Tai A. Collins

The Effects of Peer-Mediated Check-In/Check-Out on the Social Skills of Socially Neglected Students

Check-In/Check-Out (CICO) is a moderately effective Tier 2 intervention often used to address attention-maintained problem behaviors in schools. Recent studies on CICO have demonstrated the effectiveness of the intervention when combined with social skills training and when utilizing students’ peers as interventionists. Using a concurrent multiple baseline across participants design, the present study evaluated the effectiveness of peer-mediated CICO to target social skills in elementary school students identified as socially neglected using a sociometric classification system. Results, implications for practice, limitations, and future directions are discussed.

Using Computer-Assisted Instruction to Build Math Fact Fluency: An Implementation Guide.

Research findings support the use of computer-assisted instruction (CAI) as a curriculum supplement for improving math skills, including math fact fluency. There are a number of websites and mobile applications (i.e., apps) designed to build students’ math fact fluency, but the options can become overwhelming. This article provides implementation guidelines to help teachers plan for CAI, including criteria for selecting a program and recommendations for monitoring student progress. In addition, free resources for CAI are discussed.

Decreasing Inappropriate Mobile Device Use in Middle and High School Classrooms

Although mobile phones and tablets can be effective tools for searching and retrieving information efficiently, accessing interactive learning platforms, and capturing audio/video, the inappropriate use of mobile devices can create distractions in the classroom that are detrimental to learning. This column presents a classroom management strategy for reducing the inappropriate use of mobile devices and increasing academic engagement in middle and high school classrooms, including students with emotional and behavioral disorders.

Decreasing Inappropriate Use of Mobile Devices in Urban High School Classrooms: Comparing an Antecedent Intervention With and Without the Good Behavior Game:

As the capabilities of portable technology continue to advance and become more accessible, educators express concern about the impact of the inappropriate use of mobile devices on academic engagement and learning. An alternating treatments design was used to compare the effectiveness of an antecedent (Clear Box) intervention and an interdependent group contingency (Clear Box + Good Behavior Game [GBG]) intervention to typical classroom management techniques (Control) in increasing the academic engagement and decreasing mobile device use of high school students during instruction. The results indicate an increase in academic engagement and a decrease in the inappropriate presence of mobile devices in both classrooms with the implementation of the Clear Box + GBG, as compared with the Clear Box and Control conditions. In addition, teacher and student social validity data suggested that teachers and students viewed the Clear Box + GBG intervention favorably. Discussion focuses on contributions to the current literature, implications for practice, and suggestions for future areas of research.

Developing a Brief Behavior Rating Scale for Progress Monitoring of Depression in School Settings

Frequent formative assessment of students’ functioning, or progress monitoring, is a critical component of multi-tiered systems of support as data inform data-driven decisions about response to treatment. Progress monitoring tools for students’ academic and behavioral functioning are readily available and widely researched; however, despite the documented prevalence of depressive disorders among youth and that schools have been put forth as an ideal location for the delivery of mental health services, there are currently no progress monitoring tools to examine students’ response to interventions that target depression. To address this gap, this study sought to develop a progress monitoring assessment of students’ depressive symptoms using an empirically informed model for creating Brief Behavior Rating Scales (BBRS). Using this model, a four-item BBRS of depressive symptoms (BBRS-D) was created from the item pools of the Beck Depression Inventory for Youth (BDI-Y) and Children’s Depression Inventory (CDI) administered during a treatment study of depression in female youth; the resulting short scale corresponds well to the full-length assessments (i.e., r = .65 and r = .59); however, the BBRS-D possessed lower than adequate internal consistency (α = .50) and test–retest reliability (r = .56). Limitations and future directions are discussed.

Introduction to the Special Issue: Interventions to Improve Children’s Social and Emotional Functioning at School

Identification of evidence-based practices for promotion of social and emotional functioning of children at school is important for their academic and social development. This introduction reviews information from this special issue focusing on evidence-based research to improve the social and emotional functioning of children in their classrooms and schools. An emphasis on reduction of negative behaviors and promotion of positive, prosocial behaviors is presented in manuscripts for this special issue. The articles in this issue may be grouped in terms of the tiered system or School-Wide Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports Framework into articles at the Tier I, II, and III levels. Tier I interventions support positive behaviors and reduce problem behaviors for all children in a classroom or school, as a type of primary prevention. In terms of secondary prevention, Tier II interventions are selected interventions that address problem behaviors of students at risk for poor functioning, who do not respond to Tier I interventions. Finally, Tier III interventions are used for those students with behavioral and emotional issues who do not respond to Tier II interventions, and students in this group are indicated for intervention at a tertiary care level. In summary, this special issue presents evidence-based knowledge from research at all three intervention levels that aim to promote children’s social and emotional development in the school setting.