Aspects of School-Wide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports that Predict School Climate in Urban Settings

Positive school climates are associated with numerous benefits for students and school staff. Although there is some evidence that the implementation of school-wide positive behavioral interventions and supports (SWPBIS) impacts features of school climate, such as organizational health, the specific aspects of SWPBIS that contribute to climate have yet to be investigated. In this study, we examined how different components of SWPBIS predicted 490 school staff members’ perceptions of school climate. After controlling for race and time in the profession, aspects of staff members’ school climate perceptions were positively predicted by the teaching of behavioral expectations and having well-defined corrective consequence systems, and they were negatively predicted by district support for the SWPBIS initiative and having strong school-wide reward systems. These results have implications for which components of SWPBIS schools should prioritize for training and development to have the strongest impact on their staff members’ perceptions of school climate.