Deanne A. Crone

Contextual, Conceptual, and Empirical Foundations of Functional Behavioral Assessment in Schools

This article examines the contextual, conceptual, and empirical foundations of functional behavioral assessment (FBA) in general educational settings. Schools today face 2 important, contextual challenges: the need to design effective responses to increases in individual problem behavior and the need to be compliant with the 1997 amendments to the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act. FBA as a solution to these challenges is explored from a conceptual framework. Finally, the empirical literature supporting the use of FBA in typical school settings is reviewed briefly.

Data-Based Decision-Making Teams in Middle School: Observations and Implications from the Middle School Intervention Project.

The use of data-based decision making (DBDM) in schools to drive educational improvement and success has been strongly promoted by educational experts and policymakers, yet very little is documented about the actual DBDM practices used in schools. This study examines DBDM practices in 25 middle schools through 80 standardized observations of data team meetings and through survey responses. DBDM practices in terms of structure, process, content, quality, and alignment between self-report and observation are described. Key findings include the following: (a) The average amount of time spent discussing an individual student was brief, less than 2 min; (b) on average, actionable decisions following discussions of behavior or reading issues were made 34% to 40% of the time; and (c) there was weak alignment on key topics between self-reported and observed DBDM practices. These findings underscore the need for additional studies of DBDM practices in school and of the impact of DBDM practices on important student outcomes.

Intervening with Struggling Readers in Seventh Grade: Impact Evidence from Six School Districts

Abstract This study uses a regression discontinuity design to evaluate the impact of seventh-grade interventions delivered by 25 schools on the reading and school engagement outcomes of struggling readers. Students in participating schools were assigned to intervention (n = 1,495) or comparison (n = 4,397) conditions, based on their state reading performance and reading fluency scores in sixth grade. On the state reading test, intervention impact favoring the treatment group approached, but did not reach, statistical significance (p = .056, g = .15). On a measure of reading fluency, there was a significant interaction between the cut points schools chose for condition assignment and intervention impact (p = .015). In schools that chose a lower cut point, intervention students outperformed comparison students, while in schools that chose a higher cut point, comparison students outperformed intervention students. On a student self-report measure of school engagement, no significant differences between the intervention and comparison groups were observed (p = .83, g = .02). Implications for rigorous evaluation of interventions implemented by districts and schools under naturalistic conditions are discussed.

Addressing the Practice-to-Research Gap: A Rigorous Evaluation of Local Education Agency–Based Interventions for Struggling Readers in Sixth Grade

We present the results of a study of local education agency (LEA)-based interventions to improve the reading outcomes of struggling readers in sixth grade. The sample included 1,076 intervention students and 3,644 comparison students. Regression discontinuity was used to evaluate intervention impact. The study contributes to the field by demonstrating (a) the importance of conducting rigorous evaluations of existing school interventions to understand the true impact of evidence-based practices when implemented under local circumstances and constraints, and (b) the use of regression discontinuity as an evaluation design is feasible within typical school settings. Implications for the study are discussed, especially in terms of providing a model for evaluation of LEA-driven interventions in the middle grades.