How to Implement Positive Action Program Description. The PA ...

How to Implement Positive Action
Program Description. The PA program consists of integrated classroom curriculum materials, school
preparation and teacher training, schoolwide climate change, a family program with student-parent
interaction, and a community engagement program.
In the classroom curriculum and all other materials, the content is taught through six units and a
review unit (see Table 1). The K–6 portion of the PA curriculum consists of over 1,200 scoped-andsequenced,
almost-daily, 15–20 minute lessons based on the seven units described in Table 1. Scripted
lessons are completely prepared and teacher friendly, employing a variety of methodologies and
addressing different learning styles. Lesson activities include stories, role-playing, models, games, music,
questions/answers, activity booklets and sheets, posters, age- and culturally appropriate puppets, and
manipulatives. Stickers awarded as students work on PA units provide further reinforcement of classroom
concepts.
Since PA is a holistic program that incorporates life skills into its curriculum, it includes and
encourages most subject areas including social Table 1: Positive Action Unit Concepts
studies, language arts, health, math/science, and
art/music. For example, for math and science it Unit 1: Self-Concept: What It Is, How It’s Formed, and Why
includes time-management, calendaring, money-ortant
management, and nutrition concepts. PA Unit 2: Positive Actions for a Healthy Body and Mind
encourages reading and the value of reading. PA
Unit 3: Managing Yourself Responsibly
Unit 4: Treating Others the Way You Like to Be Treated
health lessons include physical exercise,
Unit 5: Being Honest with Yourself and Others
nutrition, avoiding harmful substances, and
Unit 6: Improving Yourself Continually
disease prevention. In the social and emotional Unit 7: Review
health areas it includes self-management,
responding to peer pressure, emotion management, getting along with others, self-honesty, and continual
self-improvement.
The middle-school curriculum (grades 6–8) continues with the same concepts as the elementary
curriculum, but is age appropriate. This curriculum focuses on a middle-school student’s independence
and beginning recognition of their responsibility for themselves. The curriculum is designed to cover the
seven units in two years. Lessons are taught two or three days a week. Grade 7 includes Units 1–3 (81
lessons). Grade 8 includes Units 4–7 (77 lessons). The seventh- and eighth-grade curriculum uses skill
building with a scripted radio talk show. The students act out various situations that affect adolescents and
provide possible solutions.
The PA program also offers a high-school curriculum that can be offered at any grade (or at
multiple grades). The curriculum is taught in 42 lessons using stories and activities. Students role-play
parents and family and community members. Lessons are taught once a week in home room, language
arts, or social studies classes.
Teachers learn the PA method of instruction and implement the PA curriculum and schoolclimate
activities. Teaching methods are influenced by actively role-modeling the use of positive actions
and use of the strategies listed above. Students and teachers should both begin to set goals and to follow
through with them. Classroom management is also enhanced by a focus on positive actions. As students
learn how to use positive actions to feel good about themselves, to manage themselves (including
thoughts, actions, and feelings), and to treat others the way they like to be treated, disciplinary referrals
should decrease substantially.
The regular PA classroom curriculum includes drug-education lessons at each grade level. It
teaches students to use positive actions for their physical, intellectual, and emotional health by avoiding
harmful substances. In addition to the seven-unit curriculum, the PA school program includes drugeducation
curricula for grade 5 and for grades 6–8.
The PA Fifth-Grade Drug Education Supplement Kit is compatible with the basic year-long PA
program and is designed to be used in conjunction with the basic program. Three drug-education lessons

are presented after completing each of the six basic units. The drug-education lessons reinforce basic PA
concepts and apply those concepts to prevent drug use. The grade 5 lessons provide in-depth information
about the consequences of drug use, relate them to each PA unit, and teach students that the key to a
happy and healthy life is being drug-free. It is designed to be used along with the regular fifth-grade PA
curriculum, but it also works well by itself.
The middle-school curriculum also includes a Middle-School Drug Education Supplement
Teacher’s Kit. The kit contains a Teacher’s Manual, 10 Escape from the Shadow script booklets, 30
Student Activity Booklets, “Take the Challenge!” game, “Choices and Consequences” game, one ninepart
mural, three individual posters, 6 Vital Signs Kits, handouts, bookmarks, “Hold On to Your
Dreams!” cassette tape and sheet music, and hands-on materials. The program encourages middle-school
students to reach for their dreams while helping them understand how drug use limits their potential and
choices. It reinforces/reveals how drugs affect students’ physical, intellectual, and emotional well-being
and establishes the benefits of being drug-free. This program is useful in both preventive and remedial
programs. It is designed to be incorporated into the PA curriculum, but it is used successfully as a standalone
program also.
PA is a highly interactive and engaging program that uses modeling, skill building, and positive
reinforcement to motivate and teach the concepts. The activities are appropriate by grade and
developmental level. For example, flannel-board activities, puppets, and hands-on games actively involve
kindergarten students in PA lessons. An example of age-appropriate activities for the upper grades would
be a radio drama for middle-school students that helps this age group empathize with the problems related
to substance use. Another example of an activity specifically designed for middle-school students is the
Self-Concept Scientist booklet. By using these booklets, a student can individually chart changes and
development in his or her self-concept. Further reinforcement comes through the ICU (I See You Doing
Something Positive) Boxes. By putting notes in boxes to commend the positive actions of others,
everyone in the school has a chance to recognize and document positive actions.
The schoolwide climate-change program reinforces the curriculum learning by coordinating the
efforts of the entire school in practicing positive actions to promote improved behavior and performance.
The school-climate program is designed to coordinate the efforts of the entire school population in
practicing positive actions, thus magnifying the effects of the curriculum. The school-climate activities
are inclusive, varied, and comprehensive, serving all students including those learning English as a
second language, low-income students, and students with disabilities. PA schools are strongly encouraged
to adapt and adopt the activities that best serve both individual populations of students and the student
body as a whole.
The PA program for school-climate change also supports the counselor’s role in creating a
positive school climate. The Positive Action Counselor’s Kit (Allred, 1997) contains suggestions and
materials for counseling activities for the whole school, individual classrooms, small groups, and
individual sessions. The Counselor’s Kit is both educational and therapeutic and teaches daily life skills
that students may not have learned previously (Allred, 1998). These materials are also appropriate for
peer tutoring, family simulations, and parent involvement.
Some examples of activities engaging the entire school are the Words of the Week, PA
assemblies, celebrations, and posters. Students, school staff, parents, and community members
representing a variety of regular, ethnic and linguistic groups are specifically included in school-climate
activities through the use of the Words of the Week and posters in their native languages. These same
ethnic and linguistic populations can reinforce PA concepts at celebration days for cultural or ethnic
groups. PA school-climate activities may also be customized and adapted for groups of special-needs
students, parents, and community volunteers.
A schoolwide club for middle-school students is a subsidiary of the International Positive Action
Leaders (PALS). Every student, teacher, support-staff member, and administrator in the school becomes a
member of the PALS Club. The purpose of the PALS Club is to provide a vehicle for students to
participate in meaningful positive actions and community service. The PALS club is also the leadership
and oversight body that encourages PALS group and individual positive actions.

The PA parent and community involvement program provides ways for parents and other
community members to participate in children’s educational processes and contribute to educational
opportunities/issues within the community. Parents are provided with a parallel curriculum, the Positive
Action Family Kit where lessons are coordinated with and reinforce the classroom lessons. Parents are
invited to participate by reviewing worksheets, by reading the school Positive Action newspaper, and to
act as mentors, volunteers, cheerleaders, and chaperones for school activities. Parenting classes and
support groups are also provided.
Parents also participate in community partnerships, such as the PA Task Force, that address issues
in the community that influence student well-being and provide a link to community organizations and
businesses. Community members are also invited to work on improving education by working on the PA
Committee, acting as links to community organizations, serving as mentors and role models for students,
helping students with community service projects, serving on the PA Community Task Force, and
providing linkages to social-service agencies, businesses, health-care and educational institutions, the arts,
and the media. A community task force may choose to address specific community issues that affect
student well-being, such as drug use or violence in school neighborhoods.
PA has been researched and evaluated in every kind of school and location by the program’s
developer, independent evaluators, and school districts. Evaluation designs have included
experimental/control group, comparison group, national comparison group (e.g., changes in percentile
rankings), and matched case-control studies. Multiple studies have consistently found PA to be effective
for improving achievement scores, attendance, and self-concept and for reducing drug use, violence of
multiple kinds, and other problem behaviors (see Section 6.5 below for detail). It is noteworthy that most
effects were robust across urban, suburban, and rural schools; ethnic groups; and levels of poverty and
mobility rates (see Section 6). This is an exceptionally important finding, as intervention effects of other
programs are often smaller in higher-risk schools. Results from middle schools without PA demonstrate
that the effects of the PA program can carry on once PA graduates move into middle school.
Evaluation results have also confirmed our belief that Positive Action training of principals,
teachers, and other school staff is of critical importance. Effects of PA on students achievement,
absenteeism, violence, drug use, and other behavioral problems are all greatest when (a) schools receive
Positive Action training and (b) continue active implementation of the Positive Action program.