By Briana Vannozzi
Correspondent
With a deck of cards and team-building exercise in hand, 7th grade students at H.B. Wilson Family School in Camden are learning the basics of a new positive behavior program being rolled by the superintendent.
“Really the goal is to use accountable talk, it’s not really about stacking the cards higher or not,” said one student.
Accountable talk, phrases like “I strongly disagree” or “may I suggest” are the building blocks of PBIS- the federally funded Positive Behavior Intervention and Supports Program, one of the initiatives in the superintendent’s five pronged approach to improve school culture.
“A lot of the issues you see in schools as it relates to student safety have to do with kids interacting in hallways and not always having the most positive dialogues. The idea is that they learn techniques to better interact with one another and to learn how to express skepticism or express disapproval with someone else’s opinion,” said Camden Schools Superintendent Paymon Rouhanifard.
When asked how it avoids conflicts if you’re talking in a more positive way, seventh grader Zenasia Franco said, “Because if somebody says hurry up you’re doing this wrong or something, they might take that offensive, like don’t rush me.”
“Evidence shows and research suggests that disciplinary procedures like suspensions, detentions, do not work. They’re only bandaids temporary solutions or fixes, I wouldn’t even say a solution,” said PBIS Training Consultation Specialist Jolie Battista.
Teachers will give positive reinforcement too. And a rewards based system will dole out points or symbolic dollars the students can cash in for their good behavior.
“So it’s not going to be ‘good job,’ it’s ‘thank you for being respectful and walking in the hallway. Here’s your scholar dollar.’ So the pairing of the praise and the scholar dollar will reinforce that specific behavior, which then will increase the chances of it happening,” said third through fifth grade teacher Kari Cohen.
In a school district with just a 53 percent graduation rate and 22 out of its 26 schools performing among the lowest 5 percent in the state, the superintendent emphasizes that new strategies are needed to make a change.
“You’ll still see some 10 day suspensions but I do believe that we’ve reduced them heading now into the second year and we hope to reduce them going forward,” said Rouhanifard.
First Grader Atyana Odlesby said that she has learned, “To stay in the hall, track the speaker, and listen to your teacher.”
“I think it gives them responsibility, gives them more self esteem, instead of just saying you’re bad when you’re not bad, you’re just misunderstood,” said parent Sharron Jenkins.
Right now the program is being rolled out at just five of Camden’s elementary schools. That’s because it takes about a year to properly train the teachers and staff on how to implement it. But as with the rest of the superintendents’ plans to turn this school system around, he hopes to bring it district wide by next year.