Project Activities
In this study, the research team will run additional analyses on the Chicago efficacy trial data to understand how (mediation analyses) and for whom (moderator analyses) PA has its effects. Using latent growth curve models, the research team will investigate hypothesized mechanisms by which the program is achieving its benefits for students in elementary and middle school, and variations in program impact by student and school characteristics and implementation fidelity.
Structured Abstract
Setting
The original trial and its extension occurred in 14 schools recruited from a pool of 68 low performing, high poverty, K-8 elementary schools in the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) system.
Sample
The CPS student population during the study period (2004-2010) was majority African American (55 percent; 27 percent Hispanic; 11 percent Caucasian; 4 percent Asian) with 90 percent of students from high-poverty homes and only 34 percent meeting state achievement standards.
Intervention
The PA program is designed to help teachers, other school staff, and students and their families feel good about who they are by encouraging them to behave in positive ways. The program philosophy is based on the idea that positive actions, thoughts, and feelings can be self-reinforcing and lead to cycles of acting, thinking, and feeling that are repeated over time until they become habitual. The program is multifaceted, incorporating active learning, positive classroom management, skills development, role-play, a detailed curriculum for each grade level with almost daily lessons, school-wide reinforcement of positive behaviors, and family involvement. The aim of PA is to move students, teachers, school leaders, and families into a positive cycle by making positive choices consciously. The program teaches specific positive actions for the whole self: the physical, intellectual (including skills for learning), social, and emotional areas through six units covered at all grade levels: character/self-concept, learning/study skills, self-management/responsibility, interpersonal/social skills, honesty (with self and others), and goal setting, future orientation.
Research design and methods
In the original trial, 14 schools were assigned randomly from matched pairs to receive PA or continue with their typical practices. Program effects were assessed at the individual student level (adjusted for nesting in schools) annually in grades 3-8 for the study cohort of students who were assessed on 8 occasions, and at the school level using aggregate indicators of attendance, discipline, and standardized academic test scores. The research team will reanalyze this data to investigate single mediators (e.g., PA -> school climate -> student behavioral and academic outcomes) and causal chains (e.g., PA -> school climate -> student social-emotional outcomes -> student behavioral and academic outcomes). They will explicitly test the hypothesis that there are a set of indicators (e.g., risk behavior, attachment, bullying) that establish unique groups of students that reveal a wide range of group-level PA effects (e.g., academic achievement, self-esteem). They will also test the hypothesis that variations in program fidelity relate to variations in student outcomes.
Control condition
Control schools continued to implement their typical practices.
Key measures
The data include annual surveys of teachers (school and classroom practices, school and classroom climate, social and character development, and classroom behavior of individual students in the study cohort) and students (school and classroom climate, social and character development and supporting skills and attitudes, behavioral and emotional problems) as well as archival school records (attendance, discipline problems, and test scores). Researchers obtained extensive process measures assessing fidelity of implementation and dosage of exposure for all PA program components (teachers, students, administrators).
Data analytic strategy
The research team will use latent growth curve models to test mediation and moderation, and they will investigate whether findings can be reproduced with different software programs to further verify results.
People and institutions involved
IES program contact(s)
Products and publications
Products: Researchers will produce evidence about how and for whom the Positive Action program has its positive effects on student social-emotional, behavioral, and academic outcomes. They will also produce peer-reviewed publications and reports for policymakers and school districts.
Supplemental information
Co-Principal Investigator: Flay, Brian
Positive Action for Social and Character Development (R305L030004)
The Chicago Social and Character Development Trial: Extension to Grade 8 (R305A080253)
Questions about this project?
To answer additional questions about this project or provide feedback, please contact the program officer.
