About the Data
Setting: The 14 participating schools were recruited from a pool of 68 low performing, high poverty, K-8 schools in the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) system.
The population(s) from which the participants were sampled: Study schools consisted of an average of two classrooms/grade with an average annual student mobility rate of 28%. Students represented Chicago Public School students — 55% African American, 27% Hispanic, 11% Caucasian, 4% Asian, 90% from high-poverty homes, 14% low English proficiency, and 34% meeting achievement standards. Results should generalize to schools in other large, under-resourced, multi-ethnic, urban areas.
The intervention: The Positive Action program as tested here included four major components: Classroom Curricula, School Climate Kit, Teacher/Staff Training, and Family Involvement. It was hypothesized (and confirmed) that this comprehensive SACD (Social and Character Development) program would increase the amount and quality of SACD used by schools, improve school and classroom environments, and enhance student attitudinal, social, emotional, and behavioral outcomes and that these improvements would, in turn, lead to enhanced engagement in learning and achievement.
Control condition: Control schools conducted “business as usual.”
Primary research method: The 14 schools were assigned randomly from matched pairs to receive the intervention or continue “business as usual.” 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.
Measures of key outcomes: Measures of program effects, and potential mediators of those effects, included 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 data (attendance, discipline problems and test scores).
Potential moderators include gender, student demographics and mobility group, and baseline behavioral risk levels. Extensive process measures assessing fidelity of implementation and dosage of exposure for all PA program components were obtained from multiple sources (teachers, students, administrators). Study aims focus on a rigorous examination of how/why and for whom and under what conditions of implementation the Positive Action program achieves its effects.
Below are the measures used in the Chicago Trial of Positive Action:
Inventory of Site-Specific Instruments