Impact of a social-emotional and character development program on school-level indicators of academic achievement, absenteeism, and disciplinary outcomes: A matched-pair, cluster randomized, controlled trial.
This paper reports the effects of a comprehensive elementary school-based social-emotional and character education program on school-level achievement, absenteeism, and disciplinary outcomes utilizing a matched-pair, cluster randomized, controlled design. ThePositive ActionHawai'i trial included 20 racially/ethnically diverse schools (mean enrollment = 544) and was conducted from the 2002-03 through the 2005-06 academic years. Using school-level archival data, analyses comparing change from baseline (2002) to one-year post trial (2007) revealed that intervention schools scored 9.8% better on the TerraNova (2nded.) test for reading and 8.8% on math; 20.7% better in Hawai'i Content and Performance Standards scores for reading and 51.4% better in math; and that intervention schools reported 15.2% lower absenteeism and fewer suspensions (72.6%) and retentions (72.7%). Overall, effect sizes were moderate to large (range 0.5-1.1) for all of the examined outcomes. Sensitivity analyses using permutation models and random-intercept growth curve models substantiated results. The results provide evidence that a comprehensive school-based program, specifically developed to target student behavior and character, can positively influence school-level achievement, attendance, and disciplinary outcomes concurrently.
Snyder
Frank
F
Department of Public Health, Corvallis, Oregon, USA.
Flay
Brian
B
Department of Public Health, Corvallis, Oregon, USA.
Vuchinich
Samuel
S
Human Development and Family Studies, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon, USA.
Acock
Alan
A
Human Development and Family Studies, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon, USA.
Washburn
Isaac
I
Human Development and Family Studies, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon, USA.
Beets
Michael
M
Department of Exercise Science, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina, USA.
Li
Kin-Kit
KK
Community Medicine & School of Public Health, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.