School-Wide And Classroom-Based Programs

Craig Frisby
Charles Maher
William Strein

Domain Description:

Fueled by the demands to address increasing social and behavioral problems among youth, school-wide or whole classroom programs are being advocated to provide more integrative solutions for children. Recent literature emphasizes the critical combination of modifying teacher behaviors, classroom environments, and school climates as well as actively teaching prosocial behaviors across the curriculum.

I. Definitions

A. Intervention: A program, product, service, or plan that is designed by an individual ( e.g., applied researcher, school psychologist) or group, which is then implemented and evaluated in relation to its purpose and goals with respect to a specified target group for whom it was intended.

B. School: An educational unit that exists to enhance the learning and development of students. As such, a school is organized by units, typically referred to as grades or levels. Thus, with that understanding, the notion of "school-wide" would encompass interventions that involve all ( or particular large segments thereof) of students, parents, teachers, etc., who are part of a particular school organizational entity. Within this conception, a school-wide intervention may be targeted to one or more of these populations and may focus on one or more areas of outcome such as cognitive outcomes, behavioral outcomes, emotional outcomes, academic outcomes, and social outcomes.

C. Classroom: An organizational unit that includes a segment of students and that provides these students with instructional and learning experiences that relate to one or more of the aforementioned outcomes. Thus, a classroom-based intervention would occur within the classroom setting, within the school context.

II. Exclusionary Criteria

Project descriptions will not be included in the School wide and Classroom Based (SWCB) domain if 1) they involve an intervention, but do not describe in detail basic aspects of the study design or fail to provide quantitative outcome data; 2) they are correlational in nature, where there is no intent to manipulate an independent variable(s) to produce intentional changes in a dependent variable(s), or 3) academic achievement (e.g., literacy skills, reading, math, spelling, language, study skills, science, social studies) serves as the only dependent variable. Academic achievement is addressed in a different domain.

III. SWCB Domain Subcategories

A. Classroom-Based Student Discipline and Behavior: This category includes studies designed to influence change in student outcomes within single classrooms. Students within classrooms are expected to engage in task-focused behavior that facilitates learning and smooth classroom functioning (e.g., raising hands, working quietly, keeping hands to self, etc.). Students can also engage in less frequent but more serious violations of class rules (e.g., swearing, stealing, fighting, etc.). Other appropriate outcomes in this category include students' use of self monitoring strategies or the frequency of prosocial behaviors when interacting with peers. Studies in this category investigate the effects of teacher or peer practices on increasing appropriate behavior or decreasing inappropriate behavior. This category also includes effects of physical space and arrangement of physical materials on student classroom behaviors that facilitate learning.

B. School Wide Student Discipline and Behavior: This category includes intervention programs or practices that are targeted for change in student outcomes, and applied across numerous classrooms within a school (or across many schools within a district). Outcome data may be collected across the entire school, but broken down by classrooms as the smallest unit of analysis. Data may also be aggregated across the entire school without a breakdown by classrooms. In many instances, the effects of interventions are investigated in locations within schools but outside of classrooms (e.g., hallways, cafeteria, school library, recess). Typical outcome variables may include, but not be limited to, rates of discipline referrals, rates of suspensions or expulsions, instances of vandalism, or use of peer mediation. In some instances, appropriate outcome variables may include various indicators of school operations that reflect desired school wide responses to students' problem behaviors.

C. School Wide or Classroom Based Teacher/Staff Behavior: This subcategory includes investigations of the effects of an intervention in altering behaviors of teachers and/or school staff, which may have a direct or indirect influence on improving student behavioral outcomes. Whereas differences in teacher behavior may serve as the independent variable in the "Classroom Based Discipline and Behavior" domain, differences in teacher behavior serves as the dependent variable in this domain. At the school wide level, typical outcome variables may include teacher adherence to various components of a behavior management program or team problem solving model. At the classroom level, the focus of intervention may apply to the manner in which teachers interact with students in classrooms, which may or may not describe associated changes in student outcomes. Typical outcome variables may include changes in teachers' use of encouragement or positive reinforcement, changes in teachers' classroom management behaviors, or changes in teachers' ability to effectively respond to serious classroom disruptions.

D. School Climate: The previous category focuses on school-wide efforts to modify the behavior of teachers and staff, whereas this category focuses on the emotional, attitudinal, and affective variables among teachers and students that contribute to an overall healthy "school climate." School climate can be defined as "the relatively enduring quality of the school environment that is experienced by participants, affects their behavior, and is based on their collective perception of behavior in schools" (Hoy, Tarter, & Kottkamp, 1991, p. __). Researchers may view school climate as an independent variable, which affects various school outcomes, which in turn have direct or indirect effects on students. Such outcomes include, but are not limited to: teacher, parent and/or student perceptions and attitudes (measured by survey and/or questionnaire techniques); rates of teacher or student absenteeism, other indicators of teacher "burnout", or indicators of parent involvement.

Hoy, W.K., Tarter, C.J., & Kottkamp, R.B. (1991). Open schools/healthy schools: Measuring organizational climate. Newbury Park: Sage.

IV. Relevant Search Descriptors for Subcategories Within the SWCB Domain:

• Antisocial Behavior
• Behavior Change
• Behavior Modification
• Behavior Patterns
• Behavior Problems
• Bullying
• Classroom Design
• Classroom Environment
• Classroom Observation Techniques
• Classroom Research
• Classroom Techniques
• Discipline Policy
• Early Intervention
• Educational Environment
• Educational Research
• Educational Strategies
• Elementary Secondary Education
• Evaluation Methods
• Formative Evaluation
• Functional Analysis
• Functional Assessment
• Intervention
• Middle Schools
• Peer Influence
• Physical Environment
• Positive Reinforcement
• Program Effectiveness
• Program Evaluation
• Research Methodology
• Research Projects
• Risk Reduction
• School Safety
• School Space
• Seating Arrangement
• School Climate
• Social Behavior
• Social Skills Training
• Staff Development
• Student Adjustment
• Student Behavior
• Teacher Behavior
• Teacher-Student Relationship
• Teacher Improvement
• Teaching Methods
• Treatment Verification
• Violence