Description
School culture is built upon genuine relationships among the entire school community. These relationships create the social-emotional support that students, staff, and families require in order to feel safe and connected to the learning process. The purpose of this study was to evaluate an existing lunchtime program to investigate the impact tiered behavioral and social emotional supports have on social competence and school connectedness for students with mild to moderate disabilities. This mixed-methods program evaluation examines the relationship between program components and their roles within the overall outcomes. Five program coaches, seven service providers, and sixteen classroom teachers at one school completed a survey to capture a wide variety of understandings and perspectives on the efficacy of Let’s Play! program components and perceived outcomes during the first two years of implementation. A document review was also completed to collect existing data and other measures to analyze attendance rates, suspension rates, behavior referrals, and referrals for special education assessment to determine how the program has impacted each of these indicators. Results indicate that the strategies used were effective, and that the resulting increase in social competence ultimately impacted student performance in the classroom. Findings from this evaluation demonstrate effective program implementation and support the relationship between social competence and school connectedness, which aligns to much of the current research. While results are clear and promising, more extensive data collection through further evaluations will facilitate a continuous cycle of improvement in both program design and implementation.
