TPC _Journal-Vol6_Issue_3-MTSS-Full_Issue

The Professional Counselor /Volume 6, Issue 3 274 research (Skiba et al., 2011). Thus, the intentional integration of culturally responsive PBIS practices should go beyond the examination of disaggregated data to include conversations around equity, ac- cess and success for all. The PBIS team in this school started these conversations to determine why students might not be succeeding. Because of the systems in place, staff integrated additional teach- ing and learning opportunities for students who were new to the school. There is still more for the team to do to reduce disproportionate representation of African American students in ODR. To that end, the leadership team recently went through PBIS Tier 2 training and the school counselors are implementing check-in/check-out, a targeted intervention program for individual students (Todd, Campbell, Meyer, & Horner, 2008) and data-driven small groups. Future research should examine whether these approaches have an impact on overall ODR data and on the continued equity conver- sations happening among key stakeholders in the school. Because the results of this action research case study focus on one school’s efforts to engage in cul- turally responsive practice, the results should be interpreted with caution. The study is descriptive in nature and connections between the integration of culturally responsive PBIS elements and outcomes were not tested empirically. Future research should examine the relationship between intentional in- tegration of culturally responsive PBIS components on school and student outcomes, to include out- comes beyond discipline referrals. Important work in this area is emerging and it will be imperative for school counselors to remain at the forefront of these initiatives to ensure PBIS practices take all students into consideration. Currently, PBIS is implemented in thousands of schools in over 40 states. PBIS systems emphasize a shift from responding to problem behavior with exclusionary discipline to the use of instructional responses to problem behavior and corrective procedures to help students to identify and practice acceptable behavior instead of removing them from the classroom (McIntosh, Filter, Bennett, Ryan, & Sugai, 2010). While PBIS is an evidence-based intervention that should address disproportionality within discipline systems (Eber et al., 2010), this study and others have demonstrated that this is not always the case. As such, culture and context must be considered when planning, developing and im- plementing PBIS programs to make them more culturally responsive. In doing this important work, Swain-Bradway et al. (2014) recommended that school leaders systematically integrate the range of student cultural perspectives along with teacher cultural perspectives in creating disciplinary policies and practices that are non- discriminatory. The cultural mismatch between individual teachers and students may be miti- gated by the systematic implementation of school-wide systems supporting culturally respon- sive practices within schools. (p. 4) Equity can only be achieved when all students and student backgrounds are considered within sys- temic programs implemented in a school environment and when all possible reasons for the gaps in success, including the ever increasing needs of students, disproportionate access to resources and op- portunities, and mandates made on the educational system as a whole, are considered. Conclusion and Implications With much at stake at the national, district, school and individual levels, school counselors can play a critical role in ensuring PBIS programs are implemented with fidelity and in culturally re- sponsive ways. School counselors can use their knowledge and recommendations (McIntosh, Girvan, Horner, Smolkowski, & Sugai, 2014) to reduce this very real problem of disproportionality in disci- pline practices, including implementing culturally responsive PBIS, disaggregating data and imple-