Preschool-Wide Evaluation Tool™ Manual, Research Edition

How well is your early childhood program implementing positive behavior intervention and supports (PBIS)? Now there's a comprehensive tool that helps programs find out how well their interventions are working—and what areas they need to work on to improve children's social-emotional skills and behavior.

Based on the widely used and highly regarded School-wide Evaluation Tool (SET), PreSET™ assesses program-wide PBIS in all types of early childhood settings. Conducted twice a year by an unbiased outside observer—such as a behavior consultant, inclusion coordinator, or school psychologist—PreSET™ takes an accurate snapshot of a program's PBIS through a review of program documents, classroom observations and interviews with the administrator, teachers, and three children from each classroom.

PreSET™ will help programs

• Take first steps toward improving kindergarten readiness. Only 40% of preschool children have the social-emotional skills they need for kindergarten. With the results of PreSET™, programs will know what they need to work on to better support these critical skills.
• Assess universal features of effective PBIS. PreSET™ assesses classroom and program-wide PBIS variables across 8 key categories, including behavioral expectations, family involvement and program support.
• Measure progress toward goals. PreSET™ generates a simple percentage of how well a program is implementing PBIS, so programs can see at a glance how they're progressing.
• Report better outcomes to OSEP. PreSET™ helps programs determine how well they're addressing social-emotional skills and behavior, so they can work on trouble spots and report improved outcomes to OSEP.
• Target quality improvement efforts. With the included Action Plan form, programs can easily develop a plan to strengthen behavior interventions.
• Determine professional development needs. What do teachers need to learn to better support children's social-emotional development? PreSET™ results highlight which areas should be targeted for future professional development. The Manual gives users thorough guidance on conducting and scoring PreSET™, a technical appendix of PreSET™ research, and a case study that walks the reader through an entire evaluation. The CD-ROM includes all the printable forms: the four PreSET™ forms (Administrator Interview Guide, Classroom Interview and Observation, Classroom Summary, and Scoring Guide), plus two forms for planning next steps (an Action Plan and Sample Feedback Form).

  With this comprehensive tool, early childhood programs will have the data they need to determine whether PBIS is working, target interventions and program improvements, and work toward better social-emotional development for all young children.