Positive and Proactive Behavioral Supports

Our schools provide incentives to students for exhibiting positive behavior. Rewards vary from school to school.

Each school has a behavior matrix that outlines expectations in every part of the building. 

McCracken students are eligible to earn a wide variety of honors for their success in school! This includes Spotlight on Success, which recognizes students’ academic growth and achievement. Each month, teachers celebrate the many students who have demonstrated academic success in each grade level to honor them for making progress toward learning standards, meeting or extending learning standards, demonstrating great interest in a particular subject area, and/or demonstrating a growth mindset. Individual teachers and administrators also acknowledge students with positive postcards for a variety of reasons throughout the year.

Restorative practices provide peers with the opportunity to solve a conflict through a conference facilitated by a trusted adult. Examples include:

• Restorative reflections
• Restorative circles
• Peer mediation
• Conflict resolution

PBIS assemblies provide school-wide, predictable events that build a positive school culture and publicly celebrate positive student behaviors.

Our schools are committed to providing a safe, comfortable learning environment for all students. We have preventative programs such as Second Step, PBIS, CHAMPS, social and emotional skill groups, care cards, and peer mediation that challenge peer conflict. However, with an increasingly digital world, we want to provide students, families, and community members with an opportunity to make reports using our online student safety reporting form. This form encourages students, parents, and staff to report serious safety concerns to administration confidentially. An example for using this form may include, but is not limited to, bullying, bias, or unsafe behavior.

Care Cards at Middleton and McCracken provide students with a discreet opportunity to communicate with staff about incidents of bullying or teasing so that we may provide the needed support. 

Classroom Management System implemented by all staff to clearly define expected behaviors related to conversation, help, activity, movement, and participation, leading to student success throughout a variety of instructional settings.

Each trimester, staff reviews the discipline data to identify existing trends or patterns and creates an action plan specific to their grade level. 

The District has adopted the Digital Citizenship Curriculum from Common Sense Media. Topics include online identity, safety, chatting safely online, online hate speech, cyberbullying, and digital footprints.

District-wide grade level-specific social and emotional curricula aligned to the Illinois Social and Emotional Learning Standards.

Examples of standards/skills covered:

• Empathy and Communication
• Bullying Prevention 
• Emotional Management
• Goal Setting
• Digital Citizenship and Cyberbullying
• Problem Solving

At the beginning of the school year and at regular intervals, Middleton and McCracken teachers/advisors review sections of the Parent/Family Handbook with students, including information about behavior and discipline.

Social emotional learning that helps students identify and manage feelings, providing common language for communication, problem solving, and emotional understanding.