Examining Long-Term Intervention Effects to Promote Teacher Problem-Solving and Communication Skills in the Rural Context

Conjoint behavioral consultation (CBC), a teacher-parent partnership intervention, has been shown to yield immediate improvements in problem-solving skills and communication quality with parents for kindergarten through third grade teachers in rural schools. The purpose of the present study was to determine whether CBC can yield maintained effects on teacher skills and communication over a 1-year follow-up period. We used an experimental design to examine maintenance effects of CBC (n(CBC) = 84, n(Control) = 68). Outcomes were assessed four times: baseline, 12-week posttest (immediate effects), and twice during a 1-year follow-up period (maintenance effects). Longitudinal growth modeling revealed that immediate improvements in perceived problem-solving competence and communication quality with parents for teachers in the CBC condition compared to teachers in the control condition were maintained 1-year postintervention. CBC appears to support teachers' professional practices over time. Implications for enhancing families' and schools' capacities to address student behavior concerns are discussed. Impact and Implications Our study found that through conjoint behavioral consultation (CBC), a brief intervention that enhances teacher-parent partnership, teachers' skills in problem-solving for student behaviors in the classroom and teachers' communication quality with parents were improved and maintained at a 1-year follow-up. Our study sample consisted of rural teachers, and these findings are particularly informative because rural schools face challenges that are similar (issues with resource allocations; highly diverse student population) yet different (frequent loss of high-quality teachers; minimal opportunities for teacher professional development) from their sub/urban counterparts. CBC can serve as a means to improve teacher skills and support qualified teachers in much needed areas which we hope can indirectly benefit the increasingly diverse and often overlooked student body and their families in rural regions.