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Wednesdav, April 17, 1974
University Daily Kansan
Finer Points
Communication Gap Hinders Behavior Analysis Program
A lack of communication is a major problem with the behavior analysis program at Woodlawn Elementary School, where parents, teachers and administrators.
Parents opposed to the program can't understand why other parents aren't opposed too. Supporters of behavior analysis are more likely to stir the program are stirring up trouble.
And the kids are caught in the middle.
Teachers are fighting with other teachers about teaching methods and discipline. Administrators walk a thin line so that both sides can be appeased.
Counties meetings, letters and telephone calls during the past have done little to clear up a plethora of complaints, charges and costs that may or may not ever be substantiated.
Swearingen became interested in behavior analysis after she became a homeroom mother for her son's kindergarten class. She also was a member of the Policy Advisory Committee (PAC) and the grievance committee.
Nancy Swearingen, RFD 3, one of the most outspoken parents opposed to the new school policy in investigating it. She has written to almost every federal, state and local office associated with the center, but either the responses were noncommittal or the letters
She said that although she hadn't received the answers she wanted, school district administrators had "always been willing to meet" nearly 100 phone calls she used to help.
Her initial dissatisfaction with the program came when she began noticing changes in her son's behavior. She said he became disobedient and disrespectful.
Annabell Nelson, lead teacher in the second and third grade behavior analysis program.
Other parents who disagree with the way
"He would say, 'In my school we can do anything we want,'" she said.
Sherrill Bushell, behavior analysis kindergarten teacher, said much of the appearance of chaos was due to the largeness of the classrooms.
the program is being run said their main complaint is the alleged discipline.
"There are things that can be tolerated in a small classroom that can't be in a class with a lot of students."
Discipline isn't a serious problem in her class, she said. The impersonal "time out" period, in which a child is isolated from her environment, is important to her ability to teach, she said.
change in her third grade was an incentive for the children, and anyone who broke more than two discipline rules couldn't buy an activity with tokens. There is also an independent study room, she said, which is an additional incentive for older children.
Bushell said much of what was considered
There are role-playing exercises, she said, where a child can react to a situation such as when "another child said something bad to him." She also said she used a behavior report card for children who continued to misbehave.
Another generalized complaint by puerile concerned the practice of charging cells for use in a battery.
Special Focus:
Follow Through
These stories are the result of an investigation by KANU-FM and the University Daily Kansan. KANU-FM will broadcast a one-hour documentary on Follow Through at 7 tonight and will also be part of the FY14 Guest Stars: Heydrey Stinson, Jill Willis and Eric Meyer. Photographs by Dave Creshwitt.
bad behavior was only a child's testing of the theories of behavior analysis in an outside situation. She said the behavior expected of children at home could be different from the behavior expected in her kindergarten class.
Annabell Nelson, second and third grade behavior analysis teacher, said there were specific rules set up in her classroom to avoid disciplinary problems.
She said she thought the "time out" period wasn't totally effective with all children, so she employed further steps to stop bad behavior.
According to Nelson, the behavior ex-
Most parents said children were entitled to rest use rooms regardless of the situation.
Bushel explained that this practice was no longer used and that it was just a temporary measure to correct the abuse of bathroom privileges. There are three scheduled "break times" during the morning when a child can go to the bathroom, but she said, but several were going to the bathroom during class and staying there.
Answers = Tokens = Free Time
Arithmetic workbooks are passed out.
the behavior analysis program haven't been explained to parents.
Stevie finishes his exercise and raises his hand. His work is checked and he receives a bonus.
With that token, Stevie will be able to "buy" his leisure time activities.
Steve is participating in an experimental classroom to develop new techniques in teaching Follow Through classes. The class is taught at Lawnward Elementary School in avonance.
The Follow Through program, a continuation of Head Start, is an attempt to solve the learning problems of uninterested children in kindergarten through third grade.
The purpose of the grant was to establish a support and developmental center for the Follow Through behavior analysis program.
Woodward's program is funded through a federal grant from the Office of Health, Education and Welfare. The grant was awarded to the University of Kansas for work in the department of human development.
The grant proposal defines the program as an ongoing research center. It provides that KU students can use the behavior analysis classrooms for research.
Robert Taylor, director of elementary education for Lawrence Unified School District No. 497, said a "bad administrative error" prevented parents of kindergarten students from the option of choosing the behavior analyst as part of international programs at the program's inception.
Don Bushell, program director and associate professor of human development,
Many teachers in conventional classrooms develop automatic responses to low scores on the standardized tests, he said. The teachers begin to expect less of the child, he said, and, consequently, begin to teach the child "less assiduously."
According to Bushell, the behavior analysis method rejects that automatic response by assuming that "the child is able if he is taught correctly."
The behavior analysis program places the responsibility of learning on the teacher.
"We go by the assumption that all kids are smart, and if they're not learning well, then we have to do a better job of teaching," Bushell said.
The second step in the behavior analysis method of teaching, according to the proposal, is to determine how much the child already knows, so that the teacher needs to know what the child needs to begin working in the sequence leading to the instructional objectives."
Once an instructional objective has been established and a knowledge of a child's current skill is gained, the academic goals of the program should fit if the child is motivated, the proposal said.
In behavior analysis teaching, Bushell said in the grant proposal, that motivation is a key factor.
"There is no mystery connected with this new system, says project director Don Bushell. "The basic principles of human learning have been understood for some time."
said the program was an attempt to devise a new method of teaching children who were in their teens.
"These children are in progressively parned out of the system." Bushell said. "In other words, they are the poor parents are alienated from a system that they have nothing in common
Bushell said statistics indicated that underprivileged children gained only two grades in a grade academically for every grade that they completed, and the entire primary grades, he said, is that upon the completion of sixth grade, the children will have only a fourth grade education.
Some of the Follow Through programs use nontraditional classroom approaches to help children who are behind in their class work.
Bushel's program centers on behavior analysis. The program is based on team teaching, nongraded classrooms, individualized teaching and a token reward system.
The first step in the behavior analysis classroom, according to the grant proposed, is to set goals for the program. For example, the Wooddawn program emphasizes the basic academic skills of reading, arithmetic and handwriting.
If a child is deficient in these basic skills, the proposal says, he will perform poorly on test questions.
It is essential that praise immediately follow appropriate behavior, Bushell said, so that the child will associate the praise with that action. Children are praised for doing things up materials, doing well academically and living up appropriately, he said.
This is done in two ways, he said. One way is through praise from the lead teacher or teacher. The other way is through direct teaching.
Those activities and the reasons that tokens are given vary from grade to grade. For example, tokens may be given to a kindergartengenerator for his first success attempt or to hold a penitent; a third grade may receive tokens for reading a paragraph correctly.
Secondly, Bushell said, behavior analysis teachers and parent aides use a token exchange.
Different activities on the Exchange Menu have different values, so the child must save tokens to earn the more expensive activities.
Although there has been some parental objection to teaching this concept in grade school, Bushell said, he thinks children can understand the system.
According to the grant proposal, as each child does his classwork, he receives tokens for his progress and improvement. After he has accumulated several tokens, he can exchange them for events and activities of his choice.
As a child collects his tokens, which may be anything from poker chips to popsicle sticks, he may at specified times choose an activity or activities that he will buy.
"These back-up activities give value to the tokens," Bussell said. "As long as the activities are enjoyable, the tokens will help a child's motivation to learn and to succeed."
Bushell said Woodland teachers had been reducing the number of tokens given for
Examples of these activities are watching a movie or learning a craft.
At the beginning of the school year in a behavior analysis class, children receive individual goals or targets that they should complete before the end of the school year.
Those targets are based on the child's past history and achievements tests.
To meet the goal, the instructors divide child's work into weekly segments. For example, they assign a series of pages of arithmetic problems a week. His teacher fills out a weekly Individual Progress Report, a machine-readable data record, and his progress for his weekly assignment.
That progress report is fed into the University computer system which determines whether Stevie is progressing properly.
If Stevie completes only 19 of his 20 pages of math one week, his target for the next week will be adjusted. Bush said the adjustment could be made either by increasing the time allowed for the work or by using the work load for the following weeks.
Every week the progress of each child is re-evaluated to see whether the target matches the child's actual work rate, or lower. If not, the target is raised or lowered.
"If a child is absent for an entire week, he is not expected to make up everything in the next week," Bushell said. "Instead, the last list is made up over the remaining weeks."
In a series of tests covering spelling, writing, and reading, children in behavior analysis classrooms scored significantly higher than the other children, Bushell said. The results were compiled last February by the Stanford Research Institute.
The child is also tested by standardized achievement tests.
The progress of students enrolled in behavior analysis classrooms has been compared to the progress of students in regular classrooms and is used to determine the success of the program.
Yearly comparisons of student achievement are made by analyzing tests given to the students during the first and last month of the school year. Bushel said.
"There are several things that we would do differently if we had it to all over again."
"It got to where there was a bad maintenance problem," she said. "There were wet paper towels on the walls and the whole room." It was necessary to charge tokens."
Because a child in a behavior analysis classroom must have frequent attention and reinforcement, classrooms are staffed by three to six parents who are aides.
"Then when the inattentive child starts to work," Buell said, "he is immediately distracted."
Behavior that is potentially damaging or dangerous can't be ignored, he said.
Busshell said the use of parent aides was an advantage to the behavior analysis classroom because it established a unity between the school and the community.
The lead teacher, who is certified by the Lawrence school district, heads the team and generally takes special responsibility for reading instruction, Bushell said.
Full-time aides usually take special responsibility for the small math groups, he said, and part-time aides concentrate on spelling, spelling and individual tutoring.
in those circumstances, the child gets a "time out." He is immediately told what rule he has broken, Bushell said, and then seated away from the other children. He remains there with a kitchen timer set for three minutes, he said.
Discipline in a behavior analysis classroom is directed at reinforcing good behavior rather than correcting bad behavior.
"His penalty is that for three minutes there has been no opportunity to engage in behavior that results in token reinforcement," he said.
"Time out" is accomplished without emotion, lectures or scolding." Bushell said. "but is consistently the immediate consequence of dangerous behavior."
When the three minutes are over, the child returns to the group to be rewarded for showing good behavior.
Bushell said Woodland's behavior analysis program followed the basic guidelines established for all behavior analysis programs across the country.
Bushell said that instead of nagging, scolding or threatening punishment for attention, the behavior analysis teacher asked another child who was being attentive.
The goal is to have a consistent set of rules for using the behavior analysis techniques, he said, so that "a behavior analysis Follow Through program on the computer would be very much like a behavior analysis Follow Through program in Montana or wherever."
To qualify for federal Follow Through funds, a behavior analysis program must have children whose parents are in a low income bracket. Eighty per cent of those children must have participated in the Head Start program.
Woodlawn meets neither of these
Phyllis Rockhold of 746 Walnut St. said she thought children generally learned faster in the program. However, she objected along with several other parents, to parents having to "earn" their parent-teacher conferences. Parents earned a lot on the classroom an hour before the conference to observe the classroom situation.
See STUDENTS Page 7
Teachers said this was only an effort to get more parents involved in the program.
"Some of the same parents who have criticized the program have never come in to observe," Bushell said. "I have always been willing, as have all the other teachers, to discuss with any parent any problems about their children or the program."
Nelson said she had visited parents' homes to explain behavior analysis techniques but perhaps should have made the visits earlier in the school year.
Many parents said they had observed the classroom, and many insisted that the general atmosphere wasn't as disciplined as thought was necessary for education.
"I made every effort to observe in that classroom," said Kathy Daniel, mother of a child who was on the autism all her care was a bunch of rowdiness—one child choking another, the other child finally elbowed back. He was punished, and his parents were being punished they were fighting still."
According to Bushell, complete supervision of every child at every moment is impossible, especially in the large behavior analysis classrooms. However, she said the nature of the program permitted more than did the conventional classroom.
All of the behavior analysis teachers and administrators emphasized that freedom to choose whether to participate in behavior analysis programs was critically important to success. It was also the main points of criticism of the program has been the viable alternatives to
Taylor said a letter dated Dec. 26, 1973, was sent to kindergarten parents to inform them that an alternative class would be available for the spring semester.
He said there now was an option for all classes at Woodlawn, Taylor he said and Hard Siegrist. Woodlawn principal, had called these garment parents to tell them of the options.
But Bushell said the calls were only to inform the parents of the capabilities of their children and to explain the current status of their educational and social skills.
Taylor said they assumed that the parents were aware of the alternatives. However, they did not inform them and told them that their children would be "bored to death" in conventional settings.
"I gave my opinions when asked," she said. "People know my association with the program other than through my teaching, but I try to influence their decision in any way."
Bushell's husband, Don, is project director of the behavior analysis follow up program.
The screening of potential parent aides is another subject of controversy.
"the qualifications for these aides are unbelievable," Daniel said. "Some of them are very young."
Harvey Nelson, Parent Advisory Council personnel chairman, said the requirements for parent aides who that applicants have a valid BCA certificate and a security number and marriage certificate.
According to Nelson, there are no educational requirements for parent aides in the behavior analysis program, but each applicant had to pass basic math, reading and handwriting tests, which Nelson said is "core" at "second or third grade" abilities.
He said every parent aide now employed in the program had a high school education but there had been "one or two" parent aides hired in past years who didn't pass the screening test. However, he said, they are no longer employed.
Nelson said both parent aides and teachers at Woodland were doing a "fine job" of teaching his grandchildren to learn how to read and write better. He said the children in the program were doing "a lot better than those who aren't."
Annabell Nelson said the parent aides gained experience while in the classroom and there was also a parent aide instructor who taught techniques to the aides.
"My nides are just wonderful," she said. "They all have children in the schools, so they're really interested in education. It's a learning experience for everyone."
Nancy Bryant, a former parent aide, said she had noticed a large amount of misconduct and general bad behavior of children while she worked as an aide.
She said some children cheated on their work and the cheating was usually ignored if the children were caught because the children had to upset the children if they were "torn out."
Bryant said there was a comprehension check to see whether the children really knew the material, but often the parent told the children answers to the questions.
Researchers from the behavior analysis See.COMMUNICATION Page 7
Hard Work
One of the teachers in the behavior analysis program at Woodslawn School helps a third grader with her lessons. The students receive tokens when they complete their work.