Challenges In Urban Schools

Urban schools districts in Illinois are facing challenges due to components such as size, high poverty rates, diverse communities and limited resources (Netzel &, Eber, 2003) In addition to this, the lack of effective discipline systems in urban schools districts often leads to difficulties in educating large number of students in urban communities. Waukegan School District, is an urban district in Illinois and is addressing efforts to meet the needs of students at risk of behavioral problems (Netzel & Eber, 2003). With this in mind, the district agreed to incorporate Positive Behavioral Intervention and Supports, a system that will establish proactive and positive procedures to enforce effective discipline in students, and school personnel …show more content…
Urban school districts face various challenges, but the implementation of PBIS has helped reduced behavioral challenges in students. This study indicated that PBIS in North Elementary School revolved around three behavioral expectations which included students respecting themselves, respecting others and respecting their property(Netzel & Eber, 2003). On the other hand, there are a few limitations of the PBIS model. One limitation is because school administrators, teachers, social workers and school psychologists need to work with one another to create effective implementations. This can sometimes be difficult, due to their different roles within the school. For this reason, they need to be committed and proactive to improve the school and students’ behaviors. Questions such as the following have gone unanswered in the study which affects urban schools in Illinois. What can principals do to allow time for PBIS and have consistency in having staff meetings? Other than trainings what are other methods to help teachers with implementing PBIS in their classrooms? Why is referral data important, how is it helping Waukegan School District and North Elementary? Does PBIS model represent success among other states and other school districts in the country? Overall, I agree that PBIS is necessary in urban school districts because students discipline referrals were decreased. By having workshops and staff meetings teachers are able to teach behaviors in the same way they teach academics. For this reason, it’s important that teachers work closely with leadership teams to have positive interventions to help students. I believe working together will facilitate each individual leadership role in schools and help establish interventions that could help students behavioral problems decline. This study is relevant to the PBIS project because it is a system that shows