This manuscript includes two studies. The research design for study 1 was a single-subject reversal design, while study 2 was a case study with 5 experimental conditions. These studies investigated the effects of a Tier 3 peer-matching self-management intervention on two elementary school students who had previously been less responsive to Tier 1 and Tier 2 interventions. The Tier 3 self-management intervention, which was implemented in the classroom, included daily electronic communication between teachers and the two students' parents. Results indicated that this intervention effectively reduced disruptive behaviors and increased total engagement when implemented with integrity; without integrity, results were variable.

Active school social workers are tasked with teaching social-emotional learning to students, including high need youth placed in alternative education settings. Multitiered systems of support provide a framework utilized by school systems to identify and address all student needs. However, a gap in research exists for evidenced-based social-emotional learning practices for students falling within Tier 3 of the multitiered systems of support framework, particularly those separated from the mainstream population and educated in alternative programs. This study explored how school social workers address the social-emotional learning needs of students in alternative education settings within the state of Illinois. The qualitative case-study design used a purposive sample of school social workers. Data sources included individual semistructured and focus group interviews of school social workers, and program curricula materials. Data analysis followed the constructivist perspective that multiple explanations of reality exist and, therefore, knowledge is constructed and emerges through the social practices and interpretations of people. Results indicated that school social workers in Illinois struggle to find existing evidence-based interventions to meet the social-emotional learning needs of high-school students in alternative education due to limited resources. Social work services maintain a student-driven focus and are strengthened by school-wide systemic structures for social-emotional learning that include cohesive efforts among staff and time for individual student processing of behaviors. This research has potential for social change through expanding knowledge available for school social work practitioners to meet the social-emotional learning needs of students in alternative education.

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC), whose experiments include the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS), produces over 30 million gigabytes of data annually, and implements a distributed computing architecture—a tiered hierarchy, from Tier-0 through Tier-3—in order to process and store all of this data. Out of all of the computing tiers, Tier-3 clusters allow scientists the most freedom and flexibility to perform their analyses of LHC data. Tier-3 clusters also provide local services such as login and storage services, provide a means to locally host and analyze LHC data, and allow both remote and local users to submit grid-based jobs. Using the Rocks cluster distribution software version 6.1.1, along with the Open Science Grid (OSG) roll version 3.2.35, a grid-enabled CMS Tier-3 computing cluster was deployed at Florida International University’s Modesto A. Maidique campus. Validation metric results from Ganglia, MyOSG, and CMS Dashboard verified a successful deployment.

This study evaluated the use of the Prevent-Teach-Reinforce for Secondary (PTR-SEC) model as an individualized Tier 3 intervention within the School-Wide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (SW-PBIS) in three high school classrooms. Three teaching staff (two teachers and one instructional aide) and three students with autism spectrum disorders participated in the study. The study examined the degree to which the classroom staff implemented the PTR intervention plan with fidelity and its impact on the students’ behaviors, using a multiple baseline across participants design. The results indicated that the teaching staff implemented the PTR intervention plan with high levels of fidelity, and their implementation of the intervention plan led to decreases in problem behavior and increases in replacement behavior across all three participating students with ASD. The PTR-SEC teams found the PTR-SEC intervention to be acceptable and satisfactory; all three staff expressed interest in continuing to implement the PTR intervention plan after completion of the study.

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Response to Intervention (RTI) is a multi-tiered framework that focuses on the early identification and support of students who are struggling to learn. In the problem-solving model of RTI, where a multidisciplinary team uses data to drive decision making, much remains unknown about how RTI should be implemented when struggling English language learners (ELLs) are the focus of team deliberations. The development of the multidisciplinary problem-solving team (PST) is grounded in the assumption that professionals from different disciplines such as school psychology, special education, and counseling would make less biased decisions than a single individual. However, a group of professionals may still make biased decisions based on stereotypes of ethnicity (Orosco, 2010), social class (Knotek, 2003), and inadequate knowledge of second language acquisition and bilingualism (Orosco, 2010). Not much is known about the process of team decision-making; in fact, no research to-date has examined how a PST deliberates about struggling ELLs. A qualitative case study approach was utilized to investigate how one school’s multidisciplinary problem-solving team used data in their deliberations about struggling ELLs in early primary grades. Ten members of a PST at an elementary school in an urban area of Texas participated in this study; seven ELLs were the focus of the observed team meetings. Data were generated from the discourse of the team meetings, interviews, and school documents, including students’ cumulative folders and language proficiency assessment records. Data were analyzed using discourse analysis, content analysis, and pattern-matching logic. Findings revealed that the Tier 3 problem-solving process was not aligned with the district’s expressed intent. In addition, a hierarchy of control constrained the problem-solving process and restricted the PST’s ability to freely discuss the cases of struggling ELLs. Implications for implementing RTI with ELLs and suggestions for future research are presented. / text

A single-subject-multiple-baseline-across-behaviors design was used to examine the effects of using Systematic and Engaging Early Literacy (SEEL) instruction to help Tier 3 kindergarten students learn to read CVC words. Four students designated as Tier 3 by their teachers participated in the study. They were grouped into two dyads and received SEEL instruction focusing on specific word reading targets for approximately 20 minutes four days per week over a seven-week time period. The instruction included meaningful, interactive activities and incorporated high levels of play, multiple exposures to the target, explicit instruction, and student-teacher conversational exchanges. Baseline assessment data were collected prior to the application of the intervention for each of the targets and assessment data continued to be collected after each intervention session. All students learned to read the target words and three of the students generalized their learning to other targets. A moderate to large effect size of 0.54 was obtained using Cohen's r value. The need for adequate exposure to targets and time to practice was highlighted, along with the value of revisiting targets and addressing individual student's needs when working in small groups.

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