Transforming Student Behavior into Skill-Building at Mission Valley School District (KS)
The challenge: Student behavior is treated as a discipline problem instead of a skills gap
At Mission Valley School District, a small, single-building district serving approximately 420 students pre-K–12 in Eskridge, KS, educators were seeing a growing number of students struggle with emotional regulation, task refusal, classroom outbursts, and disengagement. At the same time, many students were quietly internalizing stress and anxiety, going unnoticed because they weren’t disrupting class.
Teachers felt confident identifying academic gaps, but far less equipped to respond when challenges showed up as behavior. “We found out they just don’t know how to start a task,” Johnston explains. “They struggle with task initiation, and then the behaviors come in because they don’t know how to start.”
Without a shared framework, staff often relied on referrals, reactive responses, or inconsistent strategies. Executive function instruction occurred infrequently, making it difficult for students to practice and apply skills throughout the day. Teachers felt frustrated, unsure where to start, and overwhelmed by behaviors that interrupted learning for entire classrooms.
Parent conversations were also challenging. Families often heard about what went wrong rather than what skills their child needed and how those skills could be supported at home.
- Identify the executive function skills underneath behavior
- Provide consistent, schoolwide language and expectations
- Embed skill instruction into daily classroom routines
- Equip teachers with practical, manageable strategies
- Shift family conversations from consequences to skill development
- Track student growth over time
The solution: Teaching executive function skills with a shared, data-driven framework
To address these challenges, Mission Valley implemented Cerebrate, a platform designed to help schools identify, teach, and monitor executive function skills as part of core instruction.
Rather than starting schoolwide, the district launched Cerebrate at Tier 2, embedding it into a daily 20-minute intervention block known as Viking Time. Using Cerebrate’s surveys, teachers identified specific executive function skill gaps and grouped students accordingly.
What they discovered changed everything. Behaviors that were previously labeled as “self-control issues” often stemmed from challenges like task initiation, students simply didn’t know how to start. Once teachers targeted the correct skill, instruction became more precise and behavior more understandable. “If a student can’t decode, we teach them how to decode,” Amy says. “If they don’t have emotional skills, we teach those too.”
Cerebrate also gave Mission Valley something they had been missing: measurable data for skill gaps. Surveys allowed staff to monitor progress over time, adjust instruction, and align executive function data with existing academic and behavioral interventions.
As confidence grew, the district began expanding Cerebrate into Tier 1 classrooms, piloting daily instruction during morning meetings. Classroom teachers, not just specialists, taught the lessons, reinforcing vocabulary and strategies throughout the day. Lessons were flexible and easy to implement, even for staff without specialized training in behavior or mental health.
Most importantly, Cerebrate helped shift adult mindset, from reacting to behavior to understanding its root cause. “When you understand the why, you get less frustrated,” Amy explains. “It’s not willful. It’s a skill gap, and that changes everything.”
The impact: A proactive executive function system that supports students, teachers, and families
- Clearer intervention targets: Teachers stopped guessing which behaviors to address and began targeting the underlying executive function skills driving them.
- Stronger instructional transfer: By expanding into Tier 1 instruction, students practiced skills daily, increasing carryover from small groups into classrooms.
- Reduced teacher frustration: Shared language and data helped teachers feel more confident and less overwhelmed, improving classroom climate and instructional focus.
- Engaging instruction: Teachers used role play, discussion, puppets, and hands-on activities to help students practice skills in developmentally appropriate ways.
- Improved parent communication: Educators could explain what skill a student was struggling with and how families could support it, moving conversations beyond referrals and consequences.
- Shift from punishment to support: Students were no longer labeled as defiant or unmotivated. Instead, staff focused on building skills while maintaining high expectations
- Adult mindset transformationt: “The real magic is the adult shift,” Amy notes. “Keeping expectations high, but providing support to help students get there.”
From reaction to skill-building
- More proactive intervention systems
- More confident and aligned staff
- More productive classrooms
- More constructive family partnerships
- A shared language for student growth