 Office referrals
 In and out of school suspensions
 Classroom management systems
 Behavior contracts

7. Data Sources: Office Referral
7
Information
 Office referrals are the most commonly
used discipline data source.
 Regardless of the collection method, it is
important to gather enough information to
determine patterns and design effective
solutions.
 Ensuring accurate collection of data is an
important component of the PBIS team’s
role.

8. 8
Average Referrals Per Day

9. Types of Problem Behavior
9

10. 10
Student Referrals
2 or more referrals

11. 11
Location

12. Data Sources: Other Data To
12
Consider
 Time of day
 Probable motivation
 Administrator decision
 ODR rate compared to national
average
 Others involved

13. SWIS summary 2010-11 (Majors Only)
4,634 schools; 2,394,591 students; 1,802,178 ODRs
Grade Number of Mean Mean Median 25th 75th
Range Schools Enrollmen ODRs per ODRs per Percentile Percentile
t per 100 stud/ 100 per ODR/100/ ODR/100/
school school day school day school day school day
K-6 2979 456 .32 (.41) .21 .11 .39
6-9 889 626 .65 (.81) .46 .25 .79
9-12 390 818 .85 (.86) .62 .34 1.07
PreK-8 254 438 .49 (.49) .32 .18 .65
PreK-12 50 455 1.1 (3.0) .37 .18 .71

14. Data Sources: Questions to
15 Consider
 Is our database accurate and reliable?
 Are we capturing information about behavior in
classrooms?
 What modifications does our system need (if
any)?
 What training does our staff need regarding
tracking and accessing data?
 How can we ensure our teachers are utilizing
the data in an interactive manner to design
effective solutions to problem behavior on a
regular basis?

15. 16
USING DISCIPLINE
DATA TO SOLVE
PROBLEMS
Meeting Foundations

16. Meeting Foundations: Elements
17
 Team purpose
 Defined agreements about processes
 Established roles and responsibilities
 Electronic meeting minutes

17. Meeting Foundations: Overview
18
1. Meeting starts and ends on time
2. Consistent attendance by team members
3. Agenda is used to guide meeting topics
4. Process is in place to monitor progress of implemented solutions
(review previous meeting minutes)
5. System is used for documenting decisions
6. Team members prepare for and meet responsibilities during
meeting
7. Next meeting is scheduled
8. All team members (absent or present) are given minutes within 24
hours of the meeting
9. Decision makers are present when needed
10. Protocol is established for when administrator is unable to attend
11. Efforts are making a difference in the lives of children/students

18. 1. Inform facilitator of
attendance issues before
meeting
2. Avoid side talk
3. Remind each other to stay
focused
4. Start and end on time
5. Be an active participant
19

19. Meeting Foundations: Roles
20
 Core roles Can one person serve
 Facilitator multiple roles?
 Minute taker Are there other roles
 Data analyst needed? EX:
communication
 Communication coordinator coordinator, timekeeper
 Time keeper
 Administrator
 Active team member
 Backup for each role

20. Meeting Foundations: Roles
21
Facilitator:
 Secures date, time, and location for meetings
 Manages room set-up (projector, chairs,
smartboard, etc.)
 Guides team members in the meeting
 Ensures participation by all members, using
facilitative techniques
 Works with the time keeper and the minutes taker
to guarantee agenda is followed and time is
honored
 Acts as liaison between team and administration

21. Meeting Foundations: Roles
22
Minutes Taker:
 Arranges for back-up minutes taker, if absent
 Manages the Meeting Minutes and Problem-
Solving Action Plan
 Captures the discussions and decisions made by
the team in a concise, accurate method
 Is comfortable reviewing, evaluating and revising
items with the team
 Sends minutes of meeting to team members
within established time limit
 Ensures minutes/action plan is posted and/or
shared with appropriate staff members

22. Meeting Foundations: Roles
23
Data Analyst:
 Competent using technology
 Has access to necessary data
 Able to perform cursory analysis of data to
identify possible problems
 Comfortable mining data live in meeting
 Capable of creating custom reports and
graphs as team digs deeper in the data

23. 24

24. 25

25. Meeting Foundations: Minutes
26
Documentation Review
 Meeting minutes
 Logistics
 date  An effective process check
 time  Baseline for current meeting
 location
 roles  Visual tracking of focus topics
during and after meetings
 Agenda
 Prevents side conversations
 today’s items
 Prevents repetition
 next week’s items
 Encourages completion of
 Discussion items, decisions tasks
made, tasks and timelines
assigned
 Problem statements,
solutions/decisions/tasks,
responsible people, timelines
assigned, and an evaluation
plan

26. Meeting Foundations:
27 Environment
Problem
A key to collective problem solving is to
provide a visual context that allows everyone
to follow and contribute.
Use
Data
Consider using one form to guide the
activities of the meeting and using a projector
so that all team members view the content
and participate.
Out of Solution
Time

27. Langley Elementary PBIS Team Meeting Minutes and Problem-Solving Action Plan Form
Today’s Meeting: Date, time, location: Facilitator: Minute Taker: Data Analyst:
Next Meeting: Date, time, location: Facilitator: Minute Taker: Data Analyst:
Team Members (bold are present today)
Where on this form would
Today’s Agenda Items Next Meeting Agenda Items you place:
01. 1.
02. 2.
03. 1. Planning for PTA
Administrative/General Information and Issues meeting
Information for Team, or Issue for Team to Discussion/Decision/Task (if applicable) Who? By When?
Address 2. Too many students in
the “intensive support”
for literacy
3. Schedule for hallway
Problem-Solving Action Plan monitoring for next
Implementation and Evaluation
Precise Problem Statement, based on review of Solution Actions (e.g., Prevent, Teach, month Goal, Timeline,
data Prompt, Reward, Correction, Extinction, Who? By When? Decision Rule, & Updates
(What, When, Where, Who, Why) Safety)
4. There have been five
fights on playground in
last month
5. Next meeting report on
Our Rating
Evaluation of Team Meeting (Mark your ratings with an lunch-roomNo
Yes So-So
status
“X”) 1. Was today’s meeting a good use of our time?
2. In general, did we do a good job of tracking whether we’re completing the tasks we agreed on at previous meetings?
28 3. In general, have we done a good job of actually completing the tasks we agreed on at previous meetings?
4. In general, are the completed tasks having the desired effects on student behavior?

28. Meeting Foundations: Recording
Relevance
29
 Minors-what would we like to do about communicating the
minors with families? There is inconsistency among staff, not all
teachersIssue:the minors as a teaching returning minor
use families are not signing and tool in the same way. Is
incident reports
this a problem? What should be do?
Information for Team, or Issue for Team Discussion/Decision/Task (if applicable) Who? By When?
Possible hypotheses: multiple students in household
to Address
Discussion:
Minor incident reports
bringingRe-examineincidentbeing used to home?and
minor the process reports document parent gets
communicate about minor incidents
team 2-15-10
team
upset with student & students not giving form to meeting
 Perhaps we create a little blurb that goes out to families that
Take proposal to staff Team 2-15-10 staff
parents to sign?
teachers will use when sending them home. Sending them home meeting
creates a Decision: re-examine the process being usedwith
problematic situation, can be an issue to
communication with families. Perhaps we need to just say to
document and communicate about minor incidents
staff a general reminder about what is going on with the minors
for families of multiple students or friends, etc. We will wait until
next year to re-train staff and discuss how to use WHOAS and
how to communicate them with parents.

29. Problem-Solving Action Plan
Implementation and Evaluation
Precise Problem Statement, based on review of data Solution Actions (e.g., Prevent, Teach, Goal, Timeline,
(What, When, Where, Who, Why) Prompt, Reward, Correction, Extinction, Who? By When? Decision Rule, & Updates
Safety)
October : We have way too many ODRs and we
Last month’s example: We are above the national 3BB talked about the 3CICO system are
students are starting students who Cico team
Cico team 11/16/2009
11/16/2009 CICO Team check-in every
average of ODR’swith aggression/fighting with
have a problem and we have a problem and Older students teach primary students about
starting CICO system. AT is skeptical LL analyze January PBS two weeks to see if students
aggression/fightingplayground during the playground
disrespect on the and disrespect on K,1,2 morning basketball game rules TP saw the program
parent involvement. – contingent on D.C. LL analyze
referral data meeting are meeting 80% of their
duringlunch recess and lunch recess with 4
and K,1,2 morning coming to school on time involvement at the
work fine without parent NN/MMdata
referral 11/16/09 goal.
students. Reteach playground expectations and asked if
previous school. AA walked in Decrease of playground
another student could be on CICO. JJ asked if referrals by 25% by January
the supervisors were moving around, he had PBS meeting. CICO team
seen them talking together in the middle of will report
the playground once last week. Decrease of playground
We should plan to reteach playground referrals by K-2 students and
expectations .Older students could teach D.C. defiance/disruption
primary students basketball game rules – referrals
contingent on D.C. coming to school on time
This month’s precise problem statement: We have -Reteaching game and playground rules -MM will ask MA
three high fliers, K-2 and a 6th grader on the -Reinforce proper lining up if she can
playground, at 10:00 and 11:45/12:00 -Reinforce exiting and entering building reinforce/teach
46/69 number of total major and minor referrals on playground rules
the playground
30

30. Meeting Foundations:
31 Structure/Flow
1. Attendance, roles for meeting
2. Next meeting date
3. Review agenda for meeting
4. Review/status update of previous meeting
minutes
5. Review data and use problem solving model to
prompt the development of a comprehension
action plan
6. Reports needed for next meeting
7. Team assessment of meeting

31. Identify
Problem
Evaluate
and Develop
revise Hypothesi
action s
plan
Develop Discuss
and and
implemen select
t action solutions
plan
33

32. Any tasks assigned get
copied to the meeting
minutes of the next
meeting as a follow up
item
Meeting Agenda Item:
Meeting Foundations
Tasks: What, by whom,
by when
34 7/13/2012
Newton, J.S., Todd, A. W., Horner, R.H., Algozzine, B., & Algozzine K.,
2010

33. 35

34. Completed
example
36

35. Meeting
Foundation
s:
Coaches’
Checklist

36. 38
USING DISCIPLINE
DATA TO SOLVE
PROBLEMS
Problem Solving Process

37. Problem Solving Process: Using
39 Data
 In the previous section, you looked at data that
gave an overall view of patterns in a school, but
didn’t provide enough data to move forward.
 Collecting data is pointless if it is not used by all
staff members to solve both school-wide and
classroom problems.
 The ultimate goal is to improve the school
experience for students, staff and families.
 Data should help us clearly identify problems and
lead us to specific possible solutions.
 We need to move past “admiring the problem.”

38. Problem Solving Process: Using
40
Data
 In order to solve problems successfully, schools need to use
a specific process to define precise problems and design
solutions.
 The Team Initiated Problem Solving (TIPS) model was
created for PBIS teams.
 PBIS teams should use the TIPS model for school-wide data,
grade level, and for individual students.
 All staff members need to have access to the data and be
taught how to use the information to solve everyday
challenges.
*The TIPS model can easily be used for academic or corporate
problems as well.

39. 41

40. Problem Solving Process:
42 Definitions
 Problem: Difference exists between
expected/desired student behavior and current
student behavior.
 Problem identification: Difference is
discovered and significance is determined.
 Problem solving: A plan is created to reduce
or eliminate difference.

41. 43
USING DISCIPLINE
DATA TO SOLVE
PROBLEMS
Identify Problems

42. 44

43. Identify Problems: Broad Problem
45 Statements
 Typically, schools use behavioral data to
define broad problems.
 Broad problem statements do not give enough
information to design effective solutions.
 The purpose of broad problems statements is
to elicit questions that can be answered with
data to better define the problem.

44. 48
USING DISCIPLINE
DATA TO SOLVE
PROBLEMS
Develop Hypothesis

45. Develop Hypothesis: Determine Cause of
Problem
49
 Determining the cause, or uncovering why a
behavior is occurring, is essential to
developing interventions.
 The goal is to help students learn to
appropriately meet their needs.
 When collecting data, it is important for staff to
make their best, most informed guesses about
why students are engaging in problem
behaviors.

46. 50

47. Develop a Hypothesis: Things to
51
Consider
 A hypothesis is an explanation for what the
data and your experience tell you.
 Data can only give part of the picture.
 Staff with the most direct experience with the
problem need to add their insight to accurately
define cause.
 An accurate hypothesis is crucial to designing
solutions that will be effective.

48. Develop a Hypothesis: Identify a Precise
Problem
52
 Creating strategies without knowing the precise
problem leads to inefficient solutions and
wasted time.
 In order to ensure precise problem statements,
go back to the data to answer the following:
 What is the problem?
 How often is it happening?
 Where is it happening?
 Who is engaged in the behavior?
 When is the problem most likely to occur?

49. Activity: Identifying Precise
53
Problem Statement
Which partial statement is more precise?
Which statement is a complete Precise Problem Statement?
Too many ODRs 15 instances of disrespect
24 ODRs between 1:00 and 1:30 Too many ODRs in the afternoon
Too many ODRs outside the classroom 6 ODRs on the playground
25% of students have at least 2 ODRs Many students have ODRs
Total of 12 ODRs for aggression on the
Too many ODRs on the playground in the last month; this
playground number is more than last year and
shows an increasing trend for this year;
these incidents are occurring during the
first recess, and there are different
students involved each time.

50. 54
USING DISCIPLINE
DATA TO SOLVE
PROBLEMS
Discuss and Select Solutions

51. 55

52. Discuss and Select a Solution: Creating a
Goal
56
 Prior to designing solution strategies, a clear
goal needs to be set that can be evaluated
using data.
 Goals can be measured in the following ways:
 Percent reduction
 Absolute reduction
 Satisfaction level
 The best practice is to use more than one
measure of evaluation.

53. Discuss and Select Solutions:
57
Design
Prevent:
• How can we modify the context in which the behavior occurs?
• Can we remove or alter the triggers for problem behavior?
Teach:
• Do we need to define the expected behaviors more clearly?
• Can we teach a replacement behavior that meets the same need?
• Do we need to provide additional demonstration and/or practice of the
desired behaviors?
Respond:
• In what ways can we immediately prompt the correct behavior?
• Does our system frequently reward the desired behavior ?
• Can we extinguish problems by withholding reinforcement of the problem
behavior?
• Can we develop meaningful consequences to correct the problem behavior
that provide a learning or practice component of the desired behavior?
• How will we effectively respond to behaviors that compromise safety while
ensuring the student’s dignity is maintained?

54. Discuss
and Select
Solutions:
TIPS
Worksheet
58

55. 59
USING DISCIPLINE
DATA TO SOLVE
PROBLEMS
Develop Action Plan

56. 60

57. Develop and Implement Action Plan:
61
Design
 The most effective plans utilize multiple
strategies that affect all causes of the problem-
prevent/teach/respond (prompt, reward,
correction, extinction, safety).
 To ensure fidelity of implementation, specific
tasks need to be assigned to individuals with a
timeline for checking back.
 Change takes time, so implement the plan for
at least one month before evaluating.

58. Develop and Implement Action Plan: After
Creation
62
 Once strategies are selected, specific tasks need to
be delegated and tracked using an action plan.
 Action plans should drive the creation of future
meeting agendas as well as generate clear action
steps at the end of each meeting.
 Effective action plans are:
 Used regularly
 Frequently reviewed and updated
 Accessible to all staff
 Made of specific, manageable action steps with clear
timelines
 Developed using data from staff and teams

59. Develop and Implement Action
Plan: Ensuring Fidelity
63
Use weekly 1-5 survey from teachers to
assess implementation of plan.
Are we doing the plan?
1 ….. 2 …..3 ….. 4 ….. 5
No Yes
Fidelity
Newton, J.S., Todd, A. W., Horner, R.H., Algozzine, B., & Algozzine
7/13/2012
K., 2010

60. 64
USING DISCIPLINE
DATA TO SOLVE
PROBLEMS
Evaluate and Revise Action Plan

61. 65

62. Evaluate and Revise Action
66
Plan
Use data to answer the following:
Has the goal been met?
 If yes, choose one of the following options:
1. Increase goal for the same problem.
2. Choose another problem to address.
3. End use of the plan.
 If no, choose one of the following options:
1. Evaluate fidelity of implementation.
2. Consider the accuracy of the hypothesis.
3. Alter the timeline.
4. Find ways to adjust the solutions.