Ready...Set...Success: A Formula for Leading Schools with Love

Julie Causton, Kate MacLeod, and Kristie Pretti-Frontczak work with administrators all over the world who believe in supporting students with compassion and leading schools with love. But these administrators report incredible challenges they face in ditching traditional behavior-management practices like punitive or public discipline tactics. Often this is because educators have vastly different beliefs about how to address behaviors that are challenging. Because of these different beliefs, students are asked to follow countless approaches, often without consistency or transparency, which leads to confusion, frustration, and, actually, "more" challenging behaviors. To address these issues, leaders often turn to standardized programs to get staff on the same page and to support students with a consistent approach--even when the programs aren't aligned with the type of loving and inclusive practices they seek. Leading a paradigm shift from traditional behavior-management practices toward compassionate behavior support requires a different mindset, heartset, and skillset. It requires a different framework of understanding for how to support students across various ages. Causton, MacLeod, and Pretti-Frontczak call theirs "Ready," "Set," and "Success" (Causton & MacLeod, 2020a). Their framework is described in this article and provides a practical guide for authentically including students using humanistic behavioral support.