Project Activities
The researchers will randomize teachers from rural middle schools in Missouri to the CHAMPS condition or an active control condition. A CHAMPS-certified trainer will deliver the virtual intervention to all teachers in the CHAMPS condition over 1 school year. The researchers will collect data at baseline and at 1- and 2-year follow-up including direct observations of teacher classroom management practices as well as student social-emotional behavior and academic achievement.
Structured Abstract
Setting
This study will be conducted in approximately 15 to 20 rural middle schools throughout the state of Missouri.
Sample
Math and reading teachers (n=110) and their students (about 15 per classroom) will participate.
CHAMPS is designed to help classroom teachers develop an effective classroom management plan that is proactive, positive, and instructional. It is grounded in social learning and behavioral principles, including research-based principles of effective classroom management. CHAMPS emphasizes promoting positive teacher-student interactions and helping teachers structure their classrooms in ways that prompt responsible student behavior. It introduces skills and helps teachers practice via a group training, which includes video-based modeling where brief vignettes of actual teacher-student interactions are viewed and discussed. Teachers are given ample opportunity to role play similar scenarios and to give and receive feedback about effective classroom practices. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the developers have created a virtual and fully developed version of the CHAMPS training and coaching approach.
Research design and methods
The researchers will test the efficacy of CHAMPS delivered virtually with a group randomized trial. They will randomize teachers within rural middle schools by cohort into either the CHAMPS or active control condition (n=30 cohort 1; n=40 cohort 2, and n=40 cohort 3). Random assignment and data collection will be based on the lowest academic level regular class for each teacher in core content courses. The researchers will collect observation and multiple informant data on teacher classroom practices and student academic and social behavior prior to intervention, post intervention, and in the spring of the following year.
Control condition
Teachers assigned to the control condition will receive a 2-hour online training on effective classroom management practices. The training will be scripted and delivered to groups of teachers by the CHAMPS coach. The training will address the importance of classroom structure, establishing clear expectations, praise for appropriate behaviors, and explicit reprimands.
Key measures
Primary outcomes include academic achievement (Stanford Achievement Test Tenth Edition), student engagement and disruptive behaviors (teacher and student ratings and direct observations), and prosocial behaviors (teacher ratings). The researchers will assess teacher implementation skills using direct observations. They will collect other outcomes annually from archival records: state test scores, grades, suspensions, discipline referrals, and referrals for and/or use of special education.
Data analytic strategy
Analyses will rely on a combination of hierarchical linear, structural equation, recursive partitioning, latent growth, and profile modeling. All analyses will account for the nesting of observations within classrooms. The primary analyses will use the pretest and posttest observations for each classroom. Two-level hierarchical linear models accounting for the nested structure of the data will be used to compare the two conditions on academic performance and disruptive and off-task behavior as assessed in the spring with regression adjustment for baseline assessments in the fall. Condition, cohort, school and fall scores will be included as fixed effects while classroom and student will be included as nested random effects.
Cost analysis strategy
The researchers will conduct a cost analysis using the ingredients method together with the Center for Benefit-Cost Studies in Education (CBCSE) Cost Tool Kit to determine the resources required to successfully administer and sustain the virtual CHAMPS program. They plan to use national costs informed by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. They will estimate costs associated with implementing the CHAMPS virtual training and coaching process and materials. They will also calculate an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio for each student outcome.
People and institutions involved
IES program contact(s)
Project contributors
Products and publications
This project will result in evidence of the efficacy of CHAMPS, a teacher classroom management program, for rural middle schools. This project will also provide information about the cost and cost effectiveness of CHAMPS for this population. The project will also result in a final dataset to be shared, peer-reviewed publications and presentations, and additional dissemination products that reach federal and state policymakers, school administrators, educators, parents, learners, and education researchers.
Publications:
ERIC Citations: Find available citations in ERIC for this award here.
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