Graduation Year

2011

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree

Ed.D.

Degree Granting Department

Special Education

Major Professor

Albert Duchnowski, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Heather George, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Donald Kincaid, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Jeannie Kleinhammer-Tramill, Ph.D.

Keywords

Implementation, Positive Behavior Support, School Based Initiatives, Systems Change, Training

Abstract

Most school based initiatives are not implemented long-term and do not reach sustainability (McDermott, 2000; Mirel, 1994; Rice & Malen, 2003). Schools are implementing School-Wide Positive Behavior Support (SWPBS) as an initiative to target social emotional development and behavior. Schools that have implemented SWPBS have experienced decreases in rate of Office Discipline Referrals (ODR), In-School Suspension (ISS) and Out-of-School Suspension (OSS) (e.g. Bohanon et al., 2006; Childs et al., 2009; Lassen et al., 2006). Research has also shown that schools that implement with a higher degree of fidelity have better outcomes (Childs et al., 2009; Florida's Positive Behavior Support Project, 2009). However, it is not known what mediating factor(s) assist with schools with implementation of Tier 1 PBS at a higher degree of fidelity.

This study examined action plans that schools developed during their initial training of Tier 1 PBS, to determine if the action plans are one of the possible mediating factor(s). There are differences between the quality of action plans developed by schools implementing with a higher degree of fidelity compared to schools implementing with a lower degree of fidelity. Based on a path analysis, the action plans are not a mediating factor between fidelity of implementation and student outcomes (i.e. office discipline referrals, In-School Suspension, and Out-of-School Suspension).

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