Sustainability

Schools should focus on refining practices and sustaining programs, with ongoing support as needed to institutionalize best practices and build long-term capacity.

What do principals think about sustaining and improving their BTAM programs over time?

With an eye toward the future, in Chapter 13, we explore principals’ perceptions of how schools’ BTAM programs can be sustained and improved.

Because almost no program is implemented perfectly from the start, and local contexts often change over time in response to shifting circumstances and student needs, effective long-term program management requires integrating processes and activities designed to adjust the program over time to maintain or to improve performance (see discussion in Cook et al., 2019).

Whether a program has stable funding is often a driver for whether it can be sustained over time, because funding instability (and the competition of other priorities for funds) can put programs at risk.

Studies of program implementation in many areas have identified many risks to program sustainment, including resource constraints that force the closure of good programs; “drifting” away from careful program delivery so that over time a program morphs into something different than originally intended; and staff turnover or changes in leadership that remove the program’s “champion,” meaning no one is there to ensure continued quality and performance (see Lane et al., 2019, for a review).

Several factors must be in place to ensure the sustainability of BTAM programs.

Buy-in and ongoing support from the school community, belief across multiple groups—leaders, staff, parents, and students—that the program is working to improve school safety, and resilience to staff turnover are especially critical.

As we discuss in this section, our data suggest that many schools already have some of the suitable factors in place to support the continued operation of their BTAM programs into the future, but there are areas where additional support could strengthen BTAM sustainability and continuous improvement.

In this chapter, we look toward the future to discuss what principals told us about what they think could help strengthen BTAM in K–12 schools and how their programs incorporate processes and activities focused on improving program effectiveness over time.

Even when schools adopt valuable programs that help students and lead to better outcomes—not just for school safety but also for academic, school climate, and other goals—there is no guarantee that these programs will be successfully sustained over time.

Two-thirds of principals said they believe their school’s BTAM program would withstand leadership change (see Figure 13.2).

A key element of BTAM program effectiveness over the long term is incorporating processes to identify challenges and take steps to address challenges and improve performance over time.

As schools move beyond establishing BTAM programs, ongoing support will be critical for institutionalizing best practices and building capacity for program sustainability.

As a result, new adopters of BTAM may need more help to support the continued function of their BTAM team and improve the program’s effectiveness and outcomes over time, as opposed to support from the local community to get a program off the ground.

This means that while many schools may have implemented a BTAM program, it is not fully integrated and institutionalized in their school or school district.