The increasing rate of punitive school discipline, especially for students of color, that remove students from the classroom through suspension or expulsion are a serious concern for educators, school leaders, and policy designers. Students who are removed from the classroom as a result of punitive disciplinary practices lose valuable learning time; they exhibit social deficiencies, and suffer from overall declines in academic abilities. Due to the negative outcomes of punitive school discipline practices for the students, the implementation of innovative practices to address the growing rate of discipline is considerably important. This study of the implementation of Culturally Responsive Positive Behavioral Interventions & Supports (CRPBIS) in the Bald Mountain School District provides an important lens into how principal sensemaking effects implementation. This study also provides an important lens into how an innovative practice can be introduced within a school system. Understanding how principals interpret and make sense of policy introduction and implementation is critical when thinking about how innovative practices evolve from the design stage to the implementation stage. An important finding of this study is the identification of principal sensemaking in implementation. Previous literature points out that principals are important for teacher sensemaking, but there is an existing gap in the literature that identifies how principal sensemaking of an innovative practice or program can impact the overall implementation process. This study closes that gap slightly by identifying certain factors the effect principal sensemaking and how that sensemaking, as seen in this study, can alter the overall success of implementation. Furthermore, this study highlights how program sensemaking can affect the velocity, the completeness, and the inclusion of stakeholders in the implementation of CRPBIS and that those outcomes of interest are in some manner predicated on principal sensemaking. This dissertation argues that principal sensemaking mediates implementation and that the velocity and vigor with which a program is introduced to the school is a factor of the individual principal’s interpretation of the program’s need and benefits. This study analyzes how three principals in one school district interpret and act upon district policy initiatives to introduce CRPBIS in all schools across the district. While the implementation was designed to be similar across all schools, program variation did occur. The variation in implementation is a product of how school leaders introduced, interpreted, and ultimately led implementation.
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