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Guide
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SCHOOLS AND HOMES IN PARTNERSHIP (SHIP)
OVERVIEW
Schools and Homes in Partnership “Skills for Adolescence” (SHIP) is a home- and classroom-based, conduct problems prevention program that targets children in the first through fourth grades with reading and behavioral problems – two prominent risk factors associated with later conduct problems. SHIP employs three major strategies to prevent conduct problems: a) social behavior interventions; b) parent training; and c) supplemental reading instruction. Short- and long-term impacts indicate that the program decreases negative social interactions, improves reading skills, and reduces aggressive, coercive or antisocial behavior.
Target population: Children in grades 1 to 4
SHIP is a conduct-problem prevention program that targets children at risk for academic failure and/or antisocial behavior. The program is comprised of several evidence-based interventions that may be classified into one of three major intervention strategies: a) social behavior interventions; b) parent training; and c) supplemental reading instruction.
A. Social Behavior Interventions: Contingencies for Learning Academic and Social Skills (CLASS; Hops & Walker, 1988) and Dina Dinosaur Social Skills Program (Dinosaur School; Webster-Stratton, 1992) were provided. CLASS met for 30 sessions, which were divided into three phases: a) sessions 1-5 were led by a consultant and focused on rewarding appropriate classroom behaviors; b) sessions 6-20 were teacher-led and also focused on reinforcing grade-appropriate behavior; and c) sessions 21-30 were facilitated by teachers and parents who offered intermittent praise and recognition for appropriate behaviors. Dinosaur School uses puppets and shows videotapes modeling appropriate classroom and social behavior to children. This 20-session program met after school for 2-4 hours each week. Each group consisted of 4 to10 children and had at least two adult leaders. Most leaders have their Masters degree or higher in some sort of practice-based discipline (e.g., counseling, social work).
B. Parent Training: The Incredible Years program (Webster-Stratton, 1992) served as the program component focused on teaching parenting skills. The program consists of 10 videotaped programs containing vignettes illustrating good parenting skills (e.g., the appropriate way to play with your child, use praise, set limits, deliver time-outs, and provide logical consequences). In total, the programs contained about 250 vignettes that were each about 1- to 2-minutes in duration. This 12- to 16-session program met for approximately 2.25 hours per week and was delivered to groups of 5 to 14 parents. Depending on the size of the group, two or sometimes three facilitators led these sessions.
C. Supplemental Reading Instruction: Two supplemental reading programs (Gunn, Biglan, Smolkowski, & Ary., 2000) were offered: a) Reading Mastery and b) Corrective Reading to students participating in the SHIP program. Reading Master was offered to beginner readers in the first- and second grades. Corrective Reading was offered to third- and fourth-grade students who were still nonreaders or performing below-grade level. Both programs teach phonemic awareness, sound-letter correspondence, blending, and other skills related to successful reading development, however Corrective Reading teaches these skills at a faster rate and used content that is more tailored to 8 and 9 year olds.
The program is delivered over the course of two academic years.
Study 1.:Barrera, M., Biglan, A., Taylor, T., Barbara K. Gunn, B., Smolkowski, K., Black, C., Ary, D., & Fowler, R. (2002). Early Elementary School Intervention to Reduce Conduct Problems: A Randomized Trial with Hispanic and Non-Hispanic Children. Prevention Science, 3(2), 83-94.
Evaluated Population: The study included 284 families with children in grades 1-4 who met screening criteria for high levels of aggressive behavior or poor reading ability, in three Oregon communities. The sample was 60% Hispanic, 40% European American, and was 45% female.
Approach: Families from 15 schools located in three Oregon communities which were selected for their large Hispanic populations were invited to participate in SHIP. A two-stage screening procedure was use to select children with high levels of aggression or reading difficulty. Of the 364 families that met the criteria, 306 (84%) agreed to participate.
The study utilized a pretest-posttest experimental design, with multiple follow-ups. Prior to randomization, 21 families declined participation and 5 families relocated, leaving a total of 284 families. These families were randomized to either the treatment (n=141) or control condition (n=143). After randomization, one more family dropped out of the study.
Data were collected at four time points: a) prior to the beginning of the program, b) after the end of the first year, c) after the end of the second year, and d) one year following program completion. Measures included teacher ratings of aggression, parent ratings of anti-social behaviors, and teacher and parent ratings of internalizing and externalizing behavior. Reading skills were assessed using tests of early literacy skills, oral reading fluency, and reading speed. Finally, social behavior towards peers was assessed by trained research staff who observed children during three, 10-15 minute recess periods, for 5-15 minute segments each period.
Evaluated Population: The study included 329 families with children in grades 1-4 who met screening criteria for high levels of aggressive behavior or poor reading ability, in four Oregon communities. A fourth community was added in order to include greater number of students with aggressive behavior in the sample. The sample was 52% Hispanic, 48% European American, and 46.5% female.
Approach: As described above, families from 14 schools in four Oregon communities were invited to participate in SHIP. For this study, families from a fourth community were added to the sample, in order to increase the proportion of children with aggressive behavior. A two-stage screening procedure was use to select children with high levels of aggression and reading difficulty. In all, 329 families participated in this study.
The study utilized a pretest-posttest experimental design, with follow-ups one and two years after program completion. Data collection procedures and measures are the same as Study 1, with the exception that a 2-year follow-up assessment was added. This analysis corrected for clustering resulting from the repeated measures design.
Study 3: Gunn, B., Smolkowski, K., Biglan, A., Black, C., & Blair, J. (2005). Fostering the development of reading skill through supplemental instruction: Results for Hispanic and non-Hispanic students. Journal of Special Education, 39, 66-85.
Evaluated population: Just over 4,000 (N=4,004) students in 13 schools across four Oregon communities were screened for participation, based on demonstration of potential reading deficits and/or aggressive social behavior. After screening, recruitment, and drop-out, 299 met the criteria and participated in the randomized study in either the treatment (N=148) or control (N=151) group. Of those in the study, just over 53 percent were Hispanic, and nearly 47 percent were non-Hispanic. Just over 46 percent were female. At the baseline, the population was distributed across grades as follows: 17 percent were in kindergarten; 29 percent were in first grade; 30 percent were in second grade; and just under 24 percent were in third grade.
Approach: Prior to random assignment, students were administered the word attack (i.e., converting letters into language or decoding skills) and word identification subsets of the Woodcock-Johnson Test of Achievement and a measure of oral reading fluency. The students’ teachers completed an assessment of their social skills. Students were grouped by community and grade, rank-ordered on their reading ability, and then randomly assigned to either the treatment or control beginning with the poorest pair of readers. Remaining single students were matched across groups and then randomly assigned.
Throughout the study, student behaviors and outcomes were monitored along the following lines: teacher documentation of the frequency of specific aggressive behaviors; researcher measures of early literacy skills (which varied based on grade); annual testing administered by intervention-blind assessors. The annual test used the Woodcock-Johnson Revised test of Achievement to measure: letter-word identification; word attack; passage comprehension; and reading vocabulary.
In addition, all parents were offered parent training and some of the children received a behavioral intervention component. However, these programmatic elements were not randomly assigned.
Results: Results indicate a statistically significant improvement in slope from the baseline measure to the end of the first year of the intervention for the treatment group in three measures: word attack, reading comprehension, and letter-word identification, compared with the control group. The improvement in letter-word identification was limited to students in the treatment indentified as poor readers only. Hispanic students in the treatment also had slopes that grew at a significantly greater rate on word attack as compared with non-Hispanics in the treatment. There were no noted significant differences in oral reading fluency or vocabulary between the treatment and control groups at the end of the first year of treatment.
At two-years after the end of the full treatment, however, there was a positive, statistically significant difference in the slope of the treatment group as compared with the control group for oral reading fluency and word-letter identification, with the word-letter identification difference appearing only for poor readers. There were also positive, statistically significant mean differences for the treatment group on word attack, oral reading fluency, reading comprehension, and vocabulary, as compared with the control group.
The final assessment occurred two years after the end of treatment, that is, four years after random assignment. At this assessment, students in the treatment group showed a statistically significant, positive mean difference in letter-word identification, oral reading fluency, and reading comprehension, as compared with the control group. The treatment group also showed a positive, statistically significant difference in slope for oral reading fluency and word attack as compared with the control. The difference between the treatment and control groups on vocabulary at the end of the two year post-treatment assessment fell just short of being statistically significant. The researchers did not analyze any impacts on aggressive behavior in this study.
Link to program curricula:
CLASS: n/a
Dina Dinosaur: http://www.incredibleyears.com/Program/teacher.asp
Incredible Years: http://www.incredibleyears.com/program/parent.asp
Reading Mastery: n/a
Corrective Reading: n/a
Study 1: Barrera, M., Biglan, A., Taylor, T., Barbara K. Gunn, B., Smolkowski, K., Black, C., Ary, D., & Fowler, R. (2002). Early Elementary School Intervention to Reduce Conduct Problems: A Randomized Trial with Hispanic and Non-Hispanic Children. Prevention Science, 3(2), 83-94.
Study 3: Gunn, B., Smolkowski, K., Biglan, A., Black, C., & Blair, J. (2005). Fostering the development of reading skill through supplemental instruction: Results for Hispanic and non-Hispanic students. Journal of Special Education, 39, 66-85.
KEYWORDS: Children (3-11), School-based, Elementary School, Aggression, Reading, Hispanic or Latino, White or Caucasian, Parent or Family Component, Skills Training, Conduct or Disruptive Disiorders.
Program information last updated on 07/15/11.
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© Child Trends 2003 |