EFFECTS OF A TOKEN ECONOMY PROGRAM IN A CONTINUATION SCHOOL ON STUDENT BEHAVIOR AND ATTITUDES

The Problem. Continuation high schools have student populations which exhibit unsatisfactory attendance patterns, poor academic achievement, negative attitudes towards school, and problem or unacceptable school behavior. Behavior modification techniques in general, and token economy programs in particular, have proven effective in changing problem behavior. Therefore, the purpose of the study was to offer a possible solution to this situation by determining the measured influence of an experimental token economy program on continuation students' school-wide attitude, attendance, academic achievement, and behavior.;In order to conduct the study, four hypotheses were formulated: (1) Students participating in a token economy will develop a significantly more positive attitude towards school. (2) Students participating in a token economy will attain significantly higher school attendance. (3) Students participating in a token economy will achieve a significantly higher rate of earned high school credits. (4) Students participating in a token economy will generate a significantly lower rate of referrals for misbehavior.;Data collected for the study included School Inventory scores, attendance rates, number of credits earned, and number of behavioral referrals. To test the hypotheses, the data collected were analyzed across each of the dependent variables by means of the two-tailed Student t test. Hypotheses were tested at the .05 level of confidence.;Results. For Hypothesis 1, the data relative to school attitude revealed a significantly lower attitude score between pre- and post-token economy test periods, indicating that students involved in a token economy do achieve a significantly more positive attitude towards school.;Method. The program used in the research incorporated a "lottery" type of token economy, designed so that a student who performs certain prescribed behaviors receives a predetermined amount of tokens which possess the possibility of yielding a tangible reward. The more tokens received, the higher the probability of reward. In the study, the students' school-wide attitude, attendance, academic achievement, and behavior were measured, and the token economy was used as the independent variable.;Findings for Hypothesis 2 demonstrated a non-significant increase in attendance during the post-token economy period when compared to the pre-token economy period. These data signified that the involvement of students in a token economy program did not tend to be a significant factor with regard to increased school attendance.;Though there was an expected increase in credits earned, the findings for Hypothesis 3 were not significant and did not support the hypothesis that students involved in a token economy program would achieve a significantly higher number of earned high school credits.;The results for Hypothesis 4 indicated that although there was a projected decrease in behavioral referrals, the hypothesis that students involved in a token economy program would achieve a significantly lower rate of referrals for misbehavior did not approach significance.