Amy McCart

Prevention and Intervention with Young Children's Challenging Behavior: Perspectives Regarding Current Knowledge.

Challenging behavior exhibited by young children is becoming recognized as a serious impediment to social–emotional development and a harbinger of severe maladjustment in school and adult life. Consequently, professionals and advocates from many disciplines have been seeking to define, elaborate, and improve on existing knowledge related to the prevention and resolution of young childrens challenging behaviors. Of particular concern for the field of behavioral disorders is the lack of correspondence between what is known about effective practices and what practices young children with challenging behavior typically receive. To increase the likelihood that children receive the best of evidence-based practices, the current analysis was conducted to provide a concise synthesis and summary of the principal evidence pertaining to the presence and impact, prevention, and intervention of challenging behaviors in young children. A consensus building process involving review and synthesis was used to produce brief summary statements encapsulating core conclusions from the existing evidence. This article presents these statements along with descriptions of the strength of the supporting evidence. The discussion addresses directions and priorities for practice and future research.

A Blueprint for Schoolwide Positive Behavior Support: Implementation of Three Components

This article provides a case study (focus on an eighth-grader with autism) within a case study (focus on an urban middle school) in terms of the implementation of positive behavior support (PBS). Information is provided on the characteristics of three key components of schoolwide PBS-universal support, group support, and individual support. For each component, information is presented on policy, assessment, and intervention in terms of an evolving approach to schoolwide PBS with descriptions of how the components were implemented at the middle school with a particular emphasis on the eighth-grade student. The authors conclude with implications for practice in terms of assessing current resources, providing professional development, and intensifying universal support within urban schools to address some of the complex issues associated with poverty.

Urban Applications of School-Wide Positive Behavior Support: Critical Issues and Lessons Learned.

Researchers and educators have recognized that typical school-wide approaches to discipline and the prevention and management of problem behavior are often insufficient to address the needs of many students in inner-city schools with high base rates of problem behavior. This article outlines critical issues and lessons learned in the planning and implementation of effective and self-sustaining Positive Behavior Support (PBS) efforts in inner-city schools. Among these issues are methods for the facilitation of school—university partnerships, the incorporation of PBS into existing comprehensive school improvement efforts, the maintenance of school-wide PBS efforts, and the formalization of exit strategies and arrangements for subsequent technical assistance. The importance of service integration, family support, youth development, and community development are emphasized in ensuring the effectiveness and sustainability of school-wide PBS efforts in inner-city settings.

Anchoring Schoolwide Positive Behavior Support in Structural School Reform

Schoolwide positive behavior support (SWPBS) exemplifies a longitudinal research program originating in the fields of special education and school psychology that has produced an extensive national database encompassing an evidence-based set of practices applicable to general education as well as special education students including those with severe disabilities. Schoolwide applications of evidence-based practices, however, are at some risk of falling victim to the ongoing bifurcation of education into the general and special education parallel and often noninteractive, professional systems of instruction. One potential solution to bifurcated practice is to embed (or contextualize) SWPBS in a broader, universal school reform agenda that coordinates and evaluates all educational intervention services and supports for the benefit of all students. A structural school reform process called the Schoolwide Applications Model (SAM) is described, which includes SWPBS as 1 of 15 critical features. Results from a 3-year, ongoing research project in a low-income, multicultural, urban school district in Northern California suggests that SWPBS, with its three levels of student support, guided by teams of general as well as special educators, can be an important contributor to academic as well as social achievement among students with and without disabilities and, as grounded within systematic school reform, can help to mitigate against the bifurcation of general and special education practices.

Implementing Positive Behavior Support With Chinese American Families: Enhancing Cultural Competence

In positive behavior support (PBS) practices, one critical issue involves helping professionals understand and respect the values of families from culturally diverse backgrounds. This article summarizes embedded cultural values of PBS represented in four key features of the PBS process: collaborative partnerships, functional assessment, contextual fit, and meaningful lifestyle outcomes. With acknowledgment of acculturation, the contrast between Chinese cultural values and embedded PBS values is illustrated in the context of implementing PBS for Chinese American families.

All Means All Building Knowledge for Inclusive Schoolwide Transformation

The Schoolwide Integrated Framework for Transformation (SWIFT) Center identified six schools, nominated and screened by leaders in the field of inclusive education and school reform using a systematic process, and conducted in-depth analyses of these schools to build knowledge and inform implementation of inclusive schoolwide reform. The present study synthesizes findings across five lines of inquiry (classroom practices, teacher and administrator perspectives, student perspectives, family and community perspectives, and supports for students with the most significant needs) that were part of the SWIFT Center’s analysis of these schools. The primary themes are organized around (a) how inclusion is defined and practiced, (b) perspectives of inclusion from key stakeholders, and (c) exemplars of inclusive practices. Implications for future research and practice are described.

Stars in Alignment

After decades of effort to create inclusive education, the authors assert that the time for full inclusion to manifest at scale may finally be at hand. This article first briefly considers the background and history of the inclusive education movement. The authors then reframe the discourse by defining inclusion through structures and interventions, not student characteristics. They review several emerging best practices that, when deployed within this new framework, increase the likelihood of system change or improvement to advance inclusive education.

A Framework for Inclusive Educational Delivery Systems

Abstract This article introduces a theoretical framework for an inclusive educational delivery system to increase academic, behavioral, and social outcomes for all students with a variety and range...

Using Information Technology To Prepare Personnel To Implement Functional Behavioral Assessment and Positive Behavioral Support

Reauthorization of the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (1997) produced new language concerned with placement and instruction of students who present challenging behaviors and for whom there is risk of disability determination. The result is an immediate need for preservice personnel preparation as well as staff and professional development practices and procedures concerned with functional behavioral assessment and positive behavioral support (PBS). Recent advances in information technologies are creating new opportunities for advancing this training agenda. This article examines some of the impediments to effective dissemination of training in PBS such as philosophical barriers, school discipline policies, and the inadequacy of present professional and staff training models. It suggests ways that new information technologies can overcome these obstacles and reviews some new approaches using CD-ROM and online instructional methodologies to advance the training agenda.

Improving Learning for All Students through Equity-Based Inclusive Reform Practices: Effectiveness of a Fully Integrated Schoolwide Model on Student Reading and Math Achievement.

The present investigation examines the schoolwide applications model (SAM) as a potentially effective school reform model for increasing equity-based inclusive education practices while enhancing student reading and math achievement for all students. A 3-year quasi-experimental comparison group analysis using latent growth modeling (LGM) was used with seven urban elementary or elementary/middle schools and seven matched comparison schools in the same district. Results suggest significantly larger growth for experimental school students in math and no statistically significant difference in reading score growth between experimental and comparison schools. However, reading score growth for experimental schools was statistically significant in a post hoc analysis of selected schools. Additional descriptive analysis is presented for three schools that implemented the model with the highest measured fidelity; these schools made improvements on both reading and math scores while those of matching comparison schools decreased.