BIST Keeps Teachers Together

When Jennie Alderman was offered the principal position seven years ago at Franklin Smith Elementary in the Blue Springs School District, she agreed to take the job on one condition: the district would support Franklin Smith faculty in BIST training and implementation. Jennie had seen BIST transform the culture at her previous school and knew it could do the same at Franklin Smith. BIST, or Behavioral Intervention Support Team, helps teachers, administrators, parents, and students create a healthy, safe learning environment. The philosophy: students with behavioral challenges don’t lack discipline—they need to learn new self-management skills.

“When I moved to Franklin Smith, the culture was very negative,” Jennie said. “Behaviors were out of control, and the kids were a little wild.”

In the seven years since BIST arrived at Franklin Smith, student behavior has improved, teachers share a common culture, parents better understand how their children are being supported, and there’s another notable benefit: fewer teachers are leaving. To be clear, teachers leave for many reasons—retirement, marriage, divorce, or a move to a different part of town. But several BIST schools have seen teacher turnover drop from double-digits to just a handful once the program took hold.

A recent article in Education Week cited data from the RAND Corp’s 2026 State of the American Teacher and the American Life Panel surveys, which showed that nearly 20 percent of teachers planned to leave by the end of the 2025-26 school year. Inadequate compensation and student and parent behavior were the leading reasons. BIST can’t solve all issues, but it can improve behavioral challenges. A recent study by the University of Kansas School of Social Welfare compared Missouri schools that use BIST with those that don’t and found a 38 percent decrease in students’ classroom absences due to disciplinary issues.

“BIST gives teachers a sense that ‘I don’t have to do this hard work alone,’” said BIST Director Marty Huitt. “They see they have a team around them that will support them and not judge. That’s a pretty big deal.”

As Jennie expected, teachers approached BIST with skepticism. Before the program launched at the school, she met with each teacher individually to understand their needs and the culture they wanted to build. In the early days, students struggling with behavior were often removed from the classroom to talk with someone and begin learning new skills.

“In the beginning, I was sitting with students almost all day long,” Jennie said. “That created the buy-in because the teachers saw that I was doing that work of being with kids all day.”

Jill Chapman, the new principal at Clinton Middle School, had spent four years there as an administrator and four more as a math teacher. Like Jennie, she knew teacher buy-in was essential. She started by telling staff directly that the school’s behavioral and cultural issues were not sustainable and that change was necessary. She then hand-selected five teachers because of their formal or informal leadership roles within the school to observe processes at another BIST school.

“The teachers came back so excited. They said, ‘At the school we visited, they have this thing called team time. We have to have it,’” Jill said.

BIST gives schools a structured framework to build on. Teacher-led vision teams meet regularly, new teachers complete a Basic BIST orientation, and all faculty meet monthly with a consultant. (Cornerstones of Care employs 24 consultants, typically retired educators, to work with BIST’s more than 300 schools in 14 states.)

At Clinton Middle School, teachers have team time built into their daily schedule, during which they discuss how to work together to resolve specific behavioral challenges and write success plans for students to achieve goals. Over time, these processes enhance school culture and reduce behavioral challenges.

“The conversations about BIST bring our teachers together,” Jill said. “The more they get into BIST, the more they understand that if they are not consistent in their expectations for students and each other, then we fall apart.”

Early stages of BIST can be challenging. Students often first encounter it through early intervention on minor behaviors—wearing a hood in the hallway or pulling out a phone during class. “Stop the behavior when you see it and don’t wait until you feel it,” Marty says. Don’t wait for small things to become big things.

Students with consistent challenges work through a student success plan, drafted by a teacher or teachers and implemented in collaboration with the student. Over time, implementation of the success plan builds a relationship between the student and teacher, gives the student input on the plan, and highlights the benefits of resolving a behavioral challenge and achieving a goal.

“We have students at Franklin Smith who come to us and ask us to make their success plan more challenging because they are hitting their goals every day,” said Jennie Alderman.

Parents are also part of the process. Clinton Middle School uses a “minor tracker” to flag small infractions early, alerting parents by phone after a third offense. While parents are sometimes puzzled, the school wants to keep them informed, even though no action is required. This action lets the student know there are consequences.

“I’ll tell them, back in the day, if your student had done this, they’d be sent to the office and probably have an in-school suspension,” Jill said. “But we’re trying to teach them how to make better choices and decisions. So, while they might have a consequence, they have an opportunity to do better in the future.”

BIST can’t do anything to help teacher compensation or change what some teachers consider onerous district policy, but it can help develop a school culture that eases teacher burnout, increases learning time in the classroom, and supports students as they learn new skills to be more focused during the school day and beyond the classroom.

“When teachers have support, people to talk to, and those you can learn and grow with, it’s hard to leave those people,” Jill said. “When you enjoy working with those people, then you don’t want to leave your school.”