No abstract

Research has focused on increasing the treatment integrity of school-based interventions by utilizing performance feedback. The purpose of this study was to extend this literature by increasing special education teachers' treatment integrity for implementing antecedent and consequence procedures in an ongoing behavior support plan. A multiple baseline across teacher-student dyads (for two classrooms) design was used to evaluate the effects of performance feedback on the percentage of antecedent and consequence components implemented correctly during 1-hr observation sessions. Performance feedback was provided every other week for 8 to 22 weeks after a stable or decreasing trend in the percentage of antecedent or consequence components implemented correctly. Results suggested that performance feedback increased the treatment integrity of antecedent components for 4 of 5 teachers and consequence components for all 5 teachers. These results were maintained following feedback for all teachers across antecedent and consequence components. Teachers rated performance feedback favorably with respect to the purpose, procedures, and outcome, as indicated by a social validity rating measure.

The relationship between teachers' judgments versus actual performance on curriculumbased measures in reading was examined. A total of 30 regular education teachers were asked to predict the oral reading fluency score of students along with a rating scale of reading subskills. Correlations between teacher judgment measures and student performance found that teachers were accurate reporters of student performance levels in reading. However, some questions were raised whether teachers were accurate at predicting the actual level of student oral reading fluency when effect sizes were used to compare teacher judgment and actual student performance. Recommendations for continued research in understanding the parameters of the accuracy of teacher judgment are made.

No abstract

School‐wide positive behavior support (SWPBS) has been identified as an effective and efficient method to teach students prosocial skills. It requires both effective behavior support practices and systems that will support these changes, including data‐based decision making among the school leadership team. There are many practical and systemic factors that school personnel should examine before they consider themselves ready for systemic school‐wide changes, including those associated with the (a) leadership team, (b) staff, (c) administration, (d) coach/facilitator, and (e) district. Practical considerations in each of these areas will be identified and discussed so that practitioners can anticipate their needs as they create effective SWPBS, particularly in low performing urban schools. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 44: 29–39, 2007.

Two studies were performed to examine a factor-analytic and an individualized approach to creating short progressmonitoring measures from the longer ADHD-Symptom Checklist-4 (ADHD-SC4). In Study 1, teacher ratings on items of the ADHD:Inattentive (IA) and ADHD:Hyperactive-Impulsive (HI) scales of the ADHD-SC4 were factor analyzed in a normative data sample of 493 students aged 5 to 12 years. Items with the highest factor loadings were then selected to create abbreviated IA and HI scales for Study 2. In Study 2, the psychometric characteristics of two shortened progress-monitoring measures (factor derived and individualized) and the original IA and HI scales of the ADHD-SC4 were examined in a sample of 26 students aged 4 to 17 years in a medication titration study involving baseline and three doses of methylphenidate. The results indicated comparable psychometric properties across the original and abbreviated versions of the IA and HI scales.

No abstract

No abstract