Carmen Arreaga-Mayer

Use of Evidence-Based, Small-Group Reading Instruction for English Language Learners in Elementary Grades: Secondary-Tier Intervention

This experimental/comparison study of secondary-level, small-group instruction included 318 first- and second-grade students (170 ELL and 148 English-only) from six elementary schools. All schools served high numbers of ELL students with varying school SES in urban and suburban communities. Experimental schools implemented a three-tier model of intervention. In addition to primary-tier reading instruction, the second-tier, small-group experimental interventions included use of (a) evidence-based direct instruction reading curricula that explicitly targeted skills such as phonological/phonemic awareness, letter-sound recognition, alphabetic decoding, fluency building and comprehension skills; and (b) small groups of 3 to 6 students. Students at comparison schools were not exposed to a three-tier reading program but received (a) an ESL intervention using balanced literacy instruction with a focus on word study, group and individual story reading, and writing activities; and (b) small groups of 6 to 15 students. The ESL/balanced literacy intervention was generally in addition to primary reading instruction. Results indicated generally higher gains for ELL students enrolled in direct instruction interventions. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Ecobehavioral Analysis of Classroom Instruction

For the past 25 years, massive efforts have been made to reduce the high incidence of academic delay and retardation experienced by students living in poverty. Despite these efforts, a large number of these students remain at risk due to environmental factors. Students are at risk because of both (1) cultural—familial factors related to the home and the community, and (2) factors related to the school. Research at the Juniper Gardens Children’s Project for the past 25 years has sought to address these factors through the development of home, community, and school intervention programs. In the late 1970s, however, it became clear that the problems of academic delay and development of commensurate instructional practices could not be accomplished with the then-current research tools based primarily on behavioral assessment and the manipulation of contingencies of reinforcement. While highly informative, solutions based on this technology were not yet sufficiently comprehensive to impact the entire school program nor did it enable researchers to investigate program variability over long periods of time. The purpose of this chapter is to discuss the development and application of ecobehavioral assessment and the analysis of setting events related to the task of school improvement (i.e., development and evaluation of effective instructional practices). Ecobehavioral assessment has been an effort to create data systems capable of placing student responding within the context of the effort to teach, whether naturalistic teaching efforts or those guided by specific intervention protocols, and the time actually devoted to this effort. These data, coupled with both molar and molecular level analyses of the interaction of behavioral and setting factors has been, and continues to be, an important contributor to our research in urban schools. In this chapter, we illustrate the application of ecobehavioral assessment, the analysis of classroom setting events, and we discuss the implications for future work.

Increasing Active Student Responding and Improving Academic Performance Through Classwide Peer Tutoring

Classwide Peer Tutoring is a powerful instructional procedure that actively engages all students in a classroom and that promotes mastery, accuracy, and fluency in content learning for students with and without disabilities. The purpose of this article is to discuss Classwide Peer Tutoring as an effective instructional procedure. The article is organized into two major areas: (a) a description of the procedure and (b) efficacy research supporting the practice of the procedure.

The Efficacy of ClassWide Peer Tutoring in Middle Schools

The majority of research on the efficacy of ClassWide Peer Tutoring (CWPT) is based on research with urban elementary students (), with much less research in middle schools. This study investigated CWPT with 975 middle school students in 52 classrooms, grades 6 through 8, over a three-year period. A mixed design combining features of both group (interrupted time-series) and single-subject reversal designs was used to evaluate the effects of traditional teacher-led instruction vs. CWPT. Results favored CWPT with effect sizes, based on weekly quizzes, indicating moderate to large effects overall (M = 1.11) but with some range across classrooms and content. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.

Identification and Translation of Effective Teacher-Developed Instructional Procedures for General Practice

We describe a multistep method for (a) identifying effective teacher-developed instructional procedures based on assessments of achievement gain and classroom engagement and (b) translating them for wide-scale use by other teachers. The method employed a combination of both objective and naturalistic assessments leading to reliable procedural protocols for use in the training of other teachers and evaluation of their implementation of these same procedures. The implications of this particular product-process approach to the identification of effective teacher-developed practices and to instructional improvement are discussed.

Environmental Variables Affecting the School Achievement of Culturally and Linguistically Different Learners: An Instructional Perspective.

Abstract The literature offers many explanations for the differential educational attainment of culturally and linguistically different learners. However, research on effective methods is relatively scarce. This review of the literature was designed to examine the research basis for the school achievement of culturally and linguistically different learners from the standpoint of instructional effectiveness and the opportunity to learn. This review concentrated upon research which directly assessed specific ecological/instructional processes in relationship to achievement outcome measures. An important contribution of the present review is the focus upon functional ecological and teaching variables affecting the academic performance of culturally and linguistically different learners.

Out of the laboratory and into the community. 26 years of applied behavior analysis at the Juniper Gardens Children's Project.

Application of Skinners principles to socially significant human behavior had been well articulated by 1968 (Baer, Wolf, & Risley, 1968). Applications of these principles by Baer, Wolf, Risley, Hall, Hart, Christophersen, and their colleagues were in evidence as early as 1964 in the homes, schools, and clinics of inner-city Kansas City, Kansas, at the Juniper Gardens Housing Project. The work continues relatively uninterrupted, having contributed extensively to the literature of applied behavior analysis and the lives of community residents. This article describes the project and illustrates how applied behavioral research was initiated and extended, how the work addressed general concerns in psychology, and how it continues to address contemporary concerns within the community.

Ecobehavioral Assessment of Instructional Contexts in Bilingual Special Education Programs for English Language Learners at Risk for Developmental Disabilities

This article presents empirical data using The Ecobehavioral System for the Contextual Recording of Interactional Bilingual Environments to examine the instructional context, teacher behavior, and academic engaged behavior for English language learners at risk for developmental disabilities in general education and bilingual special education programs. Thirty-six English language learners at risk for developmental disabilities were observed for 6 full school days each, for a total of 213 days and 1,491 hours, within 4 elementary-level school settings and 26 different classrooms. The results revealed that (a) the most frequently taught subjects were math (20%), reading (18%), and language arts (16%); (b) English was the most frequently used language of instruction (58%); and (c) students were actively engaged in academic behaviors for slightly less than half of a typical school day (44%).

Post Doctoral Fellowship at the Juniper Gardens Children's Project: Developing Research Leadership in Special Education.

From 1983 to the present, 30 post-doctoral Fellows have spent at least one year at the Juniper Gardens Childrens Project developing their own research plans, programs, and skills in research. Forty percent of these fellows were members of minority groups, 70% were female, and 1 had a disability demonstrating impact with traditionally underrepresented groups. The fellows received stipends, materials, and training provided by three leadership training grants from the Division of Personnel Preparation, Office of Special Education and Rehabilitation Services. The program is guided by the philosophy that research leadership is a function of ones own active research program and that the traditional research experiences leading to the Ph.D. in special education are often insufficient to establish a research career. Building upon this philosophy, are a number of programmatic themes: (1) minorities, minority issues, and urban schooling; (2) ecological (environmental) and behavioral assessment and analysis; (3) instructional and behavioral intervention; (4) research to practice; (5) technology applications to research and instruction/intervention; (6) current issues in special education; (7) project/proposal development; and (8) participation in ongoing research projects. The goals and experiences provided each Fellow in the program are individually tailored in an Individual Fellowship Program (IFP) providing the opportunities and the skills necessary to advance their own research career. Fellows accomplishments and products during and after their post-doctoral training (e.g., research positions held, research and training grants obtained, publications in professional journals, participation in research, etc.), indicate substantial increases in their professional research activities and its impact on the work of others in the field (e.g., Social Science Citation Index). Implications of this type of post-doctoral training for promoting needed leadership in special education now and in the future are discussed.