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theses

Schools provide the opportunity for children to learn not only academic skills, but social and emotional skills as well. Programs within schools that target childrens' emotional needs and social skills, lead to an increase in academic achievement and self-regulation skills as well as a decrease in maladaptive behaviors and mental illness risk factors (Fraser, Thompson, Day, & Macy, 2014; Wong, Li-Tsang, & Siu, 2014; Zhai, Raver, & Jones, 2015). Social emotional programs also help to increase teachers' self-efficacy, confidence, and discipline in the classroom (Rimm-Kaufman & Sawyer, 2004). Responsive Classroom (RC) is a social emotional classroom program designed to help teachers create a collaborative and safe environment within their classrooms to promote student learning and growth (Center for Responsive Schools, Inc., 2017). In order to evaluate implementation of RC in an elementary school, a survey was completed by all teachers who had implemented RC in their classrooms. Questions about implementation of RC practices and principles and teacher perceptions of program effectiveness and competence to implement the program were included. Teachers also completed open-ended questions designed to assess their knowledge of RC practices and principles and their thoughts about program barriers and facilitators. Results included both quantitative and qualitative data about the program. This implementation evaluation of RC identified implementation barriers within an elementary school as well as provided recommendations to the stakeholders. Implementation barriers included lack of training and time. "Closing Circle," was rated by teachers as the least useful practice, and teachers also felt least competent in implementing it. Teachers' ratings for RC practices and principles' usefulness, and knowledge of RC were not significantly different across overall years of teaching experience and years of using RC. Recommendations for the elementary school included continued implementation of RC, providing training to all staff and first year teachers, applying for grants for extra resources, providing mentoring opportunities for new teachers, reviewing "Closing Circle" during faculty meetings, allowing time during the school day for teachers to implement RC practices, and having the principal of the school join each classroom's "Morning Meeting" and "Closing Circle."

ETD_9596

Psy.D.

Includes bibliographical references

doi:10.7282/t3-8zgc-g464

ETD doctoral

The author owns the copyright to this work.