Fidelity of implementation in rural studies

Fidelity of implementation describes how well the delivery of an intervention follows a protocol or program model as intended by the developers or any researchers who study an intervention; yet some researchers believe that adaptations may be more important to positive outcomes than strict fidelity. Unique considerations regarding fidelity of implementation of educational interventions are critical to understand implementation in rural settings. A previous study of the CLEAR Curriculum-from which the Promoting PLACE in Rural Schools curriculum was adapted-suggested that adaptations rural teachers made that led them to earn low fidelity scores actually meant the teachers showed flexibility and creativity in making the units more relevant, and thus more beneficial, to their students. This chapter discusses how and why rural teachers made modifications to the project curriculum and describes the common themes that emerged from the author’s in-depth study of this topic. By triangulating teacher self-report data with researcher observations and follow-up interviews, this chapter provides insight on the context of teachers’ adaptations and implementation difficulties.