abstract: Teachers use different rates of positive feedback with students who are high-risk for emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) in comparison to the rates of positive feedback teachers' use with low-risk students. By addressing the differential treatment, it may alleviate some of the related negative effects students high-risk for EBD experience, such as poor educational and social outcomes. The study explored the extent of teachers' differential use of feedback toward students identified as high-risk and low-risk for EBD. The data were collected in 56 teachers' classrooms by measuring rates of feedback delivered to 1 high-risk and 1 low-risk student per classroom (112 students total). Results revealed that teachers used positive strategies infrequently with the students high- risk for EBD. Results further indicated that teachers were over reliant upon using negative feedback with high-risk students. Descriptive variables within the study, such as school-wide and teachers' self-evaluations of positive classroom strategies, schools' special education population, and suspension rates were further explored. Implications for professional practice and potential future lines of inquiry on the differential treatment of students at risk for EBD in educational settings are presented. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Special Education 2011

The purpose of the study was to further examine the potential efficacy of the Bully Prevention in Positive Behavior Support (BP-PBS) program in addressing bullying in an urban public elementary school with a large and diverse student population, implementing school-wide positive behavior support with relatively low fidelity. Specifically, the study examined the extent to which BP-PBS could decrease target students’ bullying behavior across settings and increase appropriate active response to bullying of students being bullied. Changes in the students’ perceptions and attitudes on school safety were also examined. This study involved a multiple probe design across participants targeting multiple settings for six students (three bullies and three victims) to assess the impact of the BP-PBS intervention and to examine its generalization effects to a non-targeted setting. The results indicated that the BP-PBS intervention was effective in reducing the target students’ bullying maintained by peer and adult attention and increasing active response to bullying. The intervention also increased positive perceptions and attitudes on school safety in students being bullied and the bullies. Changes in student bullying and appropriate and inappropriate responses to bullying were generalized to non-training settings and remained at intervention levels for all participants. Social validity surveys indicated high acceptability of the BP-PBS intervention by teachers.

Writing is an important life skill that all students need in order to succeed in today's society. However, proficient writing skills develop over time, requiring years of quality instruction combined with motivation, encouragement, and lots of practice. School-wide writing is an approach that provides specific writing instruction in a consistent manner across all grade levels, allowing students to develop increasingly complex writing skills and strategies over time. Implementation of programs, such as school-wide writing, requires teachers to transfer new understandings and skills from the training room to the classroom as well as efforts to sustain the program over time. This multiple case study examines the characteristics of an elementary school-wide writing program that was introduced in the field by local teachers and transferred five years later to another school in the same district. The study also examines factors affecting the transfer and sustainability of the program during the second year of implementation. Findings from the study indicate that the elements of school-wide writing transferred from School 1 to School 2 at a low road level of transfer. Factors affecting transfer included inquiry, ongoing training, support systems, authentic writing experiences, and time. Factors contributing to sustainability included ongoing support, accountability, communication, positive feelings, time, and individuality.

No description available.

The goal of this study was to explore whether Strong Kids could result in improved social and emotional competence when implemented as a school-wide universal intervention. No prior studies have examined this question. This study also evaluated whether teachers could implement Strong Kids as it was designed and whether they viewed it as socially valid. It used a non-equivalent control group design. The treatment school in the study involved 348 students and 17 teachers from a Title I school. School demographics indicated that 61% of students were Hispanic, 37% White, and 2% of other ethnicities. Approximately 82% of the students qualified for free or reduced lunch. Teachers at the treatment school taught Strong Kids for 12 weeks, permitted treatment fidelity observations, and completed a social validity questionnaire (with a subgroup also participating in a social validity focus group). The control school participants consisted of 266 students and 11 teachers. The control school was selected because it was demographically similar to the treatment school. Teachers at both treatment and control schools completed pretest and posttest ratings of each of their students' internalizing behaviors and peer-related prosocial behaviors using nationally normed scales. Analyses comparing teacher ratings of the treatment school with ratings at the control school were performed using a split-plot ANOVA. Scores for students identified as at-risk through school-wide screening were compared to students not identified as at-risk. Average scores on the social validity questionnaire were calculated, and a qualitative analysis of the focus group was performed. Results revealed that 82% of lesson components were fully implemented. Teacher ratings at the treatment school reflected a significant decrease in students' internalizing behaviors, while ratings at the control school increased. At-risk students showed significantly greater improvements on both internalizing and peer-relations subscales compared to non-at-risk students. Social validity results revealed that Strong Kids provided a common language for teachers and students to talk about feelings and an avenue for students to seek help. It also helped teachers set school-wide expectations for handling social and emotional concerns.

Social and emotional learning is an important element in educating the whole child. When social skills are taught and reinforced in a school-wide model, which incorporates positive behavior support, both students and faculty experience a better learning environment. The Book in a Bag intervention invites parent volunteers to teach social skills in the classroom. Supplementing this school-wide intervention, parents also receive a monthly newsletter informing them of the identified social skill and recommending associated children's picture books, which further reinforce the skill. The purpose of this study was to determine parent perceptions on the effectiveness of the Book in a Bag program, which was implemented in the target school. Questionnaires (N=327, 47.74% participation rate) were completed by parents who responded to questions about their perceptions of the program's influence on their children's behavior, the importance of parent involvement in the program, and the importance of the school-wide social skills program. Parents expressed an overall positive response to the school-wide social skills program. In addition to reporting and describing data, observations of the questionnaire's weaknesses and strengths are discussed. Future research possibilities and recommendations to further strengthen parent involvement in school-wide social skills programs are offered.

In the United States educators often feel underprepared to manage student behavior in the classroom, which management is crucial for students with or at risk for Emotional and Behavioral Disorders (EBD) to learn effectively. Research on School-wide Positive Behavior Support (SWPBS) programs has reflected how effective simple principles, such as increasing teacher praise and decreasing teacher reprimands, can be. The current study is a secondary analysis of data originally gathered from 65 teachers and 239 students across three states. Results of these analyses bring principles of effective SWPBS programs and educator needs together by identifying how teacher behaviors correlated with at-risk student behaviors in different ways than the behaviors of students who were not at risk. Using multiple linear regression, we illustrated how students at risk for EBD were more sensitive to teacher praise and reprimands than students who were not at risk, which adds support to SWPBS theory and invites teachers to consider that who they praise and reprimand is just as important as how.

In the United States educators often feel underprepared to manage student behavior in the classroom, which management is crucial for students with or at risk for Emotional and Behavioral Disorders (EBD) to learn effectively. Research on School-wide Positive Behavior Support (SWPBS) programs has reflected how effective simple principles, such as increasing teacher praise and decreasing teacher reprimands, can be. The current study is a secondary analysis of data originally gathered from 65 teachers and 239 students across three states. Results of these analyses bring principles of effective SWPBS programs and educator needs together by identifying how teacher behaviors correlated with at-risk student behaviors in different ways than the behaviors of students who were not at risk. Using multiple linear regression, we illustrated how students at risk for EBD were more sensitive to teacher praise and reprimands than students who were not at risk, which adds support to SWPBS theory and invites teachers to consider that who they praise and reprimand is just as important as how.

The School-wide Evaluation Tool (SET) is a commonly used measure of the implementation fidelity of school-wide positive behavior interventions and supports (SWPBIS) programs. The current study examines the content and concurrent validity of the SET to establish whether an alternative approach to weighting and scoring the SET might provide a more accurate assessment of SWPBIS implementation fidelity. Twenty published experts in the field of SWPBIS completed online surveys to obtain ratings of the relative importance of each item on the SET to sustainable SWPBIS implementation. Using the experts' mean ratings, four novel SET scoring approaches were developed: unweighted, reweighted using mean ratings, unweighted dropping lowest quartile items, and reweighted dropping lowest quartile items. SET 2.1 data from 1,018 schools were used to compare the four novel and two established SET scoring methods and examine their concurrent validity with the Team Implementation Checklist 3.1 (TIC; across a subsample of 492 schools). Correlational data indicated that the two novel SET scoring methods with dropped items were both significantly stronger predictors of TIC scores than the established SET scoring methods. Continuous SET scoring methods have greater concurrent validity with the TIC overall score and greater sensitivity than the dichotomous SET 80/80 Criterion. Based on the equivalent concurrent validity of the unweighted SET with dropped items and the reweighted SET with dropped items compared to the TIC, this study recommends that the unweighted SET with dropped items be used by schools and researchers to obtain a more cohesive and prioritized set of SWPBIS elements than the existing or other SET scoring methods developed in this study. / School Psychology

No description available.