A Descriptive Approach to
Measuring a School Culture
Ronnie Detrich
Wing Institute
ABAI
Seattle, Washington
2012
Goals for Today
• Describe a method for directly measuring cultural
practices.
• Suggest analytical tasks based on the descriptive
data.
• Review variables that influence adoption of new
practices.
Why Culture Change?
• Educational reform efforts often emphasize changing
the culture of the school as part of change process.
 Recognizes the importance of social influence in schools.
• Methodology for determining what practices require
change or how to change the culture has not been
well described.
Defining Cultural Practice
• Cultural practice: behavior that most members of the
defined culture do.
 Both overt and verbal behavior.
 Can be measured via direct observation and indirect
methods (surveys).
 Measurement method depends on behavior of interest.
Metrics for Measuring Cultural Practice
• Incidence rates:
 frequency that specific behaviors occur within a period of
time.
• Prevalence:
 percent of population that engages in behavior.
Example
• Incidence
 Example: CBM probes completed = 10 per 2 weeks.
 Goal: 20 students x 20 teachers x 2 weeks = 800 probes.
• Prevalence
 20% (4/20) of teachers completed at least one CBM probe
in 2 week period.
 Goal: 100% (20/20) of teachers complete CBM probes
every 2 week.
Some Assumptions
• If behavior occurs at high rates and has widespread
prevalence it can be assumed that:
 There are specific contingencies within the culture that
support the behavior.
• Changing cultural practices requires changing the
contingencies.
Possible Interactions
High
Cultural Practice
Low
Cultural Practice
• Inadequate Frequency
Not Cultural Practice
Low
Prevalence
High
Incidence
• Subset of population
engages in behavior
• Effective contingencies
in place for this subset
of culture
Not Cultural Practice
• No contingencies to
support behavior
Possible Interactions
High
Cultural Practice
Low
Cultural Practice
• Inadequate Frequency
Not Cultural Practice
Low
Prevalence
High
Incidence
• Subset of population
engages in behavior
effective
• Contingencies in place
for this subset of culture
Not Cultural Practice
• No contingencies to
support behavior
Analytical Task
High
Low
Prevalence
High
Incidence
Low
What contingencies
support these
practices?
Barriers to higher
frequencies?
• Lack of time?
• What maintains these
• Lack of resources?
contingencies?
• Unclear expectations?
Differences between
high/low performers?
• Training?
• Experience?
• Peer group?
Barriers to greater
prevalence/incidence?
• Verbal repertoires?
• Training?
• Unclear expectations?
Measuring Verbal Behavior
• Some occasions prevalence more important measure
than frequency.
 Verbal behavior measures
 Example: “attitudes” toward data-based decision making.
 Task is to identify breadth and depth of “attitude.”
 Example: Aarons (2005) measured attitude toward EBP among
mental health workers.
 Verbal behavior does not always correspond to overt
behavior.
 Important to measure all behavior not just verbal.
 Ferster (1967) what people do more important than what they say.
Analyzing the Distribution
1
Strongly
Agree
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Strongly
Disagree
Changing School Cultures
1. Begin by specifying what culture practices are to
occur.
2. Measure existing culture to determine match with
preferred cultural practices.
3. Cannot change culture without specific change
targets.
4. Analyze possible controlling variables to initiate
change process.
Influencing Adoption
• Harris (1979): practices are adopted and maintained
to the extent that they have favorable, fundamental
outcomes at a lower cost than alternative practices.
• Rogers (2003): Diffusion of innovation is a social
process, even more than a technical matter.
• The adoption rate of innovation is a function of its
compatibility with the values, beliefs, and past
experiences of the individuals in the social system.
Principles for Effective Diffusion:
Improving the Odds (Rogers, 2003)
• Innovation has to solve a problem that is important
for the “client.”
• Innovation must have relative advantage over
current practice.
• It is necessary to gain support of the opinion leaders
if adoption is to reach critical mass and become selfsustaining.
Example of Successful Culture Change
• School-wide Positive Behavior Support
 Do not engage unless 80% of faculty agree to make
student behavior priority for 3 years.
 Usually local champion responsible for bringing to school.
 Solutions are developed by school leadership teams.
 Goal is to increase local capacity.