Urban elementary school teachers face many challenges in the classroom. Addressing challenging student behaviors is one of these challenges. Challenging student behaviors, which include disruptive behaviors such as noncompliance and verbal aggression, can impede student engagement, and if students are not engaged, their learning is stymied.…

Active Breaks (AB) are a classroom management strategy to increase student on-task behavior in elementary-aged general education populations. ABs are defined as short bouts of physical activity that take place between academic instructional periods. Research has focused on breaks with a dosage ranging from 4- to 15-min, with demonstrated positive…

Many children on the autism spectrum struggle significantly in their early language development, entering kindergarten with little or no functional speech (Kasari et al., 2014; Rose et al., 2016). Naturalistic developmental behavioral interventions (NDBIs) are a promising approach for supporting early language and communication development for…

The purpose of this secondary data analysis study was to investigate the possible association between the use of behavior management strategies by interventionists in kindergarten small-group interventions and the self-regulation of the participating children through the use of multilevel modeling. The sample consisted of 395 children from 144…

The purpose of this study was to assess the effectiveness of the Zones of Regulation program, as a tier II intervention for elementary age students who were identified by their teachers as struggling with self-regulation. Minimal research has been dedicated to the Zones of Regulation program. Nonetheless, educators are using the program regularly…

Mental health, social-emotional disparity, and the woes of not self-regulating or controlling one's mental well-being are significant factors that educational institutions are fighting to manage daily. What common thread can be used to stitch or heal the emptiness that so many urban elementary school students experience on a given day? This…

This study compared the effects of high-tech (e.g., clickers) and low-tech (e.g., response cards) active responding strategies during whole-group English language arts in two first-grade classrooms serving students with and without disabilities. The authors combined an ABAB reversal design with an alternating treatments design to compare the…

Problem behaviors are prevalent in schools and may result in negative effects for the students exhibiting those behaviors, teachers, and other students. Increasing on-task behaviors has been shown to minimize disruptive behaviors. The current study utilized an interdependent group contingency-based intervention, Class-Wide Function-related…

Student misbehavior in the classroom is often reported as an area of concern for teachers. Having to focus on classroom management rather than content results in a loss of important instructional time, which can have a deleterious impact on student academic achievement. The purpose of the study was to examine whether a character education program…

The purpose of this study was to compare the behavior outcomes of kindergarten (n = 20), first-grade (n = 20), second-grade (n = 20), and third-grade (n = 20) students in a large urban Midwestern school district returning to school after receiving out-of-school suspensions for violent and/or aggressive behaviors with the behavior outcomes of same…

This research project sought to determine the effects of a School-Wide Positive Behavior Intervention Support program (SWPBIS) on the intrinsic motivation of third grade students in regard to student achievement, student behavior, and teacher perception. Students of two intermediate schools served as the treatment group and control group, and were…

While school lunch has the potential to be a time for students to develop appropriate social skills, most cafeterias are rife with disruptive and aggressive behavior. Lunch monitors struggle to effectively manage the many students eating lunch and yet few evidence-based cafeteria interventions exist. The purpose of this study was to implement and…

Discursive practices enacted by educators in kindergarten create a blueprint for how the educational trajectories of students with disabilities get constructed. In this two-year ethnographic case study, I critically examine educators' relationships with students considered to present challenging behaviors in one classroom located in a…

Student absentee rates remain a problem in spite of increased attention to absenteeism since the passing of the No Child Left Behind Act in 2002. High rates of absenteeism correlate to low academic achievement, early drop out, and increased risk of alcohol and drug abuse and criminal activity. This mixed method research design incorporated…

Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are associated with many different levels of language and social impairment, differences in levels of cognitive impairment, varying levels of aberrant behavior, and discrepancies in the presence or amount of restrictive and repetitive behavior. The heterogeneity found within the ASD population is coupled with…