Purpose: The purpose of this project is to develop a professional development curriculum to improve teacher practice in general instructional and classroom management practices in ways that will promote student success. The professional development curriculum will be called STICKS — Systemic, focused on Teacher growth, Incorporates Coaching, collaboration, cohorts, and increased Knowledge to create Student success.

Project Activities: The research team will develop a professional development curriculum comprised of five components: (1) topical units focusing on practices for inclusive classrooms, (2) a coach's manual and training program, (3) collaborative session activities/materials, (4) a web-based evaluation system, and (5) a professional development needs assessment. The researchers will conduct focus groups with teachers participating in the program to collect feedback on the curriculum components to assess feasibility and usability. The components will be revised based on feedback from the focus groups. The team will then conduct implementation trials to provide pilot data to test the feasibility of the STICKS professional development. Final revisions will be made to all components.

Products: The products of this project include a fully developed STICKS professional development program. This includes web-based units, a coach's manual and training program, all collaborative session activities/materials, a web-based evaluation system, and a teacher identified needs assessment. Products will also include published reports and presentations.

Setting: The research takes place in three school districts in Kansas and Missouri.

Population: Participants will include K–8 teachers and their inclusive classrooms.

Intervention: The STICKS professional development curriculum is designed for teachers in inclusive K–8 classrooms. The program includes five components: (1) topical units focusing on practices for inclusive classrooms, (2) a coach's manual and training program, (3) collaborative session activities/materials, (4) a web-based evaluation system, and (5) a professional development needs assessment. Integrated within the experience for teachers are site-based programs designed to encourage the development of a community of teacher learners, coaching, observation, and feedback in authentic settings, longevity to include a high number of contact hours, and a focus on improved student outcomes.

Research Design and Methods: During the development phase, design research will be used to develop the STICKS components with feedback from participants informing the revision process. For the pilot study, the team will use a multiple baseline single case design to collect data across schools to evaluate the relationship between STICKS professional development, school level implementation, and student engagement.

Control Condition: There is no control condition.

Key Measures: The researchers will utilize teacher and coach surveys, observations of teachers, focus groups, and checklists to assess implementation of the program. The project will also use several observation tools (PDA based) focusing on teacher fidelity and group-on-task levels, teacher behaviors (e.g., frequency of praise, reprimands, prompts) and student behaviors (academic engagement, compliance, disruptive behavior), and classroom contextual variables.

Data Analytic Strategy: As part of the multiple baseline design, the research team will utilize descriptive statistics, graphic displays, correlation, and data trend analysis. Descriptive statistics will be used for the pre- and posttest evaluation data across cohorts, schools, and grade levels. Means and standard deviations will be calculated for the number of steps completed and "time to completion" across cohorts, the fidelity ratings across teachers and coaches, and trend lines for skill use in classroom settings across participants.