Guide to Effective Programs
for Children and Youth

Families and Schools Together (FAST)

OVERVIEW

The Families and Schools Together (FAST) program was designed to improve the behavioral and academic outcomes of at-risk early elementary school aged children. FAST uses family therapy principles to encourage positive familial bonds and greater parent involvement. One study was adapted to a Native American population. Previous studies of the FAST program showed improvement in at-risk children’s attention span, conduct and anxiety. Another evaluation found that the program reduced aggressive and withdrawn behaviors, with children remaining less withdrawn at the one-year follow-up assessment. The 2009 evaluation showed significant improvements in externalizing behavior, somatic complaints, and family adaptability.

DESCRIPTION OF PROGRAM

Target population: At-risk early elementary-aged school children (grades K-2).

The Families and Schools Together (FAST) program was designed to improve academic and behavioral outcomes for at-risk children by targeting the child’s whole family for intervention.

The original FAST 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.

The program has been adapted for use with American Indian Populations.

According to the FAST website (familiesandschools.org) in 2011, training for Kids and Middle School FAST costs $4,295 per site.

EVALUATION(S) OF PROGRAM

Blechman, E. A., Kotanchik, N. L., and 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 most often deviated from their average performance in school. The children lived in a city of 40,000. Children are within 13 classrooms (one second grade, three third grade, six fourth grade, and three fifth grade rooms) within two public elementary schools.

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 all at one time. Six children with the most variability of daily written class work within a classroom (N=13 classrooms) were randomly assigned to 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.

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: Differences between the change in the treatment group and change in the control group were not reported.

Each of the three groups, treatment, control, and comparison, differed from each of the other two on reading scatter, math scatter, reading accuracy, math accuracy, and teacher choice of the child as an underachiever. The comparison group, which had the lowest score on scatter (little variability in homework performance), also had the highest reading and math accuracy, and no underachievers identified by the teacher.

The treatment group and comparison group were no longer significantly different on math and reading scatter during intervention, although the comparison group still had significantly higher math and reading accuracy.

McDonald, L., Moberg, D. P., Brown, R., Rodriguez-Espiricueta, I., Flores, N. I., Burke, M. P., & Coover, G. (2006). After-school multifamily groups: A randomized controlled trial involving low-income, urban, Latino children. Children & Schools, 28(1), 25-34.

Evaluated population: A total of 130 Latino students and their families who participated in a larger study involving students from 10 urban elementary schools were evaluated. 54 percent of the FAST students and 28 percent of the comparison students were male. Most of the students (over 70 percent) had married parents, but over 70 percent of families reported an annual income of less than $20,000. Almost half of the parents had not completed high school.

Approach: Classrooms from ten urban elementary schools were randomly assigned to a FAST treatment group or a Family Education (FAME) comparison group. Four in-home interviews were conducted with parents: preintervention, postintervention, one year postintervention, and two years postintervention. Families in the FAST condition were offered eight weekly after-school group sessions and monthly meetings for the following two years. FAME families were sent eight weekly mailings of parenting skills booklets and invited to a lecture on parenting. Both groups received regular newsletters and birthday cards throughout the length of the study to keep them engaged.

Teachers evaluated children’s socioemotional functioning and academic performance at the two year follow-up. Data were available for 130 of 180 students. HLM models were estimated.

Results: At the two-year follow-up, FAST students were rated by teachers as statistically significantly better than FAME students on ratings of social skills, academic performance, and externalizing behaviors. No impacts were found for internalizing behaviors (depression, anxiety) or academic competence.

Kratochwill, T. R., McDonald, L., Levin, J. R., Scalia, P. A., & Coover, G. (2009). Families and schools together: An experimental study of multi-family support groups for children at risk. Journal of School Psychology, 47, 245-265.

Evaluated population: The sample for this evaluation included 134 students and their families from eight elementary schools from an urban school district serving low-income communities. Students were in kindergarten through second grade and 57% of the students were female.

Approach: Students were randomly assigned to participate in the FAST program treatment group (n = 67) or a control group (n = 67). Students were measured at eight weeks and 9 to 12 months on parent and teacher-reported social, emotional, and behavioral outcomes, as well as family support. Outcomes include internalizing and externalizing behavior, withdrawn behavior, social problems, attention problems, delinquent behavior, aggressive behavior, social skills, problem behavior, academic competence, family cohesion, family adaptability, and family support.

Results: At post-test, the only outcome where the FAST group showed significant improvements when compared with the control group was adaptability (a large effect size of 1.35). Students in the control group had significant reductions in attention problems when compared with students in the FAST group. None of the other outcomes produced significant results.

At the 9 to 12 month follow-up, the FAST group showed significant improvements in externalizing behavior (a medium effect size of 0.68), somatic complaints (a medium effect size of 0.53), and family adaptability (a large effect size of 0.79) when compared with the control group. FAST students exhibited significantly more thought problems (a medium effect size of 0.45) when compared with the control group. None of the other outcomes were significant at this follow-up.

According to this evaluation, FAST costs approximately $1,200 per child (in 2000-2002). Four students in the control group were designated as needing special education services compared with one student in the FAST group. The student in the FAST group required half a year of services, while the average control group student required 1.9 years of services. Based on these figures, the total cost for the control group was $290,000, while the cost for the FAST program, including implementation, evaluation, training, and special education services, was $140,000.

SOURCES FOR MORE INFORMATION

Contact information:

Lynn McDonald, Ph.D., MSW

Wisconsin Center for Education Research

1025 West Johnson Street

Madison, WI 53706

608-263-9476 (phone)

608-253-6338 (fax)

FAST National Training and Evaluation Center

2801 International Lane, Suite 105

Madison, WI 53704

888-629-2481

Official website: www.familiesandschools.org

Link to program manual: http://www.wcer.wisc.edu/fast/media/manuals.htm

References

Blechman, E. A., Kotanchik, N. L., and C.J. Taylor. 1981. Families and Schools Together: Early Behavioral Intervention with High Risk Children. Behavior Therapy, 12, 308-319.

Kratochwill, T.R., McDonald, L., Levin, J.R., Young Bear-Tibbets, H., and Demaray, M.K. (2004). Families and Schools Together: an experimental analysis of a parent-mediated multi family group program for American Indian Children. Journal of School Psychology, 42, 359-383.

KEYWORDS: Children (3-11), Elementary, Males and Females (co-ed), Hispanic/Latino, American Indian, School-based, Clinic-based, Parent training/education, Parent/Family component, Cost Information is Available, Manual is Available, Other Education, Academic Achievement, Reading/Literacy, Mathematics, Social Skills/Life Skills, Other Physical Health, Other Mental Health, Delinquency, Other Behavioral Problems, Other Relationships, Aggression

Program information last updated on 11/1/11.