Behavior-focused alternative schools serve students who have been unsuccessful in other school settings due to low academic achievement coupled with significant behavior challenges. In this study, we investigated the effectiveness of secondary behavior-focused alternative schools on four different student outcome variables: (a) school attendance,…

We report findings of a convergent validity study examining the internalizing subscale (SRSS-I5) of the newly adapted Student Risk Screening Scale for Internalizing and Externalizing (SRSS-IE12) with the internalizing subscale of the Teacher Report Form (TRF; Achenbach, 1991) conducted in 13 schools across three states with 195 kindergarten…

Truancy remains a persistent concern, with serious consequences for the individual, family, and society, as truancy is often linked to academic failure, disengagement with school, school dropout, and delinquency. This study analyzed large-scale data covering multiple years of cohorts of delinquent youths born between 1981 and 1988. Truancy…

The purpose of this study was to determine the most effective of three instructional methods for teaching mathematics to secondary students with emotional and behavioral disorders. A single-subject alternating-treatments research design was used to compare three instructional methods: direct teach, computer-assisted instruction, and a combination…

Although preventive interventions that include both parent and child components produce stronger effects on disruptive behavior than child-only interventions, engaging parents in behavioral parent training is a significant challenge. This study examined the effects of specific risk factors for child disruptive behavior on parent attendance in…

This study investigated differences between high and low school attending of 38 severely emotionally disturbed adolescents. High attenders were from higher socioeconomic backgrounds, demonstrated higher mathematics skills, exhibited a superior behavioral adjustment, and were more likely to travel to school by private rather than public…

Universal measures of school functioning/impairment (i.e., grade point average, subject failures, absenteeism, disciplinary referrals/suspensions) were examined over the course of 1 school year for a cohort of 89 special education students classified as having emotional disturbance (ED) who were taught in a unique public school program. On average…

The authors examined school discipline problems in relation to academic and interpersonal characteristics of students in a middle school of a rural low-income community. The sample comprised 259 students (83 boys, 176 girls)--all of whom were African American--and reflected the community's public school attendance. School records were examined,…