An empirical study of multidimensional fidelity of COMPASS consultation

Abstract

Consultation is essential to the daily practice of school psychologists (National Association of School Psychologist, 2010). Successful consultation requires fidelity at both the consultant (implementation) and consultee (intervention) levels. We applied a multidimensional, multilevel conception of fidelity (Dunst, Trivette, & Raab, 2013) to a consultative intervention called the Collaborative Model for Promoting Competence and Success (COMPASS) for students with autism. The study provided 3 main findings. First, multidimensional, multilevel fidelity is a stable construct and increases over time with consultation support. Second, mediation analyses revealed that implementation-level fidelity components had distant, indirect effects on student Individualized Education Program (IEP) outcomes. Third, 3 fidelity components correlated with IEP outcomes: teacher coaching responsiveness at the implementation level, and teacher quality of delivery and student responsiveness at the intervention levels. Implications and future directions are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record.