Date on Master's Thesis/Doctoral Dissertation

12-2015

Document Type

Doctoral Dissertation

Degree Name

Ed. D.

Department

Educational Leadership, Evaluation and Organizational Development

Degree Program

Educational Leadership and Organizational Development, EDD

Committee Chair

Carpenter, Bradley

Committee Co-Chair (if applicable)

Immekus, Jason

Committee Member

Immekus, Jason

Committee Member

Munoz, Marco

Committee Member

Baete, Glenn

Author's Keywords

PBIS; teacher attrition; behavior

Abstract

This capstone investigated the impact of the implementation of positive behavior interventions and supports (PBIS) in schools across Kentucky on teachers’ perceptions of student behavior and on student academic achievement scores, using a causal comparative design. Schools in Kentucky were selected at random according to school type: elementary, middle, and high school. Special schools, or schools serving populations overlapping into multiple categories, were eliminated from the study. Schools were then identified by their level of implementation of PBIS: Control represented the schools that had not received any training in PBIS, PBIS represented schools that had started the implementation of PBIS, and fidelity represented the schools that were implementing PBIS and had met fidelity status as recognized by the state. Data from the Teaching, Empowering, Leading and Learning (TELL) Kentucky Survey were used to determine teachers’ perception of student misbehavior in schools. The results from the TELL Survey in the Managing Student Conduct construct were used to determine if implementing PBIS had an effect on the teachers’ perception of managing student conduct. A multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was used to determine if there was a main effect for implementing PBIS on the teachers’ perception of student behavior. Although there was not statistical significance, the descriptive statistics revealed a slight increase in teachers’ perception of student behavior at each level (elementary, middle, and high school). An analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to determine if the implementation of PBIS had a main effect on student achievement scores. The results were similar to the teachers’ perception. There was not statistical significance, but the descriptive statistics showed slightly higher student achievement scores for the schools implementing PBIS at each level (elementary, middle, and high school). For future studies, capturing the viewpoints of the teachers’ perceptions of student misbehavior has already been developed by using the Managing Student Conduct construct of the TELL Survey, but more in-depth understanding of the data needs to be revealed. Determining if there was a main effect was difficult because of the potential variables that could impact the teachers’ perceptions of student misbehavior. Many variables can impact student behavior. Future research to help further explore this topic should be conducted through quantitative studies. Teachers could report their viewpoints of student misbehavior and provide insight on their perceptions of PBIS. The implementation of PBIS did not have a statistically significant impact on the teachers’ perception of student behavior or on the student achievement scores but comparing descriptive statistics did reveal slightly higher scores. PBIS is designed to be a 3- to 5-year implementation process, and most schools would not be expected to reach fidelity status until this time. District should consider this research and give schools time to develop their practices supporting the work of PBIS before deciding to discontinue the framework of PBIS. Districts also should not expect schools to make drastic reductions in office discipline referrals (ODRs) or reduce the amount of suspension in schools after the first phase of implementation.

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