Educators and school districts often lack sufficient knowledge or skills to successfully implement evidence-based practices to better support students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and other developmental disabilities. The main aim of this project was to not only provide relevant training for educators but also help with capacity building among educators and drive forward system-wide changes to school district belief and implementation of evidence-based practices. An important component of this project was to better understand the facilitators and challenges each classroom and school district faced when trying to implement evidence-based practices, allowing for more adaptive and customized trainings and resources that best align with the specific classroom needs.

Participants: Students with ASD or other developmental disabilities and all educators who support and interact with them in classroom settings within partner school districts statewide were part of this project. There were changes in student roster or educators from one school year to the next. Therefore, the unit of analysis for this project was the classroom and school district, regardless of specific individuals.

Procedure: Participating classrooms/school districts had monthly visits where they received new training and resources on key strategies, live demonstrations, hands-on practice and immediate feedback to support the implementation of evidence-based practices. A battery of surveys and time sampling observations were taken monthly to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention.

Analytical Software: Participant data was collected and managed using REDCap and Zoom. Microsoft Office, SPSS, Python, and Power BI were used for the data processing, data management, and data analysis. 

Sample Analysis 1 was textual analysis on focus group interviews with educators. The focus group interviews were semi-structured conversations that covered topics such as their previous experience, their knowledge and beliefs of ASD and evidence-based practices, resources and time they could devote to implementing new strategies, and perceived support from their district.

All conversations were recorded and later transcribed/checked for accuracy. The transcriptions were coded for theme such as positive beliefs, example of implementation of evidence-based practices, perceived facilitators and obstacles to accurate implementation of evidence-based practices, and lack of resources or time.

The textual analysis revealed that school districts differed greatly in terms of their perspectives and available resources and support. Rural school districts tended to hold strong beliefs and desire to implement evidence-based practices, but thought they lacked the resources and time to learn how to do so effectively. Urban school districts tended to have sufficient resources and time, but there was a greater level of resistance to implement changes.

This analysis allowed for more customized interventions with the rural school districts coming up with creative ways to make the most with limited resources. In contrast, urban school districts likely would benefit from more success stories of the positive impact of evidence-based practices.

Sample Analysis 2 was a time sampling observation that examined if target student behaviors (e.g., increase academic activities or self-regulation strategies and decrease in disruptive problem behaviors) and target educator behaviors (e.g., employing evidence-based practices) within the classroom setting as a distal assessment of intervention effectiveness.

This analysis revealed a wide range of incidence in both student and educator behavior among rural and urban schools, as well as elementary vs. middle and high schools. There was overall improvement in student behavior and activities and increased use of evidence-based practices on the part of the educators. Importantly, a sudden spike or dip in categories from month to month were the first sign that adaptation was needed in the intervention.

Key Takeaways:

The current project demonstrated that importance of customizing the intervention to the specific school district’s need for maximal change and impact, as well as building capacity. Focus group interviews are a information rich avenue to probe possible facilitators and obstacles the district will likely face.

The training not only included passive lecture-only materials, but also demonstrations and
hands-on training were effective in increasing Autism knowledge and the implementation of evidence-based practices, regardless of in-person or virtual format.

Due to its success in the first school districts, this intervention expanded to other districts statewide leading to grand total of 21 districts.  

Through this project I gained experience creating and improving quality assurance systems, conducting qualitative research and analysis, and communicating findings and data storytelling in the education industry. 

Check out these poster presentations to learn more about this project: