Daily Report Card (DRC) Procedures
The DRC procedure is used to identify, monitor and change specific child behaviors,
provide daily communication between home and school, and provide a positive
context that motivates children to improve their behavior. Using this procedure,
target behaviors are identified and agreed upon by the parents, teacher, and
child (e.g., math productivity). On a daily basis, the teacher provides feedback
to the child regarding his behavior (percent complete with praise for achieving
goal) and the child delivers the DRC to the parents. Parents provide a home-based
privilege and consequence system that is based upon the child’s performance
on his/her target behaviors. Kelley’s (1990) book is devoted to describing
the empirical literature supporting the DRC procedure, as well as describing
how to develop and implement the procedure. In her review of the literature,
she describes several studies that demonstrate a reduction in disruptive behavior
or an improvement in academic behavior as a function of use of the DRC.
In addition, research has demonstrated that when academic productivity or accuracy
is targeted on the DRC, reductions in disruptive classroom behavior are also
observed, likely because the positive academic behavior (e.g., completing class
work) is incompatible with the disruptive behavior (e.g., being out of seat,
talking to peers). However, the converse does not seem to apply. That is, targeting
disruptive classroom behavior does not necessarily result in increased academic
productivity. Furthermore, some studies have shown that type and method of rewards
and consequences affect the effectiveness of the DRC procedure. For example,
simply providing verbal praise to the child is less effective in changing behavior
than the use of praise and a privilege. Similarly, the use of a “good
behavior” note sent to the home on a daily basis (i.e., a DRC)
is more effective in reducing disruptive behavior is the use of a school-based
reinforcer only.
DRC procedures are now available on-line (http://ccf.buffalo.edu/resources_downloads.php;
click on How to Establish a Daily Report Card (School-Home Note)). Included
in the downloadable packet are instructions for establishing the report card,
sample letters to engage teachers, sample report card target behaviors, sample
daily report cards, sample home and school rewards, tracking sheets, and troubleshooting
guidelines.
