Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Steps to Respect/PeaceBuilders etc.

I'm wondering what school wide behavior programs you're seeing out there. Both of the programs in the title are in my 2 schools, and the feedback on both is mixed. The PeaceBuilders is much more visible with phrases like "are you increasing or decreasing the peace by ...". There's a song, with sign language accompaniment, posters up around the school, etc.

My DYAD school felt that wasn't working for them and did a study of schools with similar demographics in other districts to see what they were using. Based on that input, they switched to Steps to Respect a few years back. Then they tweaked that, to better fit their school and wrote a handbook. The principal said the school needed ownership of the program, and they just didn't feel it with PeaceBuilders. He is very much in favor of Steps, but not all the staff is sold on it.
I agree with the principal that the program needs to fit the school, and whatever is picked needs staff buy in for it to work. Another interesting factoid is that PeaceBuilders is now a subscription program, rather than a purchase package, so price must be a consideration too.

I'm interested to find out what programs are at your school. Thanks.

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