Nearly four dozen Utah elementary, middle and high schools hope the UBI Project will do just that.

"I like this program because it teaches you don't have to be browbeat. You can speak up. And it teaches if you're hot and aggressive, you're not solving the problem; you're just creating another problem," said Joan Groves, a counselor at Academy Park Elementary in West Valley City. "I think it's made a big difference."

Schools in the UBI Project, federally funded in Utah since 2002, teach students how to behave and respond appropriately to peers' inappropriate behavior.

Leaders say it's a more positive, long-lasting approach to the problem. "When you negatively respond to a student's behavior, you change the behavior for the immediate," Daines said. "But is it going to change their behavior . . . tomorrow? The answer is no. They'll do it (when) they want to do it, and can see value to it."

The UBI is a three-year project. Schools apply to join and are re-evaluated before they can stay on all three years (half made the cut in 2003).

In the first year, schools set up UBI teams — which receive support from the UBI state support team — examine their climate, gather data and pinpoint where they want to improve. Then, they come up with their top three student behavior initiatives, create mottoes and mission statements — "Park Eagles are safe, kind and responsible," for example, at Park Elementary — and continually reinforce the mission statement with explicit instructions on how to behave, such as picking up after yourself in the lunchroom and not running in the halls.

Union Middle School in Jordan District has worked to halve the number of students sent to the principal's office. Leaders drilled behavior expectations into students and rewarded them for living up to them. They handle repeat offenders with "think time," where kids go to another classroom and fill out a behavior log on what they were doing, what they should have been doing, and whether they'll be able to do what they're supposed to when they return to class.

"Most of the referrals we were getting were the one-time-shot things . . . now, we're catching it beforehand before it gets to that escalation," said Vicky Ginsburg, science teacher and Union's UBI facilitator. "A lot of times, it's just getting the student to realize what they're doing, and that's half the battle."

Academy Park also reports a 35 percent reduction in behavior referrals between the 2001-02 and the 2002-03 school year. They fell again by 56 percent this past school year.