USING IMPLEMENTATION PLANNING TO INCREASE TEACHERS’ ADHERENCE AND QUALITY TO BEHAVIOR SUPPORT PLANS

Evidence-based practices within a response-to-intervention framework must be implemented with adequate treatment integrity to promote student outcomes. However, research findings indicate educators struggle to implement interventions and logistical considerations may limit the utility of performance feedback, an evidence-based treatment integrity promotion strategy. This study evaluates the effect of implementation planning, a treatment integrity promotion strategy that includes detailed logistical planning and barrier identification adapted from an adult behavior change theory from heath psychology (i.e., the Health Action Process Approach). A multiple baseline across participants design was used to evaluate teachers’ adherence to a behavior support plan as well as their quality of implementation. Results indicated that after intervention training, adherence was initially low and variable, and quality of implementation was moderate to high and variable, but both adherence and quality increased and became less variable after implementation planning. The increases in implementation were more pronounced for two teachers, whose students also had subsequent improvements in their academic engagement and disruptive behavior. These findings highlight the relationship between adequate levels of treatment integrity and student outcomes as well as provide initial support for implementation planning.