First Step to Success


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First Step to Success is an early intervention program designed to address the needs of kindergarten students identified as being at-risk for developing or having anti-social or aggressive behaviors. First Step to Success incorporates the use of a trained consultant who works with students, teachers, and parents for approximately 50-60 hours over a three-month period. Major components of the program include:

Kindergarten-wide screening,

The classroom-based CLASS curriculum, and

HomeBase, which involves families in the intervention process.

Screening

First Step to Success incorporates a multi-gated kindergarten-wide screening to identify children who could benefit from the program. This process includes: teacher nominations of students using a standard definition of antisocial behavior, teacher ratings of nominated students’ behavior using a standardized behavior scale, and direct classroom and playground observation of students whose score exceeds the cut-off for the rating scale. If observations of the student indicate the need for early intervention, a trained consultant works with both the teachers (using CLASS) and parents (using HomeBase) to implement the First Step to Success program.

CLASS

During the CLASS portion of the program, the consultant works with the teacher and the student. The student is taught appropriate replacement behaviors and rewarded for using these behaviors appropriately and consistently while teachers observe and learn the techniques and skills necessary to implement the program. Throughout the day, the student accrues points toward his or her behavioral goal. If the student reaches the daily goal, he or she gets to choose an activity that the whole class can do and appreciate. Each evening, parents receive feedback about their child’s daily progress. Once the classroom teacher feels comfortable (around day 6) taking full responsibility for implementing the CLASS module, the consultant begins working with the student’s parents to enable them to implement the HomeBase component of the program.

HomeBase

After day 10 of the CLASS module, the HomeBase intervention module begins and runs concurrent to the CLASS module. During the HomeBase phase, the consultant meets the student’s parents either in their home or another designated meeting space for approximately 45 minutes per week for six weeks. Parents are taught skills to enhance their child’s adjustment and success in school.

The final phase of First Step to Success is maintenance. During this phase, concrete rewards are phased out and replaced with social reinforcement such as verbal praise, recognition, and other signs of approval.

Outcomes

Program data document that even without follow-up intervention, First Step to Success has long lasting effects of up to three years beyond the end of the intervention. These effects are visible across years in school, classroom settings, teachers, and peer groups. Studies show large, statistically significant effect sizes for:

Teacher rating scales for adaptive (ES = 1.17) and maladaptive (ES = 0.93) behavior, and aggressive behavior (ES = 0.99), and

Classroom observations of academic engaged time (ES = 0.97).

In addition, teachers using First Step to Success in their classrooms express a high degree of satisfaction with the program, remarking that it is easy to learn and implement and has favorable results with their students.

First Step to Success was developed through a cooperative agreement among the University of Oregon, the Eugene School District, the Oregon Social Learning Center, and the Oregon Research Institute, and with the help of a grant from the U.S. Department of Education.

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