This article reviews conceptual, methodological, and paradigmatic issues related to the acceptability of school-based practices from a behavioral orientation. First, we provide an overview of the acceptability construct from a behavioral perspective including (a) the historical development of the construct of acceptability, (b) the behavioral conceptualization and definition of the construct of acceptability, and (c) the prevailing conceptual models of acceptability. Second, we illustrate the methodology typically used when examining consumers' acceptability of school-based practices from a behavioral perspective using a cross-source, cross-method approach. A review of empirical studies examining the acceptability of consultation, assessment, and intervention practices using a variety of school-based consumers (e.g., school psychologists, parents, teachers, children) is conducted. The importance of examining the acceptability of school-based practices from this perspective is discussed. Third, we discuss important methodological issues that need to be considered in conducting acceptability research. Finally, the advantages and limitations of examining acceptability within a behavioral context are reviewed.Recently, the importance of assessing the degree to which consumers perceive school-based practices as fair, reasonable, and appropriate has been advocated in the school psychology literature (Elliott, Witt, & Kratochwill, 1991;Gresham & Lopez, 1996). Constructs such as social validity, treatment acceptability, and consumer satisfaction are often used to describe the extent to which individuals perceive themselves as "liking" prescribed treatments or procedures (Schwartz, 1996). Although these constructs may be used interchangeably, these terms differ in definition and theoretical conceptualization. For example, social validity refers to the social desirability, usefulness, and importance of treatment programs (Wolf,

This study outlines a formative assessment sys tem using a consistent set of cut scores on Curriculum-Based Measurement-Reading (CBM-R) probes and investigates four statisti cal methods for establishing cut scores. Cut scores were established using the Minnesota statewide achievement test in reading at grade 3 as the criterion for a successful outcome. Participants were 2,191 students from five dis tricts in rural and outer-ring suburban east cen tral Minnesota, each of whom completed the statewide achievement test in reading and also CBM-R probes between grade 1 and grade 3. This study examined the relationship between CBM-R and the state test and compared the util ity and accuracy of each of four statistical meth ods for establishing cut scores. Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve analysis provided the most flexibility in establishing desired levels of diagnostic accuracy (i.e., sensi tivity, specificity, positive predictive power, and negative predictive power). The benefits of a set of consistent cut scores for use within a response to intervention (RTI) framework are discussed.

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Formative assessment measures are commonly used in schools to assess reading and to design instruction accordingly. The purpose of this research was to investigate the incremental and concurrent validity of formative assessment measures of reading comprehension. It was hypothesized that formative measures of reading comprehension would contribute more to our understanding of students' overall reading abilities than simply oral reading fluency (ORF). It was also hypothesized that measures could be modeled in a meaningful way to explain student performance on criterion measures of academic competence. Four formative measures of reading comprehension - maze (MZ), retell fluency (RTF), written retell (WRT), and sentence verification technique (SVT) - were used to measure unique aspects of reading comprehension through production-type responses. Results suggested that reading comprehension measures, when combined with ORF, added to the total variance associated with reading ability and were reliable indicators of student performance on a high stakes criterion-referenced assessment of grade-level literacy.