A Descriptive Approach to Measuring a School Culture Ronnie Detrich Wing Institute Cal-ABA, 2012

Why Culture Change? Large part of educational reform efforts have emphasized changing the culture of the school. Methodology for determining what practices require change or how to change the culture has not been well described.

Goals for Today Describe a method for directly measuring cultural practices. Suggest analytical tasks based on the descriptive data.

Defining Cultural Practice Culture: defined by what members of the group do.  Both overt and verbal behavior. Cultural practice: behavior that most members of the defined culture do.  Can be measured via direct observation and surveys.  Measurement method depends on behavior of interest.

Metrics for Measuring Cultural Practice Incidence rates: frequency that specific behaviors occur within a specified period of time. Prevalence: percent of population that engages in behavior.

Example Incidence  Example: Formative assessment probes completed = 10 per 2 weeks.  Goal: 20 students x 20 teachers x 2 weeks = 800 probes. Prevalence  20% (4/20) of teachers completed at least one assessment in 2 week period.  Goal: 100% (20/20) of teachers complete probes every 2 week.

Some Assumptions If behavior occurs at high rates and has widespread prevalence it can be assumed that:  There are specific contingencies within the culture that maintain the behavior.  Changing cultural practices requires changing the contingencies.

Touchette, MacDonald, & Langer, 1985

Possible Interactions High Low High Cultural Practice Inadequate Frequency Cultural Practice Not Cultural Practice Subset of population engages in behavior Effective contingencies in place for this subset of culture Not Cultural Practice No contingencies to support behavior Incidence Prevalence

Possible Interactions Inadequate Frequency High Low High Cultural Practice Not Cultural Practice Subset of population engages in behavior effective Contingencies in place for this subset of culture Not Cultural Practice No contingencies to support behavior Incidence Prevalence

Analytical Task High Low High Barriers to higher frequencies? Lack of time? Lack of resources? Unclear expectations? What contingencies support these practices? Can they support other behavior? Differences between high/low performers? Barriers to greater prevalence/incidence? Verbal repertoires? Training? Unclear expectations? Incidence Prevalence Training? Experience? Peer group?

Measuring Verbal Behavior Some occasions prevalence more important measure than frequency.  Verbal behavior measures  Example: “attitudes” toward data-based decision making.  Task is to identify breadth and depth of “attitude”. Example: Aarons (2005) measured attitude toward EBP among mental health workers.  Verbal behavior does not always correspond to other behavior.  Important to measure all behavior not just verbal. Ferster (1967) what people do more important than what they say.

Measuring Verbal Behavior Strongly AgreeDisagree

Changing School Cultures Cannot change culture without specific change targets. Begin by specifying what culture practices are to occur. Measure existing culture to determine match with preferred cultural practices. Analyze controlling variables to initiate change process.

Altering Cultural Contingencies Not always necessary to directly alter contingencies. Indirect methods may be more effective especially when innovations are inconsistent with cultural norms (verbal behavior).

Influencing Adoption Harris (1979): practices are adopted and maintained to the extent that they have favorable, fundamental outcomes at a lower cost than alternative practices.

Diffusion of Innovation Rogers, Diffusion of Innovation, 2003 Diffusion of innovation is a social process, even more than a technical matter. The adoption rate of innovation is a function of its compatibility with the values, beliefs, and past experiences of the individuals in the social system.

Principles for Effective Diffusion: Improving the Odds (Rogers, 2003) Innovation has to solve a problem that is important for the “client.” Innovation must have relative advantage over current practice. It is necessary to gain support of the opinion leaders if adoption is to reach critical mass and become self- sustaining. Innovation must be compatible with existing values, experiences and needs of the community.

Principles of Effective Diffusion: Improving the Odds Innovation is perceived as being simple to understand and implement. Innovation can be implemented on a limited basis prior to broad scale adoption. Results of the innovation are observable to others.

Example of Successful Culture Change School-wide Positive Behavior Support  Do not engage unless 80% of faculty agree to make student behavior priority for 3 years.  Usually local champion responsible for bringing to school.  Solutions are developed by school leadership teams.  Goal is to increase local capacity.