DOI: 10.3886/icpsr37600.v1
title: Developing Knowledge About What Works to Make Schools Safe: Implementation and Evaluation of Tools for Life to Improve School Climate and Safety in Jackson Public School District, Mississippi, 2016-2018
title: Version 1

description: Tools for Life: Relationship-Building Solutions (TFL) is a program designed to improve school climate and safety through the proactive development of elementary and middle school students' interpersonal skills (relationship-building and communication) and intrapersonal skills (self-regulation and resiliency). In the 2016-2017 and 2017-2018 school years, the Jackson (Mississippi) Public School District (JPSD) implemented TFL in grades 1 through 8. RAND researchers conducted a randomized controlled trial to determine whether TFL, integrated into existing school practices, positively affected school climate and safety in the district. This project described the implementation of TFL in JPSD, calculated its costs, and evaluated the program's effectiveness. TFL was designed to improve whole-school change in relationships among staff and students, but the project researchers found that implementation of TFL in JPSD schools was generally shallow, and the program was rarely, if at all, implemented across a whole school as it was designed. TFL had little impact: After one year of implementation, there were no practically or statistically significant differences between schools that implemented TFL and those that did not in measures of students' social and emotional, school climate, behavioral, or achievement outcomes. In addition to the uneven implementation of the program, methodological limitations of the study and contextual factors in JPSD may have contributed to these finding.
description: The purpose of this study was to implement a social and emotional learning (SEL) program in a school district and evaluate its effects on school climate and safety throughout the district.
description: The study of the focal schools drew on an embedded, single-case design. With this design, the primary unit of interest was recognized as the district (JPSD). Therefore, it was sought to understand how Tools for Life (TFL) was implemented in this single district by attending to selected subunits (i.e., schools) within the district. The schools provided opportunities for extended analysis and helped to enhance insights into the single district.
description: Variables found in the data include assessment scores (Student Archival Data), opinions on school safety and performance (Student Survey Data), scale scores (Student Impact Analysis Data), and demographic information such as race and gender (Student Archival Data and Student Impact Analysis Data).
description: Response Rates: Less than one-third of eligible participants opted to participate in the data collection.
description: Presence of Common Scales: Scales that are present in the data include student level (emotional health, social and emotional learning (SEL), communication, empathy, self-control, and engagement) and school level (safety, student-teacher trust, and student-peer relationships) scores.
description: The sample on which the study is based on consist of elementary and middle schools that were part of the initial treatment group, meaning that Tools for Life (TFL) was implemented at the beginning of the 2016-2017 school year. The other schools were in the control group; they received delayed treatment and began implementing TFL in 2017-2018. To select the focal schools, the Jackson Public School District (JPSD)'s data was reviewed to determine variables that were likely to influence implementation and show some variability across schools. Two primary variables on which the schools were stratified were identified: total enrollment and in-school suspension (ISS) rates for males. Upon omitting schools with unique characteristics that would make findings less generalizable to other JPSD schools (i.e., rural and magnet schools), a selection of schools was able to be sampled from. Given the low incidence or middle schools with lower enrollment and lower ISS rates and middle schools with higher enrollment and higher ISS, schools that were sampled either had high enrollment and low ISS or low enrollment and high ISS. Eligible school names were entered into numbered lists. Then, a random number generator to generate a number from each list was used until an appropriate number of schools was selected. Backup schools were also selected in case JPSD leaders were aware of a reason why a school would be a poor choice for being in a focal group. The focal school selection was presented to JPSD leaders in May 2016 and approval was received to proceed. Subsequently, in early 2017, because of a change in data-collection arrangement and reduction in capacity, the number of focal schools was reduced; of which a random selection was implemented.
description: Datasets: DS0: Study-Level Files DS1: Student Archival Data DS2: Student Survey Data DS3: Student Impact Analysis Data
description: The quantitative data pertain to elementary and middle school students enrolled in the Jackson Public School District (JPSD). The qualitative interview transcripts pertain to JPSD teachers and staff. Smallest Geographic Unit: None
description: record abstracts; face-to-face interview; on-site questionnaireThe initial release of this study by ICPSR only contains quantitative data. The qualitative transcripts will be released in a future update.