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This study examined the cost of implementing the Cultivating Awareness and Resilience in Education (CARE) for Teachers professional development program during a randomized controlled trial targeting a diverse sample of public elementary school teachers in New York City. Detailed budget information collected during the study was used to identify the cost of all necessary resources associated with program implementation. The largest expense category was opportunity costs associated with teacher participation, accounting for over 40% of the total cost. This was closely followed by the program-required costs related to coordination, facilitation, and supplies for the program (31.8%). Finally, ancillary costs related to facilitator travel, room rental, and food for the program implementations encompassed 11% of the total cost. Across all three program implementations, 118 teachers were trained; the average cost per teacher was US$1217 when accounting for all categories. In future cost projections for a training with 30 teachers, the price per teacher is only US$515 when considering program-required and indirect costs. The costs for implementing the CARE for Teachers program are similar to those reported for other mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs). This paper provides a detailed analysis of the full cost of providing an evidence-based MBI to teachers in a public education setting. This research can help inform communities interested in funding future CARE for Teachers program implementations, provide an example for cost reporting for other MBIs, and provide a basis for future cost-effectiveness and benefit-cost analyses.

This study examined the cost of implementing the Cultivating Awareness and Resilience in Education (CARE) for Teachers professional development program during a randomized controlled trial targeting a diverse sample of public elementary school teachers in New York City. Detailed budget information collected during the study was used to identify the cost of all necessary resources associated with program implementation. The largest expense category was opportunity costs associated with teacher participation, accounting for over 40% of the total cost. This was closely followed by the program-required costs related to coordination, facilitation, and supplies for the program (31.8%). Finally, ancillary costs related to facilitator travel, room rental, and food for the program implementations encompassed 11% of the total cost. Across all three program implementations, 118 teachers were trained; the average cost per teacher was US$1217 when accounting for all categories. In future cost projections for a training with 30 teachers, the price per teacher is only US$515 when considering program-required and indirect costs. The costs for implementing the CARE for Teachers program are similar to those reported for other mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs). This paper provides a detailed analysis of the full cost of providing an evidence-based MBI to teachers in a public education setting. This research can help inform communities interested in funding future CARE for Teachers program implementations, provide an example for cost reporting for other MBIs, and provide a basis for future cost-effectiveness and benefit-cost analyses.

Understanding teachers’ stress is of critical importance to address the challenges in today’s educational climate. Growing numbers of teachers are reporting high levels of occupational stress, and high levels of teacher turnover are having a negative impact on education quality. Cultivating Awareness and Resilience in Education (CARE for Teachers) is a mindfulness-based professional development program designed to promote teachers’ social and emotional competence and improve the quality of classroom interactions. The efficacy of the program was assessed using a cluster randomized trial design involving 36 urban elementary schools and 224 teachers. The CARE for Teachers program involved 30 hr of in-person training in addition to intersession phone coaching. At both pre- and postintervention, teachers completed self-report measures and assessments of their participating students. Teachers’ classrooms were observed and coded using the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS). Analyses showed that CARE for Teachers had statistically significant direct positive effects on adaptive emotion regulation, mindfulness, psychological distress, and time urgency. CARE for Teachers also had a statistically significant positive effect on the emotional support domain of the CLASS. The present findings indicate that CARE for Teachers is an effective professional development both for promoting teachers’ social and emotional competence and increasing the quality of their classroom interactions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved)

Understanding teachers’ stress is of critical importance to address the challenges in today’s educational climate. Growing numbers of teachers are reporting high levels of occupational stress, and high levels of teacher turnover are having a negative impact on education quality. Cultivating Awareness and Resilience in Education (CARE for Teachers) is a mindfulness-based professional development program designed to promote teachers’ social and emotional competence and improve the quality of classroom interactions. The efficacy of the program was assessed using a cluster randomized trial design involving 36 urban elementary schools and 224 teachers. The CARE for Teachers program involved 30 hr of in-person training in addition to intersession phone coaching. At both pre- and postintervention, teachers completed self-report measures and assessments of their participating students. Teachers’ classrooms were observed and coded using the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS). Analyses showed that CARE for Teachers had statistically significant direct positive effects on adaptive emotion regulation, mindfulness, psychological distress, and time urgency. CARE for Teachers also had a statistically significant positive effect on the emotional support domain of the CLASS. The present findings indicate that CARE for Teachers is an effective professional development both for promoting teachers’ social and emotional competence and increasing the quality of their classroom interactions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved)

Objective: To report experimental impacts of a universal, integrated school-based intervention in social-emotional learning and literacy development on change over 1 school year in 3rd-grade children's social-emotional, behavioral, and academic outcomes. Method: This study employed a school-randomized, experimental design and included 942 3rd-grade children (49% boys; 45.6% Hispanic/Latino, 41.1% Black/African American, 4.7% non-Hispanic White, and 8.6% other racial/ethnic groups, including Asian, Pacific Islander, Native American) in 18 New York City public elementary schools. Data on children's social-cognitive processes (e.g., hostile attribution biases), behavioral symptomatology (e.g., conduct problems), and literacy skills and academic achievement (e.g., reading achievement) were collected in the fall and spring of 1 school year. Results: There were main effects of the 4Rs Program after 1 year on only 2 of the 13 outcomes examined. These include children's self-reports of hostile attributional biases (Cohen's d = 0.20) and depression (d = 0.24). As expected based on program and developmental theory, there were impacts of the intervention for those children identified by teachers at baseline with the highest levels of aggression (d = 0.32-0.59) on 4 other outcomes: children's self-reports of aggressive fantasies, teacher reports of academic skills, reading achievement scaled scores, and children's attendance. Conclusions: This report of effects of the 4Rs intervention on individual children across domains of functioning after 1 school year represents an important first step in establishing a better understanding of what is achievable by a schoolwide intervention such as the 4Rs in its earliest stages of unfolding. The first-year impacts, combined with our knowledge of sustained and expanded effects after a second year, provide evidence that this intervention may be initiating positive developmental cascades both in the general population of students and among those at highest behavioral risk. (Contains 4 tables and 3 figures.)

This study contributes to ongoing scholarship at the nexus of translational research, education reform, and the developmental and prevention sciences. It reports 2-year experimental impacts of a universal, integrated school-based intervention in social-emotional learning and literacy development on children's social-emotional, behavioral, and academic functioning. The study employed a school-randomized, experimental design with 1,184 children in 18 elementary schools. Children in the intervention schools showed improvements across several domains: self-reports of hostile attributional bias, aggressive interpersonal negotiation strategies, and depression, and teacher reports of attention skills, and aggressive and socially competent behavior. In addition, there were effects of the intervention on children's math and reading achievement for those identified by teachers at baseline at highest behavioral risk. These findings are interpreted in light of developmental cascades theory and lend support to the value of universal, integrated interventions in the elementary school period for promoting children's social-emotional and academic skills.