Don Kincaid

Effective Educational Practices for Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders.

Students With autism spectrum disorders (ASD) present unique challenges to educators trying to plan effective instructional programs. Although an impressive body of research identifying effective practices has emerged, there have been minimal attempts to integrate the findings into a curricular foundation to be adopted by school districts. This article provides a description of 6 core elements that have empirical support and should be included in any sound, comprehensive instructional program for students With ASD. These core elements are (a) individualized supports and services for students and families, (b) systematic instruction, (c) comprehensible/structured learning environments, (d) specialized curriculum content, (e) functional approach to problem behavior, and (f) family involvement. This article provides illustrations of the core elements in the form of specific instructional practices that have been demonstrated to be effective With students With ASD.

A research synthesis of Social Story interventions for children with autism spectrum disorders

Recent trends in the frequency of diagnoses and special education referrals for children With autism spectrum disorders necessitate the demand for evidence-based educational practices. Specifically, information related to improving social communication and social behavior domains in classrooms is needed. One method that is increasingly suggested for teaching social skills to children With autism spectrum disorders is the use of Social Stories. Although the rationale behind Social Stories is strong, little research exists examining the effectiveness of Social Story interventions for children With autism spectrum disorders. This article offers a synthesis of the available research regarding Social Stories and their effectiveness for educating children With autism spectrum disorders. In addition, future directions for research and implications for educators are provided.

Measuring School-wide Positive Behavior Support Implementation Development and Validation of the Benchmarks of Quality

School-wide positive behavior support (SWPBS) has been implemented in more than 4,000 schools as a means of addressing problem behavior in a systemic fashion. Preliminary outcomes (e.g., office discipline referrals, suspensions) indicate the effectiveness of SWPBS in decreasing school-wide behavior problems and creating a positive school climate. Although the results of a majority of the program evaluations yielded significant findings, there has been a lack of measurement of treatment fidelity, possibly due to the absence of expedient, effective assessment tools. This article describes the theoretical background and development, including a qualitative pilot study and psychometric properties, of the School-wide Benchmarks of Quality (BoQ; Kincaid, Childs, & George, 2005), a tool intended to measure the implementation of SWPBS. Descriptive data on the instrument, including internal consistency, test—retest reliability, interrater reliability, and concurrent validity, were collected and analyzed. Results indicate that the BoQ for SWPBS is a reliable, valid, efficient, and useful instrument for measuring the fidelity of implementation of the primary or universal level of PBS application in individual schools. Future considerations for evaluating the psychometric properties of the BoQ include extending the data collection and analysis to many more schools across multiple states.

Identifying Barriers and Facilitators in Implementing Schoolwide Positive Behavior Support

As the number of schools implementing systemic, schoolwide positive behavior support (PBS) processes expands (nationally, at least 5,000 schools are participating), increasing attention is being paid to the efficacy of implementation. This article describes a case study of the experiences of Floridas Positive Behavior Support Project, which used a systematic process to understand barriers and facilitators to the successful implementation of schoolwide positive behavior support by schools implementing at high and low levels of fidelity, and the degree to which the project could impact barriers and facilitators. Results indicate that schools implementing with low fidelity tend to identify practical, operational barriers, whereas schools implementing with high fidelity struggle with systems issues. Both high-implementing and low-implementing schools identified the same facilitators to implementation; however, they differed in their views of which facilitators the project could impact. Implications for state PBS project activities are discussed, along with suggestions for future data collection and providing a model of data-based decision making at a macro level.

Applying behavior analysis to school violence and discipline problems: Schoolwide positive behavior support

School discipline is a growing concern in the United States. Educators frequently are faced with discipline problems ranging from infrequent but extreme problems (e.g., shootings) to less severe problems that occur at high frequency (e.g., bullying, insubordination, tardiness, and fighting). Unfortunately, teachers report feeling ill prepared to deal effectively with discipline problems in schools. Further, research suggests that many commonly used strategies, such as suspension, expulsion, and other reactive strategies, are not effective for ameliorating discipline problems and may, in fact, make the situation worse. The principles and technology of behavior analysis have been demonstrated to be extremely effective for decreasing problem behavior and increasing social skills exhibited by school children. Recently, these principles and techniques have been applied at the level of the entire school, in a movement termed schoolwide positive behavior support.In this paper we review the tenets of schoolwide positive behavior support, demonstrating the relation between this technology and applied behavior analysis.

Prevent-Teach-Reinforce: A Standardized Model of School-Based Behavioral Intervention.

Although there is a substantial empirical foundation for the basic intervention components of behavior analysis and positive behavior support (PBS), the field still lacks a standardized program model of individualized PBS suitable for widespread application by school personnel. This article provides a description of a standardized PBS model that is in the process of development and large-scale evaluation. The “Prevent-Teach-Reinforce” (PTR) model is designed to meet the behavior support needs of students with serious behavior challenges in a broad range of school settings. Included in this article are an overview of the model’s components and implementation process, two case examples, and a discussion of the model’s status and future directions.

Randomized Controlled Trial of the Prevent— Teach—Reinforce (PTR) Tertiary Intervention for Students With Problem Behaviors: Preliminary Outcomes

Although there is literature supporting the effectiveness of tertiary behavioral supports, the majority of the studies have been conducted with single-subject designs. The Prevent—Teach—Reinforce (PTR) model is a standardized model of a school-based tertiary intervention. This study reports initial results from a randomized controlled trial to compare whether the PTR model, as implemented by typical school personnel, is more effective than interventions typically used (i.e., services as usual). To date, 245 students in Grades K-8 have been enrolled in the study, and preliminary results show that students who received the PTR intervention had significantly higher social skills and academic engaged time and significantly lower problem behavior when compared with students who received services as usual. Teachers gave high social validity ratings to the intervention. Implications for widescale school adoption are discussed.

Scaling Up School-Wide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports Experiences of Seven States With Documented Success

Scaling of evidence-based practices in education has received extensive discussion but little empirical evaluation. We present here a descriptive summary of the experience from seven states with a history of implementing and scaling School-Wide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (SWPBIS) over the past decade. Each state has been successful in establishing at least 500 schools using SWPBIS across approximately a third or more of the schools in their state. The implementation elements proposed by Sugai, Horner, and Lewis (2009) and the stages of implementation described by Fixsen, Naoom, Blase, Friedman, and Wallace (2005) were used within a survey with each element assessed at each stage by the SWPBIS coordinators and policy makers in the seven states. Consistent themes from analysis of the responses were defined and confirmed with the surveyed participants. Results point to four central areas of state “capacity” as being perceived as critical for a state to move SWPBIS to scale (administrative leadership and funding, local training and coaching capacity, behavioral expertise, and local evaluation capacity), and an iterative process in which initial implementation success (100–200 demonstrations) is needed to recruit the political and fiscal support required for larger scaling efforts.

A Model for Statewide Evaluation of a Universal Positive Behavior Support Initiative

Several statewide evaluations of Tier 1/Universal Level Positive Behavior Support (PBS) implementation efforts have been conducted, adhering to the evaluation template developed by Horner, Sugai, and Lewis-Palmer in 2005. Building on these examples, Florida’s Positive Behavior Support Project developed a comprehensive evaluation system that sought to answer critical questions about building a scalable and sustainable PBS system at the state level that also provides data for decision making at the school and district levels. This article describes Florida’s evaluation system as a model driven by 12 questions, including topics of implementation fidelity as both a dependent and independent variable, and expanding traditional questions of statewide evaluations to include consumer satisfaction, team processes, barriers and facilitators to implementation, and attrition. The data indicated that implementing Tier 1/Universal Level PBS with fidelity was associated with improved student outcomes. Additional findings are described as are considerations for future directions.

Positive Behavior Support: A Proposal for Updating and Refining the Definition

Positive behavior support (PBS) has been a dynamic and growing enterprise for more than 25 years. During this period, PBS has expanded applications across a wide range of populations and multiple levels of implementation. As a result, there have been understandable inconsistencies and confusion regarding the definition of PBS. In this essay, we offer an updated and unified definition. We provide a brief historical perspective and describe a process for developing a proposed definition. We also discuss the rationale for key elements of the definition.