Social Skills Action Research:
Results, Part 2

Academic Performance Assessment

Teacher Perceptions of Achievement and Behavioral Performance:

The third variable examined was Academic Performance. The sample was pooled from several different schools, districts, and includes students on varying grade levels. Each social skills program used a different measurement tool to assess student progress in academics and behavior. Thus to allow comparisons, the districts were instructed to apply a three point rating scale to their collected measures of academic and behavioral performance. The three point rating scale had the following item stems:

3 = Above performance expectations
2 = At performance expectations
1 = Below performance expectations

For the 931 students who had complete sets of pre and post data, the group means of ratings rose indicating a perception that students increased in their academic performance over the course of program participation (Table 2).

Similarly, the Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test applied to All Students revealed significant change. Specifically, 32% improved to Above Expectations, 62% At Expected levels and only 6% Below Expectations (Chart 4).

Furthermore, there were significant findings for each of the subgroups. While the majority performed At Expected levels, almost one-third of the students in each of the subgroups were perceived as performing Above Expectations.

A subgroup of 3% to 8% of the students continued to perform Below Expectations. This finding is consistent with the research literature that states that between 1-7 % of a population will require individualized, intensive interventions in order to perform consistent with expectations. The reader is invited to learn more about this on SERC’s Positive Behavior Support web page.

Next Page: Results, Part 3

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