Improving Elementary Classroom Management: A School-Based Training Program for Beginning the Year

In this article I discuss data from a randomized field experiment conducted in 29 classrooms, Grades 1-6. Treatment group teachers were provided with classroom management workshops prior to the beginning of school and again in mid-October. Control group teachers received workshops at the end of the year only. The experiment was designed to evaluate the effectiveness of a research-based classroom management program and to determine if local site personnel could deliver the program. Results showed that the treatment group teachers exceeded the control group in use of key management principles taught in the workshops, had better student task engagement, and had less inappropriate behavior. This study supports similar findings in secondary classrooms.