四虎影院

Arlington ISD parent Tiffany Manning considers her children to be generally well-behaved. If issues arise, she is quick to meet with their teachers.

However, teachers haven鈥檛 been quick to meet with Manning, she said. She鈥檚 been frustrated to find that her children鈥檚 behavior issues have often persisted for weeks before she hears about them.

鈥淚n my experience, teachers only think (about) and deal with the kid (when) something detrimental happens,鈥� she said.

Manning, along with other Arlington ISD parents and even teachers, want the district to rethink its restoration-focused approach to student behavior as officials reexamine the decade-old policy.

In Arlington ISD鈥檚 most recent staff survey, teachers with the district鈥檚 discipline practices, saying they lack the administration鈥檚 support amid a rise in student behavior issues.

The feedback echoes state and that have seen teachers cite a rise in student behavior issues as a key stressor and central reason for leaving the profession.

In response, Arlington ISD officials are studying and restructuring its restoration-focused approach to student discipline called , or PBIS, which it rolled out in 2014.

The district formed a student behavior task force in spring 2024 to study the 鈥渞oot causes鈥� of the rise in student behavioral issues. After months of listening to staff鈥檚 student behavior woes, officials presented the task force鈥檚 findings to the school board on Nov. 7, underscoring their efforts to develop and better define 鈥減ositive behavioral intervention.鈥�

Arlington ISD鈥檚 Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports strategy is founded on the belief that all children can behave appropriately with intervention, according to the .

The approach breaks student behavior into four tiers of severity and encourages empathetic responses to misbehavior that reinforce better behaviors, according to the , which estimates about 28,000 schools nationwide follow the strategy.

After 10 years of Arlington ISD buckling down on positive behavioral intervention, uncertainty still hangs over campus administrators and teachers about how to practically implement the strategy in misbehaving classrooms, according to the district鈥檚 behavior task force.

To better define what positive behavior support looks like, the task force is designing districtwide discipline processes, standards, roles and resources, said Christi Buell, assistant superintendent of school leadership, at the task force鈥檚 Nov. 7 presentation.

鈥淲e kind of know what PBIS is, but what does it look like when we really implement it in a way that it鈥檚 having a positive impact on our campus?鈥� Buell said.

Recently retired teacher Stephanie Phillips remembers when Arlington ISD first rolled out its student discipline approach in 2014. She left the district in summer 2024 after teaching elementary school students for 14 years.

Teachers used to be excited about the new system, Phillips recalled. When the approach was new, schools hosted assemblies about it and classrooms devoted instructional time to establishing behavioral norms.

鈥淲e鈥檇 teach how to act when you go to the bathroom, how to properly enter the cafeteria, how to line up when you leave for the cafeteria, how to attend an assembly, what鈥檚 the proper etiquette,鈥� Phillips said. 鈥淓verything was reinforced.鈥�

Campuses also rolled out incentives for well-behaved students, which created a culture of better behavior, she said.

Over time, Phillips felt the positive behavior system 鈥渇ell through the cracks鈥� as state education officials and Arlington ISD put heavier expectations on teachers鈥� job descriptions, she said. Lesson plans got more complex, teachers鈥� workdays grew cramped with paperwork, and filing behavior referrals became more shrouded in bureaucratic headaches.

Teachers had less time to reinforce behavioral expectations, Phillips said. So after a few years of bearing fruit, the focus on positive behavior intervention became more of a burden than an aid.

鈥淟ong before I was on the board, we started implementing PBIS, and my hope would be that we were a lot further,鈥� said trustee David Wilbanks, who was elected in 2019.

Teachers have often complained that correcting misbehavior and filing reports takes too much time, school board member Melody Fowler said. Some teachers often need to pause their teaching and go to the campus鈥檚 front office to document students.

As part of the behavior task force鈥檚 focus, officials have tried to retrain teachers in restorative discipline, Buell told trustees.

Over the fall, officials trained teachers on viewing class disruptions through a trauma-informed lens, encouraging them to empathize with a student and their background when they misbehave. The approach encourages them to react to the root causes of misbehaviors rather than the issues alone.

Fowler was weary of continuing to put training and responsibilities on teachers to deal with student behavior issues that stem from factors beyond their control. The sixth-year trustee would rather put resources toward programs that correct repeatedly misbehaved students, she said.

鈥淲e wonder why our scores decline, we wonder why kids are not passing. It鈥檚 because teachers don鈥檛 have time to teach,鈥� Fowler said. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e too busy redirecting and having to send out referrals. I think it鈥檚 time we put some of this back on the students and back on the parents.鈥�

Phillips said teachers鈥� workload stress was made worse after the COVID-19 pandemic as students returned to school with shorter attention spans and more confidence to misbehave.

Through TikTok, which rose in popularity during the pandemic, students filmed themselves doing viral challenges like vaping in school and stealing school equipment, Phillips said, referring to the COVID-era 鈥� challenge to vandalize bathrooms and take property.

鈥淵ou didn鈥檛 really have kids vaping in 2014, but now it鈥檚 a lot of what they see on social media, what they see with their peers,鈥� she said. 鈥淣ow it鈥檚 coming into the schools and trickling all the way down to elementary.鈥�

Phillips wants Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports strategy revamped and restructured.

鈥淚鈥檓 not saying it鈥檚 a horrible program,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t had great intentions, but it doesn鈥檛 match the same child from 2014 to 2024. It just does not.鈥�

As Manning, a parent of four, watches Arlington ISD revisit the positive behavior system, she hopes to see the district emphasize parent-teacher communication. She wants teachers to communicate with parents as a first response to students misbehaving and contact them when issues first arise, rather than after reports have been filed.

She also wants the district to clearly define what teachers are allowed to do in classes, so students and parents know when a teacher is overstepping their power.

Phillips, as a longtime educator, said she understands Manning鈥檚 concerns, and she advises younger teachers to use careful discretion before filing a behavioral referral. Phillips feels most behavioral issues can be resolved by calling a parent, and teachers don鈥檛 always need to create a paper trail for minor offenses.

Whenever a behavior issue justifies documentation, teachers should contact parents as they鈥檙e filing the paperwork 鈥� not weeks after the fact, Phillips said.

Phillips wants to see the district鈥檚 discipline policies remade to suit today鈥檚 times, she said. She believes positive behavior support can be effective, but it needs to meet students where they are in 2024 鈥� addressing their TikTok challenges, vaping rings and increased restlessness 鈥� not where they were in 2014.

The behavior task force鈥檚 efforts so far have seen some success, with about 72% of campuses showing a year-to-date decrease in behavior referrals, according to numbers presented at the Nov. 7 board meeting.

鈥淲e know from our own surveys that this is the biggest issue that our teachers have brought forward to us,鈥� Wilbanks said. 鈥淲e know from surveys across the nation that all teachers point to this as one of the biggest problems they face in doing their jobs.鈥�

Drew Shaw is a reporting fellow for the Arlington Report. Contact him at drew.shaw@fortworthreport.org or . 

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