Paper details When educational programs are implemented with fidelity in K-12 schools across the United States, student’s achievement and on-task behavior is significantly higher (O’Donnell, 2008). There are three components critical for achieving fidelity that leads to sustained implementation and improved outcomes: (a) clearly identifying core components of the intervention with built-in adaptations, (b) differentiating professional development experiences, and (c) contextualizing and embedding coaching (Ham et al., 2013). The general problem is that social-emotional leaming programs are not successful without an adequate program implementation. Larson and Samdal’s (2007) research found that when a relationship does not exist between program implementation and adequate teacher training, the chance of a successful program implementation decreases drastically. Social-emotional leaming programs are designed to give students the skills they need to become better students and perform better in society. When not properly implemented students do not get this benefit and the school system has wasted money and valuable teacher training time. This dissertation will examine a local urban school district, which was not successful in its implementation of a social-emotional program, specifically National University’s Sanford Harmony Program a social-emotional leaming program being used by a million students. The specific problem is derived from a study conducted on this school district showed that a lack of training/professional development made it difficult for teachers to use the product in their classrooms with full fidelity (Johns Hopkins, 2017). Without this training, students do not receive the full social, educational, and academic benefits intended with the program. Therefore, the school district administration is left without a successful program implementation and with no plan for its next steps.
