Youth Connections

EXPECT RESPECT

MBI Belief Statements

All students should be taught all the skills necessary for success: academic, social, emotional, and behavioral.

Schools are places where students can learn and practice positive interpersonal, cross-cultural, and citizenship skills

A caring school climate and positive relationships between students and staff are critical to student success and provide an environment where academics flourish.

Schools are places where youth have access to many significant adults to help them feel collectively and individually valued.

Schools and communities must work together to meet the diverse needs of students and honor the traditions and contributions of both family and community members.

All students are entitled to be treated with dignity and respect.

Successful schools gather and use a variety of information to improve teaching and learning.

Effective use of a team approach involving all school staff working together provides a consistency which enhances student success.

Positive, proactive and preventative efforts of schools and communities can create a school climate free of stereotyping, harassment, hatred and violence - filled with a concern for justice and fairness.

The Montana Behavioral Initiative (MBI) provides a systems approach for establishing the social culture and behavioral supports needed for a school to be an effective learning environment for all students. Each school’s MBI team will work to establish and teach school-wide behavior expectations, recognize and encourage the students exhibiting the expected behaviors, provide a continuum of consequences for inappropriate behaviors, use data to identify problem areas, brainstorm interventions, and communicate findings to the staff, students and families.

When the MBI system is in place:
- Staff are more consistent in their expectations and actions.
- Students understand and are more likely to follow rules and expectations.
- A more positive relationship exists between and among staff and students.
- The focus is on learning.

Providing predictability, stability, clear limits, consistency, and routine helps create safe learning environments. MBI methods are research-based and proven to significantly reduce the occurrence of problem behaviors in the school, resulting in a more positive school climate and increased academic performance.

If you would like to know more about the Montana Behavioral Initiative, contact
Susan Dotter, MBI Instructional Coach sdotter@helena.k12.mt.us

Additional resources: