Grant Closed

Project PRIME: Planning Realistic Intervention Implementation and Maintenance by Educators

NCSER
Program: Special Education Research Grants
Program topic(s): Educators and School-Based Service Providers
Award amount: $1,413,597
Principal investigator: Lisa Sanetti
Awardee:
University of Connecticut
Year: 2010
Project type:
Development and Innovation
Award number: R324A100051

Purpose

Increased standards and high demands for accountability in education have led to a focus on implementing education practices that are empirically based. The field of education has made progress in the development of assessment-driven intervention plans and identifying evidence-based interventions, but it remains difficult for such interventions to be implemented with high levels of integrity (i.e., the intervention is implemented as planned). Research has shown that a majority of teachers show declining levels of implementation integrity within 1 to 10 days after a professional development training. The purpose of this project is to develop an intervention to assist teachers in planning, implementing, and maintaining school-based behavior interventions with a high degree of integrity. More specifically, the project will develop a pre-implementation program, Planning Realistic Intervention Implementation and Maintenance by Educators (PRIME), to help prevent the decline of school-based practitioners' treatment integrity.

Project Activities

The research team will begin by developing PRIME materials and refining them based on feedback from expert and stakeholder (practitioner) panels. The team will then conduct a series of single-case design studies with teachers to inform the continuing process of refining the PRIME materials. In these studies, brief assessments and individualized behavior support plans will be developed for teachers to implement so that they may support students who demonstrate challenging behaviors. The project will evaluate whether there is a relationship between components of the intervention and initial and maintained treatment integrity. This research team will also study whether self-administered or assisted planning results in high levels of treatment integrity, how the implementation of the intervention affects students' behavioral outcomes, and what level (or "dose") of the intervention is required to achieve a noticeable change in teachers' behavioral intention and treatment integrity.

Structured Abstract

Setting

The project will be conducted in elementary schools in several school districts in Connecticut.

Sample

Participants will include 28 to 35 elementary school teachers in Connecticut. Students with challenging behavior problems in participating teachers' classrooms will also be included.
Intervention
Project PRIME is based on the Health Action Process Approach — a theory of adult behavior change that has extensive empirical support across a wide variety of behaviors. The intervention has four components: (a) assessment of a teacher's intention to implement an intervention; (b) implementation of strategies to increase behavioral intention; (c) completion of action planning (i.e., detailed logistical planning); and (d) completion of coping planning (i.e., identification of barriers to implementation and strategies to address barriers). Graduate students who have completed relevant coursework will serve as behavioral consultants to the teachers. The PRIME components will be developed and implemented with teachers so that they may support students who demonstrate challenging behaviors.

Research design and methods

A continuous, iterative research design involving feedback from expert and stakeholder panels followed by a series of single-case design studies will be used to develop and refine the PRIME intervention. Multiple baseline design will be used to investigate whether a functional relationship exists between teachers' completion of the PRIME components and treatment integrity levels.

Control condition

There is no control condition.

Key measures

To gather information about student behaviors that will be used in development of the functional behavior assessments and behavior support plans, the research team will utilize the Functional Behavioral Assessment-Behavior Support Plan Protocol (F-BSP Protocol) interview and the Functional Assessment Checklist for Teachers and Staff (FACTS). PRIME treatment integrity will be assessed with a comprehensive system of treatment integrity measurement that includes a self-report system and direct observation. Student outcomes will be measured with structured direct observations (a multiple option observation system for experimental studies; MOOSE) and the Social Skills Improvement System, a rating system to be completed by teachers.

Data analytic strategy

The first three research questions will be examined via visual analysis of the data across the studies to detect separations in the level between baseline and intervention conditions across students. This analysis will determine whether the data are stable and observe whether there is a replication of the effect across at least three time points. Statistical analyses of the single-case studies will include a single-case randomization test, and effect sizes will be estimated. Treatment dosage information will consist of descriptive data.

People and institutions involved

IES program contact(s)

Katherine Taylor

Education Research Analyst
NCSER

Products and publications

Products: The products of this project include fully developed materials for the PRIME intervention, as well as evidence of the feasibility of the intervention and the potential impact the intervention will have on supporting practitioner implementation of strategies for students with challenging behaviors. Additional products include published reports and presentations.

Book

Sanetti, L.M.H., and Collier-Meek, M.C. (under review). Working Smarter, not Harder: A Guide to Getting Interventions Implemented. New York: Guilford Press.

Sanetti, L.M.H., and Kratochwill, T.R. (2014). Treatment Integrity: Conceptual, Methodological, and Applied Considerations for Practitioners and Researchers. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Sanetti, L.M.H., and Kratochwill, T.R. (2014). Treatment Integrity: A Foundation of Evidence-Based Practice in Applied Psychology. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Book chapter

Sanetti, L.M.H., and Collier-Meek, M. (2016). Treatment Integrity: Evidence-Based Interventions in Applied Settings. In L.A. Theodore (Ed.), Handbook of Applied Interventions for Children and Adolescents (pp. 3-16). New York: Springer Publishing.

Sanetti, L.M.H., and Kratochwill, T.R. (2014). Introduction: Treatment Integrity in Psychological Research and Practice. In L.M.H. Sanetti, and T.R. Kratochwill (Eds.), Treatment Integrity: Conceptual, Methodological, and Applied Considerations for Practitioners and Researchers (pp. 3-12). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Journal article, monograph, or newsletter

Collier-Meek, M.A., Sanetti, L.M.H., and Wisniewski, A.M. (2016). Providing Feasible Implementation Support: Direct Training and Implementation Planning in Consultation. School Psychology Forum, 10(1): 106-119.

Fallon, L.M., Collier-Meek, M.A., Sanetti, L.M H., Feinberg, A., and Kratochwill, T.R. (2016). Implementation Planning to Promote Parents' Treatment Integrity of Behavioral Interventions for Children With Autism. Journal of Educational and Psychological Consultation, 26(1): 87-109. doi:10.1080/10474412.2015.1039124

Long, A.C.J., Sanetti, L.M.H., Collier-Meek, M.A., Gallucci, J., Altschaefl, M., and Kratochwill, T.R. (2016). An Exploratory Investigation of Teachers' Intervention Planning and Perceived Implementation Barriers. Journal of School Psychology, 55: 1-26. doi:10.1016/j.jsp.2015.12.002

Sanetti, L.M.H. (2013). Borrowing From Related Fields to Advance Intervention Implementation in Education. The School Psychologist, 67(1): 22-26. Full text

Sanetti, L.M.H., and Collier-Meek, M.A. (2014). Increasing the Rigor of Procedural Fidelity Assessment: An Empirical Comparison of Direct Observation and Permanent Product Review Methods. Journal of Behavioral Education, 23(1): 60-88. doi:10.1007/s10864-013-9179-z

Sanetti, L.M.H., and Collier-Meek, S.M. (2015). Data-Driven Delivery of Implementation Supports in a Multi-Tiered Framework: A Pilot Study. Psychology in the Schools, 52(8): 815-828. doi:10.1002/pits.21861

Sanetti, L.M.H., Collier-Meek, M.A., Long, A.C.J., Byron, J.R., and Kratochwill, T.R. (2015). Increasing Teacher Treatment Integrity of Behavior Support Plans Through Consultation and Implementation Planning. Journal of School Psychology, 53(3): 209-229. doi:10.1016/j.jsp.2015.03.002

Sanetti, L.M.H., Collier-Meek, M.A., Long, A.C.J., Kim, J., and Kratochwill, T.R. (2014). Using Implementation Planning to Increase Teachers' Adherence and Quality to Behavior Support Plans. Psychology in the Schools, 51(8): 879-895. doi:10.1002/pits.21787

Sanetti, L.M.H., Kratochwill, T.R., and Long, A.C.J. (2013). Applying Adult Behavior Change Theory to Support Mediator-Based Intervention Implementation. School Psychology Quarterly, 28(1): 47-62.

Sanetti, L.M.H., Williamson, K., Long, A.C.J., and Kratochwill, T.R. (in press). Increasing Teacher Implementation of Classroom Management Practices Through Consultation, Implementation Planning, and Participant Modeling. Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions.

Questions about this project?

To answer additional questions about this project or provide feedback, please contact the program officer.

 

Questions about this project?

To answer additional questions about this project or provide feedback, please contact the program officer.

 

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