Predictors of Sustained Implementation of School-Wide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports

Abstract

In this analysis of extant data from 3,011 schools implementing school-wide positive behavioral interventions and supports (SWPBIS) across multiple years, we assessed the predictive power of various school characteristics and speed of initial implementation on sustained fidelity of implementation of SWPBIS at 1, 3, and 5 years. In addition, we partitioned variance in whether schools sustained SWPBIS at the school, district, and state levels. Results showed that the largest differences in fidelity were at the state level. In addition, school characteristics (particularly grade levels served) and speed of initial implementation were significant but small predictors of sustained implementation. Results are discussed in terms of effective supports at the state and district levels, as well as addressing types of schools at greater risk of abandonment, such as high schools.

The Sustainability of Evidence-Based Interventions and Practices in Public Health and Health Care

“…For school-based programs, inadequate staffing and administrative support hindered sustainment. This finding is consistent with recent studies that suggest that administrative support, consistent resources, and staff stability and buy-in are particularly important in the school context (70,84,90,146).…”

“…For school-based programs, inadequate staffing and administrative support hindered sustainment. This finding is consistent with recent studies that suggest that administrative support, consistent resources, and staff stability and buy-in are particularly important in the school context (70,84,90,146).Several studies have focused on the sustainability of coalitions aimed at implementing EBIs, including the Communities That Care (CTC) coalition-based prevention system (51) and the PROSPER community-university partnership model (56). A study of 110 CTC sites in Pennsylvania found that 90% of coalitions continued after the three-year initial funding period, with 3-8% of sites terminating each year after (36).…”

“…However, the dynamic nature of the sociopolitical context into which interventions are implemented often results in changes in funding, policy maker attention, populations, and public interest in the intervention, which can all affect sustainability. It is therefore useful to assess sustainability over multiple time points to capture its possible dynamic and nonlinear nature (84,135). Also, determinations should be made regarding how much adaptation of intervention components is acceptable or expected, and whether there is, or should be, a recommended threshold that needs to be reached for the intervention to be considered sustained (118).…”

Scaling Effective Innovations

“…Out of necessity, developers initially direct attention to expanding the number of new users ("adoption" of innovations). Over time, as the number of users increases, more attention must be paid to de-adoption and re-adoption (Massatti, Sweeney, Panzano, and Roth, 2008;McIntosh, Mercer, Nese, Strickland-Cohen, and Hoselton, 2015) while continuing to expand the numerator by developing new users. A container that is draining as fast as it is being filled simply maintains the same level.…”

Game On—Complier Average Causal Effect Estimation Reveals Sleeper Effects on Academic Attainment in a Randomized Trial of the Good Behavior Game

“…Covariates Including good predictors of compliance can increase precision in estimating the latent class compliance variable and, therefore, increase power to detect CACE effects (Jo et al 2008b). Student-(gender, FSM eligibility, SEND, baseline reading scores, concentration problems, and disruptive behaviors) and school-level (size, FSM %, EAL %, absences %) characteristics were thus added as covariates of reading scores and the latent compliance variable, as research shows that implementation can be influenced by the classroom climate, and student-and school-level characteristics (Koth et al 2008;McIntosh et al 2016;Pas et al 2014;Payne and Eckert 2010). We paid particular attention to including predictors that were aligned with the behavioral focus of the GBG (Panayiotou et al 2019Nagengast et al 2018.…”