Appendix B: Administrator Interviews

Protocol A: (Fall 2015; Spring 2016; Spring 2017)

These questions are from the School-wide Evaluation Tool (SET)1and Individual Students Systems 

Evaluation Tool (ISSET) 2and stay the same at each wave.

Date:

Interviewer_ID: District_ID: School_ID: STAFF_ID:

Introduction (Introduction will be repeated each wave)

Good morning/good afternoon. My name is [name] and I work with the Multi-Tiered Systems of Support 

for Behavior (MTSS-B) study team. 

We are conducting interviews with school administrators to learn their thoughts about behavior support 

practices at their school. We anticipate the interview will take about [45 minutes (BAU schools)/ 60 

minutes (program schools)]. 

Before we begin, I would like to ask you to review this consent form and let me know if you agree to be 

interviewed and if I can audio-record the interview. We record the interviews to ensure that we do not miss 

any relevant information. All the information we collect is confidential, and you, your school, or anyone 

working at or attending your school will not be identified by name. You can ask me to stop recording at any

time. (Review consent form.)

Do you have any questions before we begin?

Let’s talk about your discipline system

1) Do you collect and summarize office discipline referral information? Yes No If no, skip to #4.

2) What system do you use for collecting and summarizing office discipline referrals? (E2)

a) What data do you collect? __________________

b) Who collects and enters the data? ____________________

3) What do you do with the office discipline referral information? (E3)

a) Who looks at the data? ____________________

b) How often do you share it with other staff? ____________________

What type of problems do you expect teachers to refer to the office rather than handling in the 

classroom/ specific setting? (D2)

4) What is the procedure for handling extreme emergencies in the building (i.e. stranger with a gun)? (D4)

 

1

Sugai et al., 2005 

2 Anderson et al., 2014. 
Let’s talk about your school rules or motto

5) Do you have school rules or a motto? Yes No If no, skip to # 10.

6) How many are there? ______________

7) What are the rules/motto?

8) What are they called? 

9) Do you acknowledge students for doing well socially? Yes No If no, skip to # 12.

10) What are the social acknowledgements/ activities/ routines called (student of month, positive referral, 

letter home, stickers, high 5's)? 

Do you have a team that addresses school-wide discipline? If no, skip to # 19

11) Has the team taught/reviewed the school-wide program with staff this year? Yes No 

12) Is your school-wide team representative of your school staff? Yes No

13) Are you on the team? Yes No

14) How often does the team meet? __________

15) Do you attend team meetings consistently? Yes No

16) Who is your team leader/facilitator? ___________________

17) Does the team provide updates to faculty on activities & data summaries? Yes No

If yes, how often? ______________________ 

18) Do you have an out-of-school liaison in the state or district to support you on positive behavior support 

systems development? Yes No

If yes, who? ___________________

19) What are your top 3 school improvement goals? 

20) Does the school budget contain an allocated amount of money for building and maintaining school-wide 

behavioral support? Yes No

Let’s talk about your team for targeted and individualized supports. 

21) Do you have a team of two or more people at your school that receives requests for assistance, develops 

support plans and monitors intervention results? Yes No if no, skip to question 2 

How often does this team meet? _______________ 
How often are you able to attend those meetings? (A1) _____________ 

(0= 0-24%, 1= 25%-49% of meetings, 2= 50% or more) 

22) Is there someone identified as the coordinator of function-based support for all the students in your 

school? Yes No 

If yes, is that person on your school staff? Yes No If yes, who is it? ______________________ 

23) Is there a person(s) on, or available to, the school behavior support team who is trained to conduct 

functional behavioral assessments and lead a team in the use of functional behavioral assessment 

information to develop behavior support plans? Yes No 

24) Is the number of students receiving targeted or intensive interventions and their overall progress 

reported to faculty? Yes No 

If yes, how often? _____________ 

Before ending the administrator interview check the list of permanent products on page 4 and collect 

and/or review any that he/she has available.
Protocol B:

Administrator of Program Schools Supplement (Fall 2015)

I would now like to ask you a few questions about the readiness activities that took place last spring and 

early summer to establish the infrastructure to implement MTSS-B in your school. 

1. As part of the readiness activities last spring, your school established a School Leadership Team 

(SLT). Did you find the CSBS trainer helpful in the process of creating the SLT?

a. If Yes, then ask: How did he/she help you or the school staff to establish the team? [Probe: 

For example, did you see a webinar about the MTSS-B study in general and about the role of 

the SLT? Did you discuss the roles and functions of the team members with the CSBS 

trainer?] 

b. If No, then ask: What kind of additional support would have been helpful in establishing the 

SLT?

2. Did your school modify the office discipline referral process and forms last spring?

a. If Yes, then ask: Did the CSBS trainer provide support for modifying the process? For 

example, did the CSBS trainer: i) provide you with an example ODR form, and ii) explain 

why the forms needed to be changed?

i. If Yes, then ask: Was the support helpful? Can you give examples? Can you think of 

any additional supports that could have been helpful?

ii. If No, then ask: What kind of support would have been helpful for your school staff? 

b. If No, then ask: Could you explain briefly why the office discipline referral process was not 

changed? For example, did the CSBS trainer agree that the process was close enough to the 

process they usually recommend?

3. Your school was provided with the SWIS behavior monitoring system to document and monitor 

student behavior. How did you find the process of getting the system set up for your staff? 

4. Did the CSBS trainer support you and/or your staff getting started with SWIS? 

a. If Yes, then ask: Was the support helpful? Can you give examples? [Probe: For example, did 

he/she get you a copy of the licensing agreement? Answer questions about the system? Help 

you identify appropriate staff for SWIS training? Make sure that staff could log into the 

system?] Are there any additional supports that could have been helpful?

b. If No, then ask: What kind of support would have been helpful for your school staff?

5. How many people from your school participated in the trainings for the Schoolwide Information 

System (SWIS)? 
6. These school staff were trained by CSBS in the use of SWIS. In your opinion, how useful was the 

training? How do you know it was useful? [Probe: Was the training long enough and covering 

enough content? Was the training hands on with real examples using the software?]

7. In your opinion, do the school staff feel ready to use the SWIS system at this stage? 

a. If Yes, then ask: How do you know? Can you give examples? [Probe: For example, have 

you or your staff started to use the system? Is someone assigned to enter ODRs? How about 

someone assigned to regularly print out reports? Are you or your staff using or planning to 

use them during SLT or other meetings?] Can you think of any other supports that could 

have been helpful?

b. If No, then ask: What kind of support would have been helpful for your school staff?

8. Has your school contacted CSBS for additional support regarding SWIS? 

a. If Yes, then ask: On what topics? Why was extra support needed? Was the extra support 

helpful? Can you give examples? [Probe: For example, did the trainer provide responses in a 

timely manner? Answer questions about the system? Was the trainer knowledgeable about 

the system? (For example, did the trainer explain how to change passwords? How to locate 

additional resources? How to export and import data to the system?)] Can you think of any

other supports that could have been helpful?

b. If No, then ask: Is there a kind of support that would have been helpful to your school?”?

9. As a school implementing the MTSS-B program in this study, your school was assigned an MTSSB coach. Do you know who the assigned MTSS-B coach is for your school?

a. If Yes, then ask: What is the name of the MTSS-B coach?

b. If No, say: OK—we will make sure the coach comes to your office next time he/she is 

around.

10. What is the role of the MTSS-B coach in your school? [Probe: What do you think the coach is 

supposed to do?] 

11. How did the CSBS trainer explain the role and function of the MTSS-B coach? Was the CSBS 

trainer helpful in explaining the role and function of the MTSS-B coach? 

a. If Yes, then ask: Was the support helpful? Can you give examples? [Probe: Did you receive 

information about the role of the MTSS-B coach? Do you know how often the coach will be 

in your school? Were you given information about areas in which the coach will provide 

support to your teams?]

b. If No, then ask: What kind of support would have been helpful for your school staff?

12. Were there any other types of support that you or your school staff received from the CSBS trainer 

before the summer trainings took place? 
a. If Yes, then ask: What type of support? Was the support helpful? Can you give examples? 

[Probe: For example, technical assistance via email? Phone calls?] Can you think of any

other supports that could have been helpful?

b. If No, then ask: What kind of additional support would have been helpful for your school 

staff?

13. You, your school’s SLT and the MTSS-B coach were trained during the summer by CSBS. As part 

of this, you and your school’s SLT and coach were expected to start creating your school plan for 

implementing MTSS-B. Can you tell me about the process of creating and finalizing the plan? 

Did the CSBS trainer help you set up a process, after the summer trainings to finalize the school’s 

implementation plan and to prepare the school for the kick-off meeting?

a. If Yes, then ask: Was the support helpful? Can you give examples? [Probe: For example, 

technical assistance via email? Phone calls?] Can you think of any other supports that could 

have been helpful?

b. If No, then ask: What kind of additional support would have been helpful for your school 

staff?

14. In your opinion, are you and your staff ready to implement MTSS-B Tier I? 

a. If no, then ask: Why do you not feel ready? What challenges do you anticipate facing? What 

additional support would have been helpful for your school staff. 

These were all the questions I had. Is there anything else you would like to share with me about the support 

you have received for implementing the MTSS-B program? Thank you so much for your time.

Protocol C:

Administrator of Program School Supplement (Spring 2016)

I would like to ask you a few questions about the support activities that have taken place over the last few 

months to implement MTSS-B in your school. I would especially like to learn about the activities the CSBS 

trainer engaged in over the last two months and their usefulness for MTSS-B implementation in your 

school. I would like to ask a set of questions about the kind of activities the trainer could be engaged in. Are 

you ready? 

1. Most schools participating in the study were encouraged to change their rewards and consequences 

system regarding student behavior and discipline. Was that true for you? Did you change the system 

in your school? 

a. If Yes, then ask: Can you briefly describe how the system changed? Did the CSBS trainer 

help you to modify the system? 

i. If Yes, then ask: What kind of supports did he/she provide? Can you give examples? 

[Probe: Did the trainer discuss the benefits or reasoning behind having positive 

reinforcement systems in place and changing the focus from negative consequences 
to positive reinforcements? Did the trainer provide examples of systems other 

schools have established? Technical assistance via email or phone?] Can you think of 

any other supports that could have been helpful?

ii. If No, then ask: What kind of additional support would have been helpful for your 

school staff?

b. If No, then ask: What were the reasons for not modifying your current rewards/consequences 

system? [Probe: Did the current system already align with the MTSS-B approach? Did you 

think that changing the system was unnecessary?]

2. Has the CSBS trainer conducted webinars about the classroom components over the last two 

months?

a. If Yes, then ask: Who participated in the webinars? Do you think your staff and teachers 

found the information in the webinars useful? Do you think they are using the specific 

strategies and tools? How do you know? Can you think of any other supports that could have 

been helpful?

b. If No, then ask: Do you know why the webinars did not occur?

3. Has the CSBS provider conducted any on-site trainings in your school over the last two months?

a. If Yes, then ask: Who participated in the trainings? What was the content of the trainings? 

Do you think your staff and teachers found the trainings useful? How do you know? Do you 

think they are using the specific strategies and tools covered in the trainings? Can you think 

of any other supports that could have been helpful?

b. If No, then ask: Do you know why the trainings did not take place?

4. Has the CSBS trainer specifically addressed MTSS-B implementation in classrooms during the site 

visits over the last two months?

a. If Yes, then ask: Can you provide some examples? For example, did the trainer conduct a 

training on the Positive Behavior Game? Or did the trainer conduct classroom 

walkthroughs?

b. If No, move on to the next question.

5. Did the CSBS trainer help with analyzing student data, and did he/she use the data to help modify

the school’s implementation plan?

a. If Yes, then ask: Who did the CSBS trainer work with to help with the analysis of student 

data from SWIS? Do you think your staff and teachers found the support from the CSBS 

trainer useful? How do you know? Do you think they are applying the skills they learned in 

analyzing student data and reports from SWIS? Can you think of any other supports that 

could have been helpful?
b. If No, then ask: Do you know why the CSBS trainer has not been helping staff to analyze 

student data?

6. Did the CSBS trainer address any specific problems that the school experienced with 

implementation (for example, a specific classroom struggling with behavior; a specific area in the 

school, such as the cafeteria)? 

a. If Yes, then ask: Can you provide some examples?

b. If No, move on to the next question.

7. Was the CSBS trainer helpful in structuring and supporting faculty meetings where MTSS-B 

implementation was presented? 

a. If Yes, then ask: Can you provide some examples? (For example, did he/she help with 

student data, preparing slides, and so on?)

b. If No, move on to the next question 

8. As a school implementing the MTSS-B program in this study, your school was assigned an MTSSB coach. In your opinion, is the MTSS-B coach successfully integrating him/herself into the 

school? For example, do you believe teachers find the coach knowledgeable and a valuable source 

of support?

9. Has the MTSS-B coach supported the SLT and school staff in implementing the MTSS-B program? 

a. If Yes, then ask: Has the coach been helpful? Can you give examples of the activities the 

MTSS-B coach has engaged in? [Probe: For example, has the MTSS-B coach attended or 

participated in the SLT meetings? Provided one-on-one coaching or small group trainings to 

the school staff? Helped with analyzing student behavior data?] Can you think of any other 

supports that could have been helpful?

b. If No, then ask: What kind of support would have been helpful for your school staff?

These were all the questions I had. Is there anything else you would like to share with me about the support 

you have received for implementing the MTSS-B program? Thank you so much for your time.

Protocol D:

Administrator of Program School Supplement (Spring 2017)

I would like to ask you a few questions about the support activities that have taken place over the last few 

months to implement MTSS-B in your school. I would especially like to learn about the activities the CSBS 

trainer engaged in over the last two months and their usefulness for MTSS-B implementation in your 

school. I would like to ask a set of questions about the kind of activities the trainer could be engaged in. Are 

you ready? 

1. Has the CSBS provider conducted any trainings in your school over the last two months?
a. If Yes, then ask: Who participated in the trainings? What was the content of the trainings? 

Do you think your staff and teachers found the trainings useful? How do you know? Do you 

think they are using the specific strategies and tools covered in the trainings? Can you think 

of any other supports or training that could have been helpful?

b. If No, then ask: Do you know why the trainings did not take place?

2. Has the CSBS trainer specifically addressed MTSS-B implementation in classrooms during the 

site visits over the last two months?

a. If Yes, then ask: Can you provide some examples? For example, did the trainer conduct 

retraining or a booster session on the Positive Behavior Game? Or did the trainer conduct 

classroom walkthroughs?

b. If No, move on to the next question.

3. Did the CSBS trainer help with analyzing student data, and did he/she use the data to help modify

the school’s implementation plan?

a. If Yes, then ask: Did the trainer help both with SWIS and the SWIS [CICO] component? 

Who did the CSBS trainer work with to help with the analysis of student data from SWIS 

and/or the SWIS [CICO] component? Do you think your staff and teachers found the support 

from the CSBS trainer useful? How do you know? Do you think they are applying the skills 

they learned in analyzing student data and reports from SWIS? Can you think of any other 

supports that could have been helpful?

b. If No, then ask: Do you know why the CSBS trainer has not been helping the staff to analyze 

student data?

4. Did the CSBS trainer address specific problems that the school experienced with the 

implementation (e.g., a specific classroom struggling with behavior; a certain area in the school, 

such as the cafeteria)?

a. If Yes, then ask: Can you provide some examples?

b. If No, move on to the next question.

5. Has the CSBS trainer specifically addressed MTSS-B implementation in classrooms during the 

site visits?

a. If Yes, then ask: Can you provide some examples? For example, did the trainer conduct 

retraining or a booster session on the Positive Behavior Game? Or did the trainer conduct 

classroom walkthroughs?

b. If No, move on to the next question.

6. Was the CSBS trainer helpful during the faculty meetings where the MTSS-B implementation 

was presented? 
a. If Yes, then ask: Can you provide some examples? (For example, did the trainer help with 

student data, preparing slides, and so on?)

b. If No, move on to the next question.

7. Has the CSBS provider worked with the Targeted Team regarding implementation of [CICO]? 

a. If Yes, then ask: What kind of supports did she/he provide? Can you give examples? [Probe: 

For example, has the provider helped the team to identify students who are not responsive to 

Tier I and who would benefit from (CICO)? Helped the team to create behavior expectations 

for students? Modeled giving feedback to students?]

b. If No, then ask: What kind of additional support would have been helpful for your school 

staff?

8. As a school implementing the MTSS-B program in this study, your school was assigned an 

MTSS-B coach. In your opinion, is the MTSS-B coach successfully integrating him/herself into 

the school? For example, do you believe teachers find the coach knowledgeable and a valuable 

source of support?

9. Has the MTSS-B coach been supporting the SLT, the Targeted Team, and the school staff in 

implementing the MTSS-B program? 

a. If Yes, then ask: Has the coach been helpful? Can you give examples of the activities the 

MTSS-B coach has engaged in? [Probe: For example, has the MTSS-B coach attended or 

participated in the SLT meetings? Provided one-on-one coaching or small group trainings to 

the school staff? Helped with analyzing student behavior data? Helped the Targeted Team 

with day-to-day implementation of (CICO)?] Can you think of any other supports that could 

have been helpful?

b. If No, then ask: What kind of support would have been helpful for your school staff?

10. In your opinion, how is the MTSS-B program implementation going in your school? [Probe: Are 

all elements implemented consistently? (SLT meets regularly, SWIS and behavior data are used 

for decision making), Do most teachers use the Positive Behavior Game in their classrooms? Are 

staff being supported by the MTSS-B coach?) Is it different as compared to last year? 

11. What barriers or obstacles do you believe have hindered implementation of the MTSS-B program 

in your school? Was the CSBS trainer and/or the MTSS-B coach helpful in addressing these 

obstacles? Have there been specific features about your school that have helped in the 

implementation of the MTSS-B?

12. What are your plans regarding MTSS-B implementation next year? 

These were all the questions I had. Is there anything else you would like to tell me about the support you 

have received for implementing the MTSS-B program? Thank you so much for your time.