Social Skills Action Research:
About the Students

The reported data represents 984 students in 26 programs, 17 school districts, K - 11 grades during the 2002-03 school year. More males (59%) than females (41%) participated.

Over one third of the participants received Special Education. The majority (78%) of the students participated for the first time in their Social Skills program, 22% had participated for 2 - 3 years.

Five of the 17 districts are defined by CSDE as priority or transitional districts (PT Districts) indicating that they have high incidence of student suspension or expulsion, students receive free or reduced-cost lunch, or other indicators of compromised academic performance.

Data Collection Procedure-Participating programs used a standardized Student Data Reporting Form to report quantitative data twice: retrospectively for 2001-02 school year (Pretest) and at the end of the 2002-03 school year (Posttest).

SPSS statistical program was used for all data analysis on those cases that included both pre and post program data. Incomplete student data sets most frequently occurred due to in-migration or out-migration of the students' family. Because data were related (pre/post), correlated t-tests were selected for statistical analysis of group differences. Additionally, non-parametric Wilcoxon Signed Rank tests were applied to the same data to determine the extent and direction of student change.

Dependent variables-- Each district created or selected their own social skills program (independent variable) and methods of measurement (dependent variables). It is important to note that while achievement and behavior performance are reported as perceptions, the perceptions were based on actual pre and post measurement of achievement (grades, test scores) or behavior (behavior rating scales). The convention of perceived change was adopted to allow comparison across districts.

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