Take a Baseline Now for Evaluations Later
Before you start to teach the SECOND STEP or STEPS TO RESPECT program this school year, be sure to gather discipline referral data from the previous school year. This will give you a baseline from which to evaluate the success of the program after implementation. Baseline data can be used to evaluate success in the entire school or within an individual classroom.
If you will not begin to teach the program until next semester (or the 2009–10 school year) then you can use this semester (or school year) to collect discipline referral data to establish baselines.
To establish a baseline, you'll need the following information:
- Number of school days
- Number of discipline referrals
Divide the number of school days by the number of referrals to come up with a baseline of mean referrals per day.
For example:
- School days: 181
- Discipline referrals: 250
- Mean referrals per day: 1.38 (baseline)
If you collect discipline referrals by category, such as breaking data down by behavior, you can establish a baseline for each category.
For example: Total discipline referrals: 250
- Classroom disruptive behavior: 48 (19%)
- Bullying: 16 (6%)
- Fighting: 81 (32%)
- Vandalism: 17 (7%)
- Insubordination: 24 (10%)
- Abusive language: 25 (10%)
- Possession of tobacco: 39 (16%)
(Percentage was computed by dividing the number of referrals for behavior by total referrals.)
Once you establish baselines, you can use this data for needs assessment, process evaluation, and outcome evaluation. For more guidance on all of the above, see Using Discipline Referral Data to Evaluate the SECOND STEP and STEPS TO RESPECT Programs.
Sherry Catron Burke
Director of Program Development and Research
Committee for Children
