Helping Educational Leadership Mobilize Evidence (HELM)

Helping Educational Leadership Mobilize Evidence (HELM): An Organizational Intervention to Promote Strategic Implementation in Schools

Many universal, evidence-based prevention practices (EBPPs) have been developed to prevent SEB problems, typically in elementary schools, but progress toward widespread implementation has been slow and few efforts have been made to develop and test interventions to enhance EBPP implementation in schools. Schools leaders (e.g., principals) are key to decision making and implementation of EBPPs, and their leadership has been shown to be consistently linked to student outcomes through their intentional efforts to support teacher adoption and use of innovative programs. Helping Educational Leaders Mobilize (HELM) Evidence is a pragmatic, multifaceted, organizationally-focused implementation strategy targeting the implementation leadership and implementation climate of school buildings (through principals) to enhance the adoption and delivery of EBPPs in elementary schools. This pilot study, part of the larger HELM project to adapt and test the strategy based on an existing leadership intervention, Leadership and Organizational Change for Implementation (LOCI), will be implemented in the context of Positive Greetings at the Door (PGD), a universal school-based EBPP previously demonstrated to reduce disruptive behavior and increase academic engagement.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Behavior, Child
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: HELM; Behavioral: Implementation Attention Control (IAC)

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 333
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Washington
    • Seattle, Washington, United States, 98115-8160
      • University of Washington School Mental Health Assessment, Research, and Training (SMART) Center

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Adult; Older Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Being a K-5th elementary school
• Being a K-5th principal or assistant principal at an elementary school
• Being a K-5th grade teacher, paraeducator, or specialist (e.g., reading) at an elementary school, and not a teacher in a special education-only classroom

Exclusion Criteria:

• School building or teacher that is currently implementing PGD

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Health Services Research
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Single

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: HELM; Behavioral: HELM HELM is a 9-month, data-driven organizational and leadership implementation strategy.	Behavioral: HELM; HELM is a 9-month, data-driven organizational and leadership implementation strategy that entails eight core components: 1) Assessment and Feedback. 2) Initial Training. 3) Leadership Development Plan. 4) Individual Coaching. 5) Group Coaching. 6) Organizational Strategy Development. 7) Professional Learning Collaboratives. 8) Graduation.
Placebo Comparator: Implementation Attention Control (IAC); Behavioral: Implementation Attention Control (IAC) Schools assigned to the IAC condition received an online, self-paced, independent studies program broadly focused on leadership and management.	Behavioral: Implementation Attention Control (IAC); Schools assigned to the IAC condition received an online, self-paced, independent studies program broadly focused on leadership and management. The program did not specifically discuss implementation leadership or climate. The program included four content modules hosted on a web-based learning portal: 1) Motivating and Engaging Employees, 2) Authentic Leadership, 3) Managing Diverse Teams, and 4) Fostering an Idea Culture. Each module consisted of one content-specific 60-minute webinar.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Proximal Outcome: Strategic Implementation Leadership	The School Implementation Leadership Scale (SILS) is an 25-item scale that assesses the degree to which a school's leader is perceived to engage in eight specific behaviors that are supportive of EBP implementation which both principals and educators complete. The eight subscales include: 1) supportive; 2) perseverant; 3) communication; 4) proactive; 5) availability; 6) knowledgeable; 7) vision/mission; and 8) distributed leadership.	Baseline, 4-months, 8-months
Proximal Outcome: Strategic Implementation Climate	The School Implementation Climate Scale (SICS) is an 21-item scale for principals' and educators' shared perceptions of the policies, practices, and procedures that are expected, rewarded, and supported. The six subscales include: 1) focus on EBPs; 2) educational support for EBPs; 3) recognition for EBPs; 4) use of data to support EBPs; 5) existing supports to deliver EBPs; and 6) integration of EBPs.	Baseline, 4-months, 8-months
Proximal Outcome: Implementation Citizenship Behavior	The School Implementation Citizenship Behavior Scale (SICBS) is a 12-item rating scale that measures principals' and educators' perceptions regarding how educators engage with EBPs within their specific school context. The four subscales include: 1) helping others; 2) keeping informed; 3) taking Initiative; and 4) advocacy.	Baseline, 4-months, 8-months
Proximal Outcome: Implementation Initiative Stability	A modified version of the 8-item Commitment to Organizational Change Scale (COCS) will measure principals' and educators' perceptions of implementation initiative stability. Subscales include: Affective Commitment and Normative Commitment.	Baseline, 4-months, 8-months
Implementation Outcome: Fidelity and Sustainment - Observed	Assitant principals will be trained to conduct PGD fidelity observations and complete three PGD observations biweekly (October - December) and monthly (January - May) over the course of the school year. Minimum Score 0, Maximum Score 6. Higher Scores mean better outcome.	2-months, 2.5-months, 3-months, 3.5-months, 4-months, 4.5-months, 5-months, 6-months, 7-months, 8-months
Implementation Outcome: Fidelity and Sustainment - Self Report	A self-report fidelity rating scale will be used to capture adherence to delivering core PGD practices as planned. Educators will complete the rating scale at the mid-year and end-of-year assessments. Minimum Score 0, Maximum Score 4. Higher Scores mean better outcome.	4-months, 8-months
Implementation Outcome: Reach	Reach will be computed using the fidelity data to determine the proportion of students who are receiving PGD practices. The number of general education teachers who are implementing PGD divided by the total number of teachers who have received PGD training.	9-months
Implementation Outcome: Facilitators and Barriers to Implementation	A qualitative interview for HELM participants will explore: (1) potential changes to HELM (e.g., "What parts of HELM could be improved to increase its appropriateness to schools?"); (2) opportunity costs of participating (e.g., "Were there any activities you wanted to do but could not because of participation in HELM?"); and (3) unintended consequences.	9-months
Implementation Outcome: Implementation Cost	Costs of (1) delivering the HELM intervention to augment PGD implementation, as well as (2) implementation as usual, will be calculated using standard average weighted cost metrics. Inputs will include time, supplies, travel, overhead, and costs associated with HELM training/coaching meetings, including pre-work, scheduling, and attending meetings.	9-months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Student Educational Outcomes	Schools will complete a survey on student educational outcomes for the year, including questions related to grades (GPA) and standardized test scores. There is no reporting on a scale.	9-months
Student Behavioral Outcomes	Modified Direct Behavior Rating Scale - A modified version of the Direct Behavior Rating Scale will be given to educators to assess their classroom's on-task behavior, prosocial behavior, ability to follow directions the first time, and disruptive behavior. These questions all are part of the same scale that ask the proportion of time their students spent doing each in the first five minute of class (0-100%) and proportion of time their students spent doing each the whole day (0-100%).	4-months, 8-months

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Washington
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Aaron Lyon, PhD, University of Washington

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): August 28, 2022
• Primary Completion (Actual): June 1, 2023
• Study Completion (Actual): June 7, 2023

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: March 21, 2024
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: March 29, 2024
• First Posted (Actual): April 1, 2024

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): April 1, 2024
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: March 29, 2024
• Last Verified: March 1, 2024

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Other Study ID Numbers: STUDY00010282

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: YES
• IPD Plan Description: Data obtained during the HELM study will be provided to researchers who have demonstrated an academic interest in educational services, in-school mental health services, or in implementation sciences. Outside investigators who wish to use the data set to answer new research questions may also submit data analysis concept proposals for consideration by the PI on a case-by-case basis. The PI will review the proposal and will provide those who submit scientifically rigorous and promising proposals access to the data repository to address their research questions. This will ensure that the data resources of the proposed study will provide the greatest possible benefit to the scientific community. Data samples that may be shared will be coded based on study design, and all personal health and identifying will be removed. Prerequisite to data sharing, the PI will require applicable agreements (i.e., data transfer agreements) with the requesting entity.
• IPD Sharing Time Frame: Data requests can be submitted to the PI starting 6 months after initial publication of the primary findings. The PI will continue to accept requests for those findings for 24 months following the end-date of the awarded grant.
• IPD Sharing Access Criteria: Access to study data can be requested by any qualified researchers who are engaging in independent scientific research, with approval dictated by the PI. Acceptance of data sharing will only be done following review of a sharing agreement.
• IPD Sharing Supporting Information Type: STUDY_PROTOCOL; SAP; ICF; ANALYTIC_CODE

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No