C. Michael Nelson

Applying Positive Behavior Support and Functional Behavioral Assessment in Schools

Positive behavior support (PBS) and functional behavioral assessment (FBA) are two significant concepts of the 1997 amendments to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. These two concepts are not new, but they are important for improving the quality of efforts to educate children and youth with disabilities. The purposes of this article are to describe (a) the context in which PBS and FBA are needed and (b) definitions and features of PBS and FBA. An important message is that positive behavioral interventions and supports involve the whole school, and successful implementation emphasizes the identification, adoption, and sustained use of effective policies, systems, data-based decision making, and practices. Systems-level challenges are also discussed.

School Characteristics Related to High School Dropout Rates

A B S T R A C T Dropping out of high school culminates a long-term process of disengagement from school and has profound social and economic consequences for students, their families, and their communities. Students who drop out of high school are more likely to be unemployed, to earn less than those who graduate, to be on public assistance, and to end up in prison. The present study examined dropout rates in Kentucky high schools (N = 196), using both quantitative and qualitative procedures. Pearson product-moment correlation coefficients were computed to identify those school-level variables that showed strong relationships to dropout rates. A sample of 20 schools with the highest dropout rates was compared to a sample of 20 schools with the lowest dropout rates using a multivariate analysis of variance. Furthermore, 4 schools from each group were selected as case examples. Information gathered from administrator surveys, staff interviews, and on-site observations provided detailed descriptions of the characteristics of schools with high and low dropout rates. The findings of this study demonstrated that a number of school variables are differentially related to dropout rate. Implications of these findings for school reform are discussed.

Aversive Stimuli in Academic Interactions between Students with Serious Emotional Disturbance and Their Teachers.

This manuscript presents a review of the growing body of research concerning the influence of negative reinforcement on student and teacher behaviors. Negative reinforcement strengthens behaviors that result in escape from, or avoidance of, aversive stimuli. It is argued that negative reinforcement is a variable in the academic interactions of students with serious emotional disturbance and their teachers, Although both desired and undesired behaviors may be outcomes of negative reinforcement, because of the academic deficiencies of students with serious emotional disturbance and the instructional behaviors of their teachers, the escape and avoidance behaviors exhibited by these students more often may be undesired. The authors call for research to investigate sources of aversive stimuli within academic interactions between teachers and students with serious emotional disturbance as well as the potentially aversive stimuli present in academic activities. Implications for teaching practices also are presented.

Using Functional Behavior Assessment in General Education Settings: Making a Case for Effectiveness and Efficiency:

Under the 1997 Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, schools have a legal obligation to conduct functional behavior assessments (FBAs) when developing intervention plans for students with disabilities whose behaviors lead their individualized education program teams to consider a change in educational placement, including suspension and expulsion. However, FBA also holds significant promise as a procedure to be used proactively with students with behavioral challenges who are educated in part, or wholly, in general education classrooms. Unfortunately, current conceptualizations of FBA as a methodologically rigorous procedure pose significant and possibly insurmountable barriers to proactive implementation in general education settings. The authors analyze these barriers through a targeted review of the literature, an examination of how the characteristics of general education settings promote the use of less demanding FBA methodologies, and a consideration of situations in which certain FBA procedures generally are contraindicated. Finally they advocate an active research agenda that is responsive to the particular challenges of public school settings and FBA students with and at risk for mild disabilities.

An Examination of the Relation between Functional Behavior Assessment and Selected Intervention Strategies with School-Based Teams.

Although functional behavior assessment (FBA) is widely advocated as best practice in developing effective behavior intervention plans for students with challenging behaviors, there is no compelling evidence supporting the ability of school-based personnel to use the outcomes of FBA to develop effective interventions. In this study, selected staff members from four elementary schools were trained in how to use the outcomes of an FBA to develop function-based intervention plans. They then formed school-based intervention teams and served as facilitators for a total of 31 cases. The same cases also were distributed to three national FBA experts who selected interventions based on the identified function for each case. The number and type of selected intervention strategies were recorded and analyzed across cases. Comparisons between team and expert intervention strategy selection revealed that school-based personnel in this study were more likely to select punitive and exclusionary strategies, regardless of function. Thus, in real-world school settings, the link between FBA and intervention is far more complex than has been recognized or discussed in the literature. Discussion focuses on possible explanations for the finding that school-based teams tend to gravitate toward more negative and exclusionary strategies, even when mediated by a trained FBA facilitator.

Special Education in the Most Restrictive Environment: Correctional/Special Education

National attention recently has focused on the problems of delivering special education services to incarcerated youthful handicapped offenders. In this article, data from a national survey of state departments of correctional and special education relative to the need for, and provision of, these services are presented. Issues relative to the compliance of correctional education programs with the PL 94-142 mandate are discussed and recommendations for improving educational experiences for handicapped youths under the supervision of the criminal justice system are offered.

School-Based Wraparound for Students with Emotional and Behavioral Challenges

In this article, we describe a process, wraparound planning, for extending educational services to students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) and their families which allows the children to remain in their home communities and schools. A merger of community and school-based wraparound has been established in the La Grange Area Department of Special Education (LADSE) and currently is being implemented in pilot school districts throughout the state of Illinois. Guidelines for implementing school-based wraparound for students with EBD are provided, and implications for the organization of schools to facilitate the wraparound approach are discussed.

Macro-Social Validation: Referencing Outcomes in Behavioral Disorders to Societal Issues and Problems

During the past two decades, the field of special education has become politicized and fragmented as a result of internal strife and turf battles among professionals. Special education often is perceived by professionals in other fields as strife ridden, expensive, litigious, consumed with legislative mandates and court orders, and ineffective. These perceptions have damaged special educations status and hindered its ability to pursue its agenda. By association, the field of behavioral disorders also has suffered from these perceptions. We need to rededicate ourselves to empirical inquiry and use our collective expertise to find solutions to problems that are of great concern to children and families as well as the larger society. In so doing, we may achieve a degree of macrosocial validation for our efforts. The term macrosocial validation, as used herein, refers to recognition, approval, and valuing of a fields professional activities by the larger constituencies affected by them, such as the general public, the U.S. Congress, and policymakers.

Competency Based Special Education Teacher Training

This review takes a critical look at a major component of competency based teacher education: the derivation and validation of teacher competencies. The available literature indicates that teacher competencies tend to be derived from “expert” opinion rather than the direct observation of teacher behavior, that they often are not behaviorally stated or evaluated as to whether or not they have a positive impact on child performance, and that few teacher educators or researchers are attempting to validate competencies empirically before including them in teacher education programs. Research strategies to remediate these deficits are suggested.

A Comprehensive Community-Based Approach to Serving Students with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders

Recent reports about the mental health status of children and adolescents with emotional and behavioral disorders, the limited availability of related services, and a lack of collaborative practices indicate a need to consider how services are provided to these individuals and their families. In this paper, the needs of this population and the costs of providing services are presented. Then the issues that are essential to developing a comprehensive, community-based approach to serving students with emotional and behavioral disorders are discussed.