PAX: For Peace, Productivity, Health and Happiness
The PAX Good Behavior Game (PAX GBG) is a universal preventative classroom management program designed for kindergarten through fifth grade. It has been shown to improve students’ self-regulating skills, prosocial skills, and promote students’ social emotional learning, by teaching children self-, group-, and co-regulation and impulse control. Not only do these skills support academic success, but they also improve mental and behavioral health outcomes later in life.
The PAX GBG is a well-studied intervention with positive short-term and long-term effects. Short-term effects include:
- Improved student classroom behavior
- Improved student emotion regulation
- Teacher retention
Longitudinal studies identify the program’s capacity to:
- Decrease substance use
- Promote mental health
- Decrease suicidality among students exposed to the intervention
Montana DPHHS contracts with the Center for Children, Families and Workforce Development to organize trainings and support districts implementing PAX GBG. The Center is also contracted to evaluate the effects of statewide implementation.
To date, the Center has trained 1,863 teachers across the state of Montana. It's an accomplishment we're proud of, but our work is far from done.
Montana DPHHS and University of Montana are seeking districts interested in implementing the PAX Good Behavior Game with fidelity in their elementary schools for 2022-2023 school year. Participating districts receive training, materials and a mini-grant to help cover costs for team planning and materials. Districts commit to training all teachers in their elementary schools and to best-practice implementation strategies, proven to increase levels of fidelity and sustainability. Districts may choose to train all teachers at once or provide a timeline for systematically training all teachers. We encourage districts to start small and build consensus to ensure a robust implementation.
If you work in the Montana public schools or know someone who does and think PAX might be a worthy addition to your community, please pass along this application to district leaders.
Only applications submitted by a district will be accepted. Applications are due April 15, 2022.
