The purpose of this study was to examine associations between implementation fidelity of school-wide positive behavioral interventions and supports (SWPBIS) and student outcomes over time. The sample included 477 K-12 schools across 10 states implementing SWPBIS for varying numbers of years and at varying levels of fidelity (but with 78% of…

Successful implementation of Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS) programs should include culturally responsive practices to reduce disproportionality in school discipline referrals and create effective learning environments for all students. Sustaining culturally responsive PBIS programs requires attention to student demographics…

Disproportionality in special education identification has been long debated by researchers and scholars in the field of education, yet understanding of this phenomenon remains limited (Sullivan & Bal, 2013). Racial, gender, and cultural biases are integral aspects of the special education process, especially for African-American males (Harry…

Culturally responsible implementation of School-Wide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (SWPBIS) requires that schools monitor indices of disciplinary practices among minority groups. School teams are encouraged to calculate risk indices and risk ratios to evaluate the extent to which students of all groups are removed from classrooms…

Office discipline referral (ODR) data are increasingly used to monitor student behavior problems and the impact of interventions, but there has been limited research examining their validity. The current study examined the concordance of ODRs with teacher ratings of student behavior using data on 8,645 children in 335 classrooms at 21 elementary…

This study investigated the effect School-Wide Positive Behavior Support had on special education students' achievement and office discipline referrals. Sixty-nine special education students from eight elementary schools participated in this study. Thirty-four participants were in the group with School-Wide Positive Behavior Support, and 35…

This mixed method, embedded, correlational study's aim was to make explicit the relationships between changed procedures in one elementary school's PBIS universal program and student behavior as measured by office discipline referrals. A secondary aim was to use student and faculty responses on surveys to interpret participants' reactions to the…

Schools are a primary setting for the provision of services to children with social, emotional, and behavioral problems. School social workers serve a vital role in identifying, assessing, serving, and referring students suffering from myriad mental health problems, including depression. Starting with a discussion of gathering valid assessment…

The achievement gap between African American students and their Caucasian peers has been of concern for quite some time in the field of education (Orfield, Losen, Wald, & Swanson, 2004). As a result, this article examined high stakes reading test scores for 4,135 African American students in grades 3 through 10 in a Midwestern school district.…

Office disciplinary referrals can be a useful index for assessing students? discipline problems as well as designing and evaluating school discipline practices. In this paper, we examined disciplinary referral data compiled from an urban elementary school (majority African American) in a midwestern city over a 2-year period. Evident issues…