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Jefferson teachers to take part in study

NEW ULM — Jefferson Elementary has been recruited into the first large-scale test of a popular classroom management program.

Oct. 23-27, volunteer teachers at Jefferson will be randomly selected to receive training in Boys Town’s Well-Managed Schools program.

“Well-Managed Schools is widely used and well-regarded, but our study is the first large-scale study to evaluate its effectiveness,” Project Director Cleve Redmond said. “We will be looking to see if use of Well-Managed Schools leads to improved student social skills, more positive student-teacher relationships, more positive student attitudes about school, fewer disciplinary problems, and improved academic performance.”

Twelve teachers in grades one through four have volunteered. Half will get the training and the other half will remain as the control.

They will provide five sets of classroom and student assessments to researchers. Members of the research team will also conduct a quarterly classroom observation, according to a power point provided to Jefferson.

The researchers also will recruit 10 randomly selected students, with parental consent, to participate in three surveys, according to the power point.

The study will be five years long, though each participating school will only be involved for two years.

Redmond hopes to involve 440 first through fifth-grade teachers from 50 different schools in the study.

Well-Managed Schools is a program to provide teachers with strategies to encourage positive behavior in the classroom, Redmond said in an email.

The model aims to reduce severe discipline problems, improve administrative interventions, encourage positive reactions to problems and help students with self-control, according to the Boys Town website.

This will not be the first time Boys Town was implemented at a school in the district. River Bend Education District uses the Boys Town model.

“They do have it within the River Bend setting which was another reason we thought the study was a really good opportunity to help us transition students back from River Bend into our setting,” Jefferson Vice Principal Julie Hull said.

Jefferson Behavior Interventionist Casey McMullen also uses it in her work and has promoted the program to the vice principal, Hull said.

Connor Cummiskey can be emailed at ccummiskey@nujournal.com.

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