Building Assets, Reducing Risks (BARR) Vocabulary

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering key terms, roles, levels of concern, frameworks, and logic models from the BARR Secondary Implementation Guide.

Building Assets, Reducing Risks (BARR)

A strength-based educational model for grades K–12 centered on creating positive, intentional relationships and using real-time student data in collaborative problem-solving settings.

I-Time

Weekly classroom lessons facilitated by teachers for approximately 30 minutes that help students build relationships, practice essential life skills, and address personal and social issues.

Small Block Teams

Grade-level teacher teams (typically three core subject teachers) who meet weekly to discuss their shared cohort's academic and nonacademic student progress and collaborate on early intervention strategies.

Big Block Teams

Weekly structured meetings expanding Small Block teacher teams to include counselors, social workers, administrators, and support staff to review every student and provide coordinated support.

Community Connect

A structured weekly meeting process led by the BARR coordinator that engages specialized school personnel and external community resources for students facing high-level needs or emerging crises.

Level 0: Thriving

A BARR level of concern where a student is passing all courses, resilient, and performing well independently; represents approximately 45% of students.

Level 1: Brief Strategy

A BARR level of concern where a student exhibits early academic or behavioral issues (e.g., tardiness) and receives targeted support from one designated adult; applies to roughly 35% of students in a quarter.

Level 2: Team Strategy

A BARR level of concern applied when a student is not responding after two weeks of brief strategies, requiring coordinated action from a team of two or more adults; applies to roughly 15% of students.

Level 3: Community Connect

The highest BARR level of concern where team strategies are insufficient or immediate evaluation for community resource referral is required; applies to approximately 5% of students.

Developmental Assets Framework

A research-based framework created by Search Institute identifying 40 external and internal factors essential for youth success, resilience, and healthy development.

Social Development Strategy (SDS)

A prevention framework created by J. David Hawkins and Richard F. Catalano Jr. that focuses on reducing risk factors and strengthening protective factors across community, family, school, and individual/peer domains.

Attribution Theory of Student Motivation

A psychological framework explaining how student motivation and performance are shaped by their beliefs regarding ability, task difficulty, effort, luck, and self-efficacy.

BARR Coordinator

A designated school staff member who leads the four phases of BARR implementation, facilitates Big Block meetings, oversees Community Connect, and liaises with administrators and BARR coaches.

Mental Health Specialist

A school counselor, social worker, or related professional on the BARR team who coordinates support services, facilitates referrals, and connects students and families with internal and external resources.

Discipline Coordinator

An assistant principal or dean of students who oversees disciplinary incidents, tracks behavioral and truancy patterns, and collaborates with BARR teams to support classroom management.

Block Teachers

Core subject classroom teachers assigned to shared student cohorts who deliver I-Time lessons, establish positive student relationships, and participate in weekly Block problem-solving meetings.

BARR Logic Model

A framework mapping how Developmental Assets, Risk and Protective Factors, and Attribution Theory integrate with the 8 BARR strategies and real-time data to improve student academic and behavioral outcomes.

AIR Mediation Analysis Model

A structural model demonstrating how BARR improves academic outcomes (graduation rates, test scores, credits) by fostering resilience in staff and students to change attitudes and behaviors.

Angela Jerabek

The founder and executive director of BARR Center, creator of the BARR model, and author of the BARR Implementation Guide.

Spillover Effect

An effect identified in social network analyses where collegial interaction and teacher collaboration directly generate positive academic benefits across the student body.