Project Activities
The research team will iteratively develop and refine SUSTAIN and evaluate its feasibility and usability using interviews, focus groups, surveys, and a field test. The research team will conduct a pilot cluster randomized controlled trial (RCT) of SUSTAIN to examine its promise for promoting positive special educator and student outcomes.
Structured Abstract
Setting
The research will take place in urban, suburban, and rural public elementary and middle schools in Florida, Massachusetts, and North Carolina.
Sample
In phase 1, 6 school and district leaders and 9 special educators serving K-8 students with EBD in self-contained settings will participate in interviews and focus groups. In phase 2, 11 special educators and 3 school leaders will participate in a field test. In phase 3, 55 special educators, 440 of their students with EBD (approximately 8 per teacher), and 35 school leaders across 32 schools will participate in a pilot study of the intervention. In phase 4, special educators from the prior two phases will participate in follow-up data collection.
Intervention
SUSTAIN is a school-level intervention that provides a systematic, structured process for special educators and leaders (principals or assistant principals) to collaborate on selecting, refining, implementing, and evaluating research-based improvements for special educator working conditions. During meetings, special educators and leaders engage in an ongoing process of identifying areas for improvement, implementing changes, and continuously evaluating the success of those changes over time. SUSTAIN includes key innovations, such as guided discussion for special educator-administrator teams to establish shared norms and goals and prepared materials that summarize promising approaches to improving working conditions that are supported by research.
Research design and methods
Phase 1 development activities will include interviews with special educators and leaders about working condition challenges and the feasibility of potential solutions. The research team will gather further feedback by facilitating focus groups with an advisory board of expert researchers and special educators. Based on feedback, the team will develop an initial version of SUSTAIN and solicit feedback on its usability and feasibility from special educators and leaders via surveys. The team will refine the intervention and, in phase 2, conduct a field test of SUSTAIN to inform further revisions. In phase 3, the team will conduct a cluster RCT to evaluate SUSTAIN's promise for promoting improved (a) special educator working conditions and educator outcomes, and (b) student academic achievement and behavior outcomes. In phase 4, the research team will offer SUSTAIN to waitlist control schools and collect follow-up outcome data with special educators who participated in phases 2 and 3, including working conditions, burnout, workload manageability, intent to leave, and turnover.
Control condition
Special educators and students in the waitlist control schools will receive services as usual during the pilot study and the intervention the following year.
Key measures
Special educator outcomes will be measured using ReSpECT (working conditions), Maslach Burnout Inventory (burnout), researcher-developed surveys (workload manageability and intent to leave), observations (instructional practices), and district employment records (turnover). Student outcomes will be measured using district and state assessments (math and reading achievement) and the Student Risk Screening Scale-Internalizing/Externalizing (internalizing and externalizing behavior). Fidelity, including dosage and adherence, will be assessed using researcher-developed measures. Feasibility, usability, and social validity will be assessed with the Usage Rating Profile – Intervention, Revised and an adapted Knowledge, Confidence, and Usefulness Survey.
Data analytic strategy
To analyze data from phase 1, the research team will use a convergent mixed methods analytic approach. They will (a) record, transcribe, review for accuracy, and analyze interview and focus group data with a consensus coding approach, and (b) integrate findings with descriptive data from feasibility and usability data to refine SUSTAIN. For phase 2 data, the research team will use analyses of variance to explore changes in special educator working conditions and outcomes, as well as student outcomes. To examine the promise of SUSTAIN for improving special educator outcomes, teacher data from the phase 3 RCT will be analyzed using a single-level model and student data will be analyzed using a two-level model. Analyses of the phase 4 follow-up data will be the same as those used in phase 2.
Cost analysis strategy
The research team will calculate total costs of implementing SUSTAIN at the school level using recommendations from the Cost Analysis in Practice (CAP) Project. Data on educators' and leaders' time to implement will be collected from participants and checked for reliability in interviews. Time will be multiplied by hourly salary and verified with official records, when possible. Additional costs (such as printing and substitutes) and potential savings (for example, resource savings for hiring due to reduced turnover), will be included as well.
Products and publications
Products: This project will result in a fully developed intervention, SUSTAIN, to improve working conditions for special educators serving students with EBD. The project will also result in peer-reviewed publications and presentations as well as additional dissemination products that reach education stakeholders such as practitioners and policymakers.
ERIC Citations: Find available citations in ERIC for this award here.
Related projects
Supplemental information
Co-Principal Investigators: Bettini, Elizabeth; Cumming, Michelle; Huggins-Manley, Corinne
Questions about this project?
To answer additional questions about this project or provide feedback, please contact the program officer.