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Sustainability of Systems-Level Evidence-Based Practices in Schools: Current Knowledge and Future Directions

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Book cover Handbook of Positive Behavior Support

Part of the book series: Issues in Clinical Child Psychology ((ICCP))

Abstract

Recent research advances have focused on the use of evidence-based practices to improve academic and behavior support in schools (Hoagwood, 2004; Walker, 2004). Simultaneously, education policy has advocated for strategies that will allow implementation of these practices on a meaningful scale (Adelman & Taylor, 2003; Elias, Zins, Graczyk, & Weissburg, 2003; Mihalic & Irwin, 2003). These complementary efforts are shaping an agenda for transforming research to practice by training typical school personnel to provide efficient and effective interventions. The effectiveness of these practices is measured in part not only by immediate effects but also by sustained effects (Adelman & Taylor, 2003), and some have argued that the widespread use of practices is only significant to the extent that these practices are sustained (Coburn, 2003; McLaughlin & Mitra, 2001). Therefore, if comprehensive school reform is to occur, researchers must make efforts to ensure that implemented practices are both effective and sustainable.

Sustainability may be defined as durable, long-term implementation of a practice at a level of fidelity that continues to produce valued outcomes (Han & Weiss, 2005). In practical, school-level terms, sustainability is the creation of a social norm, the point at which a practice ceases to be a project or initiative and becomes institutionalized. Descriptions of certain practices by personnel as “what we've always done” or “the way we do business” are an indication that these practices are being sustained (Rogers, 2003), at least at the present moment. Such comments may also indicate that the process becomes easier to continue than it was to initiate.

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Authors
  1. Kent McIntosh
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  2. Robert H. Horner
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  3. George Sugai
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. Special Education, University of Kansas, 1000 Sunnyside Ave., Lawrence, KS, 66045-7534, USA

    Wayne Sailor

  2. Florida Mental Health Institute Div. Applied Research, University of South Florida, 2778 Mayberry Drive, Reno, NV, 89509, USA

    Glen Dunlap

  3. Neag School of Education, University of Connecticut, 249 Glenbrook Road, Storrs, CT, 06269-2064, USA

    George Sugai

  4. Dept. Special Education, University of Oregon, 1235 University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, 97403-1235, USA

    Rob Horner

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McIntosh, K., Horner, R.H., Sugai, G. (2009). Sustainability of Systems-Level Evidence-Based Practices in Schools: Current Knowledge and Future Directions. In: Sailor, W., Dunlap, G., Sugai, G., Horner, R. (eds) Handbook of Positive Behavior Support. Issues in Clinical Child Psychology. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-09632-2_14

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