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Student academic deficits and problem behaviors have long been demonstrated to be closely related. What is not as clear is the degree to which teacher behaviors are predictive of both academic and behavioral outcomes. Using direct observations of teachers in over 1500 unique elementary and secondary classroom instructional settings, rates of identified evidence-based teacher instructional behaviors were used as independent variables to predict both academic and disciplinary outcomes for students at the school level. Results showed that a school’s mean rate of teacher provided opportunities for student response and positive feedback during instruction were significant predictors for lower school-wide suspensions and higher percentage of students scoring in the proficient and distinguished level on state academic assessments. Implications of these relationships as a means of preventing student failure in school are discussed along with recommendations for future study.

Educational researchers and school-based practitioners are increasingly infusing motivational interviewing (MI) into new and existing intervention protocols to provide support to students, parents, teachers, and school administrators. To date, however, the majority of the research in this area has focused on feasibility of implementation rather than fidelity of implementation. In this manuscript, we will present MI fidelity data from 245 audio-recorded conversations with 113 unique caregivers and 20 coaches, who implemented a school-based, positive parenting intervention. The aggregate fidelity scores across coaches, parents, and sessions provide evidence the training and support procedures were effective in assisting school-based personnel to implement MI with reasonable levels of fidelity in practice settings. Further, results suggest that MI fidelity varied between sessions and coaches and that within-coach variation (e.g., session-level variation in the quality of MI delivered) greatly exceeded between-coach variation. Implications for practice and future research are discussed.

Although the conceptual foundations of PBS at the universal level have been widely described and presented in the literature, secondary and tertiary interventions have been presented through very limited examples. This paper defines the key features of secondary and tertiary interventions and presents a decision-making process to guide schools through a continuum of strategies at these levels. The continuum is described in terms of a recursive loop, repetitively asking four questions: what is predictable about student failure, what is the simplest effective intervention, how can consistent implementation be achieved, and is it working? With each pass through this set of questions there is a steadily increasing focus on smaller groups and eventually individual students. The focus on the continuum of strategies at the tertiary level for individual students is presented through the lens of functional behavior assessment. A summary and recommendations for future study are included.

In this article, we provide both a critical analysis of and logical response to a set of the most typical school-based objections to the effective use of positive reinforcement. For example, one objection is that positive reinforcement amounts to bribery. Practitioners are provided with clear and concise arguments refuting each objection and data-informed rationales supporting the school-based use of positive reinforcement.

Analyses of special education services for students with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders (EBD) conducted prior to and after the passage of the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (Public Law 94-142) pointed to significant short comings in service provision such as high rates of segregated placement and poorly prepared personnel. In 1991, a group of leading scholars in the field (the Peacock Hill Working Group) published a set of recommendations to improve practices for students with EBD and summarized what at the time were current research-based strategies. Unfortunately, the field has failed to consistently adopt recommended practices and the in-school and postsecondary outcomes among students with EBD continue to show minimal improvements. Recently, a group of researchers, teacher trainers, and policy makers convened to discuss past and present work in the field and proposed a set of guiding principles and recommendations building on past seminal work. This article provides a context and overview of the group’s work and brief summaries of the five articles that make up this special issue.

The current body of research on classroom environments identifies key proactive instructional strategies that when implemented effectively can reduce the likelihood of problematic behavioral incidents by students. One strategy known as active supervision has demonstrated positive outcomes across school settings, including classrooms, hallways, cafeterias, and playgrounds. In this article, authors provide a definition of active supervision, empirical support for its use, a detailed description of how to implement it, and resources for further study.

The purpose of this descriptive study was to examine teacher and student behavior in high school classrooms that included at least one student identified with challenging behavior. Across two school years and within the content areas of math, reading/English, social studies, and science, student/teacher dyads were directly observed in the typical classroom setting. Results are described in terms of overall teacher rates per minute and percentages of observed instructional practice. The degree to which teacher and student behaviors differed across students with and without challenging behaviors is described. Findings revealed relatively low rates of specific instructional practices, increased use of negative feedback for students with identified challenging behaviors, and variable levels of student engagement. Study limitations and areas for future research are discussed.

Classrooms are complex social systems in which teachers and students interact in a variety of ways across contexts. Of issue is both the nature and frequency of teachers' use of what typically are considered effective instructional practice and the typical manner in which students respond to different teacher behaviors. This study expands upon earlier research using direction observation and coding systems to take a snapshot of how classrooms typically operate and to analyze how teacher behaviors predict student success rates. Over 1000 observations of elementary and high school classrooms were conducted during instructional contexts and the data for both teacher and student behavior summarized for analysis. Descriptive data on specific frequency and duration outcomes are presented for teachers and students and possible interactions are discussed.

While functional behavior assessment (FBA) has been a part of special education law and embedded in Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) since 1997, a precise definition of what actions or processes constitute a legal FBA has never been adequately addressed in the law. This article provides an overview of the underlying logic of FBA leading to effective function-based intervention. When focusing on a simplification of the logic behind FBA, there are three big ideas that serve as a foundation for considering the intersection of effectiveness and practicality: function matters, FBA requires repeated observations of behavior, and the only purpose of an FBA is to develop an effective intervention. These big ideas are discussed, leading to a conclusion as to how logic and simplicity must share priority in the process.

An alternating treatments design was used to investigate the effects of three types of opportunities to respond (i.e., individual, choral, and mixed responding) on sight words and syllable practice in six elementary students with behavioral problems. During the mixed responding condition, five out of six students demonstrated a lower rate of disruptive behavior, and four out of six students had fewer intervals of off-task behavior. Results of the three types of opportunities to respond on participants’ active student responding were less clear. A discussion of limitations, implications, and future research directions is included.