Improve student behavior through meaningful and lasting change. Principal and education consultant Kortney Milford shares a refreshing, real-world approach to transforming student behavior that goes beyond quick fixes or punishment systems. Drawing from years of experience leading schools through challenging seasons, Kortney reveals how small, intentional shifts in adult mindset and practice can spark significant, lasting change across an entire building.
This easy-to-use book emphasizes effective practices that help educators reflect on, adjust, and respond through their own behavior—ultimately inspiring positive change in students. Inside, you’ll learn how to:
- Build accountability through consistency and compassion
- Teach clear behavioral expectations and model them daily
- Plan proactive supports rather than reactive responses
- Strengthen staff alignment around shared beliefs and practices
- Adapt strategies to fit your school’s unique needs and culture
You’ll come away with practical, sustainable tools to create long-term success and ultimately improve your school. Because when you change how your school approaches behavior—you change everything.
Table of Contents:
Acknowledgements Meet the Author Preface 1. Lead the Adults to Lead the Students 2. The Starting Point 3. Don't Abandon Your Programs: Prioritize Your People 4. Kids Keep Doing What Works 5. Understanding Behavior Doesn't Mean Accepting It 6. Spend Your Time on the Problem, Not the Solution 7. The Source and Support Process for Student Behavior 8. Say "Connection-Seeking", Not "Attention-Seeking" 9. Find a Connection Point 10. Set Expectations for Everyone 11. Be Intentional About the Language You Use 12. Teach Behavior Like You Teach Reading 13. No Punishments: Still Accountable 14. Connect. Reflect. Repair. 15. Plan Proactive Supports, Not Reactive Responses 16. Become Unflappable 17. How to Phone a Friend 18. Shaping Elopement: Guiding Students Back to Safety and Support Afterword
About the Author :
Kortney Milford is a principal, author, and education consultant dedicated to transforming how schools support students. As founder of Kudos from Kortney, she helps educators nationwide build the mindsets and systems that create lasting change.
Review :
“This book is a breakthrough for everyone in education! I have had the good fortune to read many educational books. They have covered a wide variety of topics in the areas of teaching and leading. The vast majority have added to an essential knowledge of educational practices. However, every once in a while, there is a book that helps us make a true leap forward. Change Student Behavior, Change Your School is one of those works. No matter what the make-up of your school you can help your setting become the school you have always dreamed of. Kortney Milford has developed and shared a specific blueprint that will transform any school into an exceptional learning center. She begins in the real starting place for improvement – adult behavior – and guides readers to understand how this alteration will positively impact the behavior of every student – including the most challenging – so that each school can become an exemplary learning environment. This superb book teaches everyone how to evolve and grow into the school we have always dreamed of. Change Student Behavior, Change Your School will optimize the way you think, act and feel.”
–Todd Whitaker, Internationally-Renowned Educator and Author
