DOI: 10.3886/icpsr37311.v1
title: School Climate Enhancement and Bullying Prevention in Southern Illinois, 2016-2019
title: Version 1

description: The study assesses school climate and bullying across 45 schools in 20 rural districts and 5 counties of Southern Illinois. Investigators also evaluated the effectiveness of a low-cost, component-based intervention that focused on improving classroom management, playground monitoring, and school-wide disciplinary procedures. This mixed-methods study incorporated hierarchical linear modeling, with mixed-effects longitudinal models for repeated outcomes. The project design incorporated random assignment, with multiple pre- and post-intervention assessments. Major categories of variables include: students' feeling of safety in school areas; students' history of involvement in or observation of bullying; staff opinion and experience of bullying prevention methods; school policies on bullying; staff completion of training workshops; and demographics. The units of analysis are individuals and schools.
description: This study assessed school climate and bullying across 45 schools in 20 rural districts and 5 counties of Southern Illinois. Investigators also evaluated the effectiveness of a low-cost, component-based intervention that focused on improving classroom management, playground monitoring, and school-wide disciplinary procedures. Training and intervention components were selected based on meta-analytic reviews. Data was collected repeatedly over the course of three years, via staff and student surveys, classroom management questionnaires, playground observations, and bullying incident reports. The study identified effective targets for bullying prevention and their cost-effectiveness.
description: For all schools, baseline data were collected in the form of school climate surveys completed by teachers and students (Grades 4-12) in Spring 2016, and playground/lunchroom observations conducted by graduate assistants in Fall 2016. Follow-up surveys were collected in Spring 2017 and for the final post-intervention period in Spring 2018. Schools were randomly assigned to receive all of the selected interventions in either Year 1 (Wave 1) or Year 2 (Wave 2) of the project. For Wave 1 schools, investigators collected baseline and two years of post-intervention survey data. For Wave 2 schools, investigators obtained two years of baseline and one year of post-intervention survey data. Follow-up behavioral observations were conducted for all schools in Spring 2017, Fall 2017, and Spring 2018. The analyses for this project centered on hierarchical linear modeling, with mixed-effects longitudinal models for repeated outcomes. The project design incorporated random assignment, with multiple pre- and post-intervention assessments. During the course of the study, the P.I. introduced several training, surveying, and reporting components to participating schools. Deposited filesets are related to the components and overall study goals. Fileset 1: "School Climate Survey" consists of questionnaire, data, and codebook relating to surveys administered to students, teachers, and staff.; Fileset 2: "Fidelity Checklist" consists of questionnaire, data, and codebook relating to staff adaptation of a National Center for Safe and Supportive Learning Environments (NCSSLE) workshop on addressing bullying and school environment.; Fileset 3: "Playground Observation and Training Form" consists of questionnaire, data, and codebook relating to investigator observations made after schools received playground-monitoring training.; Fileset 4: "Administrator School Climate Survey" consists of questionnaire, data, and codebook relating to surveys administered to principals and superintendents.; Fileset 5: "Classroom Strategies Management Discipline Questionnaire" consists of questionnaire, data, and codebook relating to surveys administered to teachers.; Fileset 6: "Discipline Bullying Policies" consists of data and codebook compiled from all schools' policy handbooks.; Fileset 7: "School Information" consists of data and codebook relating to school demographic characteristics and use of a web-based reporting tool provided to schools by the investigators.; Fileset 8: "Exit Interview" consists of questionnaire only, relating to exit interviews asked of principals and superintendents.;
description: Presence of Common Scales: Several Likert-type scales were used.
description: Response Rates: 20 out of 24 invited school districts participated.
description: Datasets: DS0: Study-Level Files DS1: School Climate Survey DS2: Fidelity Checklist DS3: Playground Observation and Training Form DS4: Administrator School Climate Survey DS5: Classroom Strategies Management Discipline Questionnaire DS6: Discipline Bullying Policies DS7: School Information DS8: Exit Interview
description: coded on-site observation
description: self-enumerated questionnaire
description: web-based survey
description: Students (Grades 4-12), Teachers, Staff and School administrators in 45 rural schools across five counties of Southern Illinois: Jackson, Perry, Union, Alexander and Pulaski. Smallest Geographic Unit: School district
description: The sample included 20 school superintendents, 35+ principals, 650+ teachers/staff, and 5,000+ students who participated each year. The sample was taken from from 45 schools within 20 districts in Southern Illinois. All districts were classified as either Rural(Fringe/Distant/Remote; n = 12) or Town (Remote, n = 8) according to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES).