Study of School Climate Transformation Grants

telephone interview protocol

project aware

state education agency (sea)

Interviewee name:	Interviewer:
Job title:	Date/time:
Interviewee role(s): (mark all that apply)
ᴏ (Grantee director/team leader: student support, case management) ᴏ Staff position, other than team leader (e.g., training coordinator)
ᴏ Other ____________________________________

Information for the Interviewer:

Funding for Project AWARE at SEA is used to build and expand capacity to:

• Increase awareness of mental health issues among school-aged youth, and

• Provide training for school personnel (and other adults who interact with school-aged youth) to detect and respond to mental health issues.
  
  

Pay attention to:

• The various aspects of coordination (e.g., readiness to collaborate, actual strategies, sustainability) (RQ1)

• Influence of coordination on implementation and sustainability (RQ 1)

• The perceived value of coordination (RQ2)

• Perceptions of outcomes (RQ 2)

• Challenges and lessons learned (RQ 3)

• Funding (e.g., whether or not this is coordinated, role of funding agencies) (RQ 3)

• Other elements (e.g., impact of competitive preference points) (RQ 3)

By the end of this interview, you should have details and examples for each of these areas.

Introduction

Thank you for taking the time to speak with me today. Just as a reminder, this interview is for a study of School Climate Transformation Grants. Both the study and the grants are funded by the U.S. Department of Education. The Department is interested in the coordination between SCTG, Project AWARE, and DOJ grantees. Specifically, what the coordination looks like, your perceptions of the value of coordination, and any challenges or lessons learned.

Have you received the consent form for this study? Remember that that the confidentiality of the information you share will protected to the extent provided by law. We will not use your name in any report, and although grantees will be acknowledged, they will not be named in the text of the report. Do you have any questions about the purpose of this interview, your privacy, or anything else?

We would like to ask you permission to audio record this interview to ensure we are accurately capturing your feedback. Only the research team and our funders will review the audio files and the transcripts. They will not be shared with any other personnel. At the end of this project, all interviews—audio files and transcripts—will be destroyed. Do we have your permission to record this interview?

We know that you are very busy, and we want to be respectful about your time, so we’ve made an effort to collect as much information as possible through available documents. We’ll sometimes reference that information during the course of the interview to confirm that our information is correct. This interview will take about 45–60 minutes.

Do you have any questions before we begin?

Warm-Up

Question	Listen For
1. We understand your job title to be [repeat listed job title]. Please briefly describe the scope of your duties.	Scope of duties related to this job title
2. We've had a chance to review the narrative of the grant you work on and we understand that the funding for Project AWARE at the state level is used to [repeat bulleted list on first page]. Describe the primary purpose of the grant. 3. What is your role with regard to implementation of the Project AWARE grant in your state education agency? 4. How is the School Climate Transformation Grant similar to or different from what you do for Project AWARE? Can you give examples? 5. Did these similarities or differences affect collaboration? [If yes] How so? [If not] Why not?	Perspective of grant purpose

Coordination—mechanisms

Question

Listen For

6. Who are the partners within your grant who coordinate with multi-tiered systems of support? Who are the people on that grant with whom you work? 7. Are you familiar with the grant application that was submitted for this project? [If yes] Were coordination activities implemented differently from how they were originally conceptualized in the grant application? [If yes] Please describe these differences. [If not, skip to the next question.] 8. How is the work on Youth Mental Health First Aid being coordinated with multi-tiered systems of support? [Wait for response; if necessary, probe for shared communication, representation on common teams, shared training, or community of practice participation.] 9. Who are the people involved in implementing the coordination strategies? 10. Is there coordination in support to districts? [If yes] What does this look like? 11. How is funding from multiple grants coordinated, if at all? 12. Did you have any interactions with federal agencies regarding implementation of your program? If so, what did that look like? [Probe on who initiated, and the topics discussed, including coordination.] 13. What plans are there to continue coordination after the grants end?

Awareness and understanding of coordination activities (e.g., aligning action with policy, supporting LEAs in implementing evidence-based approaches), who directed these, role of funding agencies, and sustainability

Coordination—perceived value

Question

Listen For

14. If you are coordinating your work with the Youth Mental Health First Aid activities, what have you accomplished because of this coordination that would not have been accomplished without the coordination? Has coordination influenced whether you reach the goals for your grant? 15. Did coordination help to prompt any long-term changes in the practices/structure of your organization or agency? [If yes] Can you provide any examples? 16. Did coordination influence the implementation of interventions that were planned under the grants? [If yes] How so? 17. Did coordination affect school outcomes (e.g., school climate, discipline practices, relationships among students or staff)? [If yes] How? 18. How (if at all) has coordination affected plans for sustainability? 19. Aside from the advantages that we have already discussed, were there other advantages to coordination? 20. In what ways does your state support your districts’ work in Project AWARE–related activities? Does your state support coordination?

Examples of systemic changes to respondent's institution as a result of coordinated grant activities

Challenges and Successes

Question
21. What challenges have you faced in doing the work of this grant? How have you overcome these challenges? With what challenges are you still struggling? 22. What enhanced collaboration? What inhibited collaboration? Can you give some examples? 23. Are there any "lessons learned" related to coordination? [If yes] Please describe.

Wrap-Up

24. Did competitive preference points have an effect on your grant applications? [If yes] In what way(s)?

25. What is unique about the specific context of your program that helps to explain your responses?

26. Is there anything else you would like to tell us about Project AWARE and SCTG coordination?

Task Order 23: Study of School Climate Transformation Grants—6