# Presentation: 008359

## Fidelity of Intervention Implementation 

- David S.Cordray, PhD
- Vanderbilt University
- Prepared for:
- The IES Summer Training Institute on Cluster Randomized Control Trials
- June 17-29, 2007
- Nashville, TN

## Overview

- Definitions and Prevalence
- Conceptual foundation
- Identifying core components of intervention models
- Measuring achieved implementation fidelity
- Methods of data gathering
- Sampling strategies
- Examples
- Summary

## Definitions and Prevalence

## Distinguishing Implementation Assessment from Implementation Fidelity Assessment

- Intervention implementation can be assessed based on a:
- A purely descriptive model
- Answering the question “What transpired as the intervention was put in place (implemented).
- An a priori intervention model, with explicit expectations about implementation of program components.
- Fidelity is the extent to which the intervention, as realized, is “faithful” to the pre-stated intervention model.

## Dimensions Intervention Fidelity

- Little consensus on what is meant by the term “intervention fidelity.
- But Dane & Schneider (1998) identify 5 aspects:
- Adherence – program components are delivered as prescribed;
- Exposure – amount of program content received by participants;
- Quality of the delivery – theory-based ideal in terms of processes and content;
- Participant responsiveness – engagement of the participants; and
- Program differentiation – unique features of the intervention are distinguishable from other programs (including the counterfactual)

## Prevalence

- Across topic areas, it is not uncommon to find that fewer than 1/3rd of treatment effectiveness studies report evidence of intervention fidelity.
- Durlak – of 1200 studies, only 5% addressed fidelity;
- Gresham et al.  – of 181 studies in special education, 14% addressed fidelity;
- Dane & Schneider, 17% in the 1980s, but 31% in the 1990s.
- Cordray & Jacobs, fewer than half of the “model programs” in a national registry of effective programs provided evidence of intervention fidelity.

## Types of Fidelity Assessment

- Even within these studies, the models of fidelity and methods used to assess or assure fidelity differ greatly:
- Monitoring and retraining
- Implementation “Check” based on small samples of observations
- Few involve integration of fidelity measures into outcome analyses as a:
- Moderator
- Mediator

## Implications for Planning and Practices

- Unlike statistical and outcome measurement and other areas, there is little guidance on how fidelity assessment should be carried-out
- FA depends on the type of RCT that is being done
- Must be tailored to the intervention model
- Generally involves multiple sources of data, gathered by a diverse range of methods

## Some Simple Examples

## Challenge-based Instruction in “Treatment” and Control Courses: The VaNTH Observation System (VOS)

**Percentage of Course Time Using Challenge-based Instructional Strategies**

- Adapted from Cox & Cordray, 2007

## Student Perception of the Degree of Challenge-based Instruction: Course Means

**Control**

**Treatment**

## Fidelity Assessment Linked to Outcomes

## With More Refined Assessment, We Can Do Better ......

- Adapted from Cordray & Jacobs 2005

## Conceptual Foundations

## Intervention Fidelity in a Broader Context 

- The intervention is the “cause” of a cause-effect relationship. The “what” of “what works?” claims;
- Causal inferences need to be assessed in light of rival explanations; Campbell and his colleagues provide a framework for assessing the validity of causal inferences;
- Concepts of intervention fidelity fit well within this framework.

## Threats to Validity

**Four classes of threats to validity of causal inference****. Based on Campbell & Stanley (1966); Cook and Campbell (1979); Shadish, Cook and Campbell (2002).**
**Statistical Conclusion Validity****: Refers to the validity of the inference about the correlation (covariation) between the intervention (or the cause) and the outcome. **
**Internal Validity****. Refers to the validity of the inference about whether observed covariation between X (the presumed cause) and Y (the presumed effect) represents a causal relationship, given the particular manipulation and measurement of X and Y.**

## Threats Continued

**Construct Validity of Causes or Effects****: Refers to the validity of the inference about higher-order constructs that represent the particulars of the study.**
**External Validity****. Refers to the validity of the inferences about whether the cause-effect relationship holds up over variations in persons, settings, treatment variables, and measured variables.**

## An Integrated Framework

## Expected Relative Strength =.25

***Expected****** ******Relative Strength =.25***

## Infidelity and Relevant Threats

**Statistical Conclusion validity**
**Unreliability of Treatment Implementation:** Variations across participants in the delivery or receipt of the causal variable (e.g., treatment). Increases error and reduces the size of the effect; decreases chances of detecting covariation.
**Construct Validity – cause**
**Mono-Operation Bias:** Any given operationalization of a cause or effect will under-represent constructs and contain irrelevancies.
**Forms of Contamination:**
**Compensatory Rivalry:** Members of the control condition attempt to out-perform the participants in the intervention condition (The classic example is the “John Henry Effect”).
**Treatment Diffusion: **The essential elements of the treatment group are found in the other conditions (to varying degrees).
**External validity – generalization**
**Setting, cohort by treatment interactions**

## Implications for Design and Analysis

- Choosing the level at which randomization is undertaken to minimize contamination.
- E.g., School versus class depends on the nature and structure of the intervention;
- Empirical analysis
- Logical analysis
- Scope of the study
- Number of units (and subunits) that can be included in the study will depend on the budget, time, and how extensive the fidelity assessment need to be to properly capture the intervention.

## Identifying Core Components

## Model of Change

**Professional Development**

**Feedback**

**Differentiated Instruction**

**Achievement**

## Intervention and Control Components

**PD**= **Professional Development**
**Asmt****=Formative Assessment**
**Diff**** Inst= Differentiated Instruction**

## Translating Model of Change into Activities: the “Logic Model”

**From: W.T. Kellogg Foundation, 2004**

## Moving from Logic Model Components to Measurement

## Measuring Resources, Activities and Outputs

- Observations
- Structured
- Unstructured
- Interviews
- Structured
- Unstructured
- Surveys
- Existing scales/instruments
- Teacher Logs
- Administrative Records

## Sampling Strategies

- Census
- Sampling
- Probabilistic
- Persons (units)
- Institutions
- Time
- Non-probability
- Modal instance
- Heterogeneity
- Key events

## Some Additional Examples

## Conceptual Model for Building Blocks Program

- Professional Development (PD) and Continuous PD support
- Receipt of Knowledge by Teachers
- Quality Curriculum Delivery
- Child-level Receipt
- Child-level Engagement
- Enhanced Math Skills.

## Fidelity Assessment for the Building Blocks Program

## Conceptual Model for the Measuring Academic Progress (MAP) Program

## Fidelity Assessment Plan for the MAP Program

## Summary

## Summary Observations

- Assessing intervention fidelity is now seen as an important addition to RCTs
- Its conceptual clarity has improved in recent years
- But, there is little firm guidance on how it should be undertaken
- Different demands for efficacy, effectiveness and scale-up studies
- Assessments of fidelity require data gathering in all conditions
- They require the specification of a theory of change in the intervention group
- In turn, core components (resources, activities, processes) need to be identified and measured

## Summary Observations

- Fidelity assessment is likely to require the use of multiple indicators and data gathering methods
- Indicators will differ in the ease with which the can yield estimates of “discrepancies  from the ideal”
- Scoring rubrics can be used
- Indicators will be needed at each level of the hierarchy within cluster RCTs
- Composite indictors will be needed in HLM models with few classes/teachers/students
-  Results from analyses involving fidelity estimates do not have the same inferential standing as intent-to-treat models
- But they are essential to learn about what works for whom under what circumstances, how and why.