What is EBIS?

Students at Bryan County Middle School will answer this question stating that EBIS stands for Everyone Behaves In School. EBIS actually stands for Effective Behavioral and Instructional Support.

EBIS is a school-wide researched based disciplinary approach used to promote desired behaviors through positive reinforcement.

During the summer of 2005, BCMS sent a ten-member team to be trained on EBIS.

This team became the EBIS Committee for Bryan County Middle School. This committee identified three basic school-wide rules: Respect Yourself, Respect Property, and Respect Others (3R’s).

The team returned to the school and trained the remaining faculty and staff members on the EBIS techniques.

Using EBIS as a basis for discipline, the correct behaviors are taught. The first step was to develop a matrix that provided examples of what each school rule means in different areas of the campus.

From the matrix, lesson plans were developed. All EBIS lessons include examples and non-examples of behaviors that are taught the last ten minutes of Block IV each Friday.

Another component is the School Wide Information System, SWIS. Mr. Mantho, assistant principal, and Miss Hamm, principal, enter data from daily office referrals into this computer program.

At the end of each month, Miss Hamm runs five major reports: Referrals by Problem Behavior, Referrals by Location, Average Referrals Per Day Per Month, Referrals by Time, and Referrals by Students.

These five reports are copied and given to each member of the EBIS Committee. The Committee meets each month to review these five reports.

By reviewing these reports, that committee is able to identify problems that affect discipline at the school. The committee develops procedures and makes recommendations based on the information from these five reports. Several problems have been corrected as a result of the information obtained from these reports.

This committee meets with the faculty each month to review the information and to inform the faculty about recommendations and new procedures.

This program has built-in rewards and consequences. Students receive Redskin points for following the 3R’s.

For minor classroom misbehaviors, students receive infractions. When they receive a sixth infraction, students are given office discipline referrals. Major discipline offenses receive office discipline referrals.

When a student receives an office discipline referral, consequences are given as outlined in the Bryan County Student Handbook.

EBIS requires a three- year commitment. Dr. John Hummel, professor at Valdosta State University, is the facilitator for BCMS.

He meets with the school EBIS committee from time to time to make suggestions and to make certain that the committee is correctly identifying problems and making sound recommendations from the data.

The first year of the program’s implementation was the 2005 -2006 school year; therefore, discipline data from the 2004 -2005 school year were used as the baseline data.