Families and schools together
overview
Families and Schools Together is a reward system implemented by parents and facilitated by teachers through notes sent home. The children receive a reward when they score consistently higher than their average at baseline. The six children with the most inconsistent performance on math and reading class-work were randomly assigned to either the experimental or control condition. The program resulted in significantly reduced variability in reading or math scores for students compared with control students. There were no effects on accuracy of scores or self-concept.
DESCRIPTION OF PROGRAM
Target Population:
This program involves bringing each family to a clinic for a one hour appointment the week before the intervention began. The family meets the teacher working with their child, learns about the intervention, and sees the information already collected on the consistency of their children's performance on homework. The family plays a board game called Solutions to write a contingency contract, and decides on a reward for a "good news note." They also decide when the reward is given, how often, and by whom. The reward is for the academic subject in which the child was most inconsistent throughout the baseline study period. The teachers score the intervention child's work so a note could be sent home the same day the reward is earned for doing better than his or her baseline mean (average on the homework determined in the time before baseline measurements were made). The notes say something like, "Good News! John's reading work was 85% correct today." When teachers do not assign work, they send a no-work-today note, and parents are to reward the child when a good-news-note comes home, but do nothing when no note comes home.
Blechman, E. A., Kotanchik, N. L., & C.J. Taylor. (1981.) Families and Schools Together: Early Behavioral Intervention with High Risk Children. Behavior Therapy, 12, 308-319.
Evaluated Population: Students in grades two through five who demonstrated inconsistent academic performance participated in this program. The children lived in a city of 40,000. Students came from two public elementary schools (13 classrooms).
Approach: Teachers were randomly assigned to Baseline 1 (2 months), Baseline 2 (4 months), or Baseline 3 (5 months). The time when the study began was staggered because the program could not be implemented over the same time period. Within each classroom, six children with the most variability of daily written class work were randomly assigned to each condition (Four were assigned to the experimental group and two were assigned to the control group in each class). Three children from the classroom with the least variability in performance on homework were assigned to a comparison group. This resulted in 20 experimental (out of 41 randomly assigned) students and 20 control students total.
Variability in performance on homework is called scatter.
Gender, grade in school, family structure, identification by the school as a special education student or student with a disability, academic work rated by the teacher, and classroom behavior rated by the teacher were recorded. Math and reading class work was collected daily from October through May.
Results:
There was a significant effect for the program. Only children in the program (experimental condition) reduced scatter in math or reading from baseline to intervention. The effect on accuracy in math or reading was marginally significant, with the group in the program increasing accuracy slightly more than the control group. Self-ratings were also marginally significant. The group in the program rated themselves as slightly better students while the control group rated themselves slightly worse from baseline to intervention.
sources for more information
References
Blechman, E. A., Kotanchik, N. L., & C.J. Taylor. (1981.) Families and Schools Together: Early Behavioral Intervention with High Risk Children. Behavior Therapy, 12, 308-319.
Program Categorized in this guide according to the following:
Evaluated participant ages: Middle Childhood (6-11), Adolescents (12-17)
Program components: Parent or Family Component
Measured outcomes: Education and Cognitive Development
KEYWORDS: Adolescents (12-17); Middle Childhood (6-11); Home-based; Clinic-based; High-Risk; Urban; Parent or Family component.
Program information last updated 5/21/09