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School collaboration research: successes and difficulties.

Article Excerpt
Abstract

For school reform research to have credibility, issues of social validity, treatment integrity, change and collaboration must be considered. When collaboration itself, as in the case of inclusive education for students with disabilities, is the focus of the school-based research, additional issues come into play. The difficulties inherent to conducting research on collaboration, and the subsequent cyclical concerns of needing to have proven research in order to be able to conduct research in schools, will be discussed. In addition, themes related to the effectiveness of research on collaborative efforts will be provided.

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While some research on educational topics may occur in analog settings, such as a laboratory, research on areas in school reform need to be conducted in actual school settings. Administrators and teachers are often skeptical of ivory tower theories and wide-sweeping programs they are told will change the way students learn. For these assertions to have any credibility, school personnel need to be provided with clear evidence that, indeed, the reform has been utilized with "real children" in "real schools," which have resulted in "real" (and positive) outcomes for students. Clearly, this desire for research-based proof of impact is laudable; there are simply too many new initiatives offered daily that have no basis in outcomes-education and merely usurp the time of already overtaxed teachers. That said, however, there are numerous issues related to conducting reliable and valid research in "real schools."

Issues in School Research

A few of the major issues that need to be considered when conducting research in school settings are those of social validity, treatment integrity, change, and collaboration.

Social Validity

Researchers continue to emphasize the importance of doing research that has social value and is not merely done for the sake of doing research (Gresham & Lopez, 1996). School reform is certainly an area that has face value social validity. On the other hand, just because a university faculty member has a research interest which has its basis in school reform, district decision-makers are not required to approve its use in the classroom with children who may be "guinea pigs" for that study. It is the job of school administrators to determine what research can legitimately be done in schools, without negatively impacting the learning of current students.

Treatment Integrity

Treatment integrity is another considerable issue. Treatment integrity relates to whether or not an intervention is implemented as intended (Wickstrom, Jones, LaFleur, & Witt, 1998). For school research to be noteworthy, it must be both valid and reliable. Reliability relates to consistency and treatment integrity is a means by which consistency can be determined. The more latitude teachers have to change the way in which they implement the...

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