Behavior:The Forgotten Curriculum. Chris Weber

this will lead to a greater student understanding of why these non-academic skills are being emphasized.

       Figure 1.3: Template for identifying and describing key behavioral skills.

      Visit go.SolutionTree.com/RTI for a free reproducible version of this figure.

       Figure 1.4: Examples of behavioral priorities.

      What you choose to name your behavioral priorities isn’t as important, and the specific behavioral priorities that teams select are not as important, as the selection of a viable quantity of behavioral priorities that you can consistently define, teach, and reinforce. Just as with academic skills, depth is more important than breadth. Schools may choose to begin by prioritizing behavioral skills with what they see as the greatest student need. As an example of prioritizing behavioral skills, behavioral RTI consultant Jim Wright believes that:

      A prime inhibitor of student success is learned helplessness, the self-reinforcing syndrome in which the student assumes that poor school performance is tied to their own lack of ability rather than a need to apply more effort. So … the behavioral skill most critical to success is self-efficacy, the confidence within the student that he or she can meet any academic task through the application of effort and self-regulation skills. (J. Wright, personal communication, May 23, 2017)

      Thus, prioritizing self-efficacy-related attributes such as engaging, believing, belonging, persevering, adapting, and advocating (from figure 1.4, page 27) may be a first step for schools with which Wright works.

      Consistency is key. When different expectations, interpretations, and applications of the behaviors that they expect students to display exist between classrooms, educators will be frustrated and students will be unsuccessful. Wright notes:

      [The] variability of behavioral norms across classrooms creates confusion—and is a prime driver of student misbehavior … minimizing this discrepancy by getting teachers to agree up front on what shared set of “goal” student behaviors they will preteach substantially reduces the “friction” in interactions between students and teachers (and among students as well). (J. Wright, personal communication, May 23, 2017)

      In addition to consistency, high expectations are key to success. When educators establish high expectations for student success in conjunction with student participation, students recognize that their teachers and principal believe that they can achieve these behavioral skills at high levels, and they rise to the occasion.

      But what does achievement at high levels look like? The next important step in behavioral RTI is to define your chosen behavioral skills. This will be discussed in the following section.

Defining Key Behavioral Skills

      Once you identify your key behavioral priorities, a representative team of staff, students, stakeholders, or all of these, should fully and purposefully engage in defining what the behavioral priorities look like and sound like. Identifying behavioral priorities is not enough. We as educators must also clearly and consistently define these priorities in ways that allow us to observe and measure success. At Shaw Middle School, Principal Jon Swett and staff focus on the same behavioral skills (or noncognitive factors) that KIPP adopts—grit, self-control, zest, social intelligence, gratitude, optimism, and curiosity. Staff use the school’s character report card throughout the school year as a way for students to monitor and reflect on their strengths and weaknesses. Swett explains, “They set social goals and become aware of themselves as learners. This is how our students get good grades—through research-based best practices” (personal communication, June 9, 2017). Setting goals for what success looks like allows the students to optimize their learning and empowers them by giving them agency, or the opportunity to influence their own life and learning path.

      Defining academic concepts, content, and skills is important—and challenging! So, give this process an adequate amount of time to complete. Principal Derek McCoy of West Rowan Middle School, North Carolina, notes that: