Method
Participants
The participants were 70 students (4–7 years) in 41 pre-kindergarten, kindergarten, and
first-grade classrooms located in four school districts that serve predominantly Caucasian,
middle-income communities in south central Wisconsin. All classroom teachers were
female, and 40 were Caucasian (one teacher was African American). The original design
called for random assignment of classrooms within school districts to experimental or
control conditions; however, administrators agreed to participate only if all classrooms
within their districts were assigned to the same condition. Thus, districts were randomly
assigned to the experimental (n =25 teachers from six schools) or control (n =16 teachers from four schools) condition. Informal interviews with principals confirmed that each
participating school had building support teams that met weekly to address individual
teacher referrals. The composition, activities, and collaboration within teams, however,
varied across schools. In all schools, teams continued to function in their usual manner.
For experimental schools, the FACET approach supplemented, but did not replace, the
existing team process.