Cost/Benefit Considerations in Managing the Behavior of Students with Emotional/Behavioral Disorders

Revisiting Cost-Benefit Relationships of Behavior Management Strategies: What Special Educators Say About Usefulness, Intensity, and Effectiveness

“…In an earlier study, F. H. Wood (1991) examined general educators' cost-benefit considerations in managing behavior of students with emotional or behavioral disorders. As an extension of the earlier study, the authors asked 211 special education teachers about the use, effectiveness, and labor intensity of 24 communication and 33 behavior management strategies, as well as their judgments of the likely use of these approaches by general education teachers.…”

“…The teachers differentially rated these categories in terms of their relative effectiveness, ease of use, and frequency of use. Wood (1991) pointed out that effective implementation of intervention strategies requires the commitment of sufficient resources, most notably, teacher time and energy. "Often those planning interventions to manage and change problem behaviors focus primarily on the 'how;' the costs and benefits for teachers are taken for granted" (Wood,p.17).…”

Using Staff and Student Time Engaged in Disciplinary Procedures to Evaluate the Impact of School-Wide PBS

“…Their concern was that we not judge intervention simply on measures of individual behavior without also examining what effect those behaviors have on the system within which that individual operates. Such an examination, sometimes referred to as a cost-benefit analysis, involves a comparative analysis of (a) benefits for the individual and system (i.e., positive life outcomes, resource savings, social acceptance) and (b) the costs of intervention in terms of undesired outcomes (resources spent, negative side effects, negative social acceptance; Wood, 1991). Baer, Wolf, and Risley strongly advocated for analysis of this relationship as the key measure of success in any discipline, stating that such analysis is "the essence of effectiveness" (p. 322).…”

“…Analyses of systemic costs and benefits have recently been used to evaluate a range of intervention efforts, including early intervention programs (Karoly, Kilburn, Bigelow, Caulkins, & Cannon, 2001;Keilty, 2001), Title I and Head Start initiatives (Reynolds, Temple, Robertson, & Mann, 2002), Job Corp and supported employment programs (McConnell & Glazzerman, 2001), and programs for intervening with students with seriously challenging behaviors (Putnam, Luiselli, Sennett, & Malonson, 2002;Sugai & Fuller, 1991;Wood, 1991).…”

School-wide systems of positive behavior support: A framework for reducing school crime and violence.

“…The issue of efficiency or simplicity continues to be relevant as schools are asked to take more responsibility for their own assessment. Realistic research instruments that can reliably and validly measure quality of life issues would benefit PBS and study must include an assortment of information-gathering techniques, including interviews, rating scales and checklists that are practitioner- and family-friendly (Lucyshyn & Albin, 1993; Wood, 1991).…”