A Randomized Controlled Trial of the Effect of Equity Leadership and Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS) on Student Suspensions

• In Event: Leading for Equity: Different Places, Different Faces, but the Same Inequities

Abstract

The present study investigated the effect of professional development and coaching in Equity Leadership and Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS) on student behavior outcomes measured by suspension days. A randomized controlled trial examined the differential changes in suspension days between the implementation and control groups. After propensity score matching, suspension data for a total of 2,695 matched students in a large urban school district (implementation group = 1,739; control group = 956) were longitudinally tracked across two school years (2018-19 and 2019-20). Descriptive statistics showed that the variable ‘suspension days per 100 students’ decreased for the implementation group students. Poisson regression modeling revealed that the implementation group reduced suspension days significantly more than the control group.

Authors

• Jeong Hoon Choi, University of Kansas

• Angie Caster, University of Kansas

• Jennifer Hoogerhyde, San Diego Unified School District