Long Term Effects of Professional Development to Support New Teachers' Use of Effective Classroom Management Techniques

The archived data are from the follow-up study of a previously completed IES-funded Goal 3 RCT (PI: Tolan) that tested the impact of combined training in the PAX Good Behavior Game, which focuses on group-based classroom behavior management that systematically emphasizes empirically-based practices in organization of the classroom, and My Teaching Partner, a coaching support model that focuses on promoting positive teacher-student interactions. The integrated program, referred to as “GBG+MTP”, focused on early-career elementary school teachers (first 3 years of teaching in grades K-3), with the goal of improving teacher engagement in and skill with managing the classroom, which in turn would lead to improvements in the classroom learning environment and student behavior and achievement. The present study leverages this unique focus on early-career teachers to extend the original study’s investigation of near-term impacts to examine longer-term effects on subsequent cohorts of students and teacher practices and perceptions and attitudes. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic shortly after the follow-up project was funded, schools closed and access to students and classrooms was prohibited, making execution of the follow-up study more challenging than anticipated. We modified our protocol to concentrate on the eligible sample of teachers and survey teachers on their current practices, attitudes, and motivation, as well as related COVID-focused questions using an online survey. We also assessed their perceived impact on student behavior and performance. A total of N = 188 teachers participated in the original trial, who were randomly assigned to either the intervention (i.e., GBG+MTP; n = 94 teachers) or control condition (n = 94) and provided baseline data. The original trial included 3 cohorts of teachers, who were all assessed simultaneously during the follow-up study. The current dataset includes baseline demographic information on all original teachers, as well as survey data provided by teachers across four follow-up waves (i.e., Year 1: Spring 2021, Year 2: Spring 2022, Year 3: Spring 2023, Year 4: Spring 2024). If a teacher consented to participate in the follow-up study survey, they were asked if they were still teaching to determine eligibility. Those who were no longer teaching were asked a smaller subset of questions about leaving the teaching profession. Those who consented and were still teaching completed the larger survey. Given significant differential attrition over time (see Budavari et al., 2025) both within and between intervention conditions, users of this dataset should consider the impacts of COVID-19 and missingness on both measurement and interpretation of results. (2024-10-21)