Early adolescents entering middle school are at a pivotal developmental phase as they become less dependent on parents/guardians and seek greater autonomy while encountering a complexity of social demands requiring them to regulate their emotions, thoughts, and behaviors to achieve academic and social success. Yet, students who receive services…

Students with emotional or behavioral disorders (EBD) often display externalizing behaviors (e.g., aggression and defiance) and experience internalizing symptoms (e.g., anxiety and depression). When left untreated, these difficulties can result in negative outcomes for students in school and beyond. Cognitive-behavioral interventions (CBIs) offer…

Using an ABAB withdrawal design, the study evaluated the direct and generalized effects of a combined independent and interdependent group contingency on the engagement and disruptive behavior of two groups of students enrolled in an alternative school serving students with emotional and behavioral disorders. Class 1 included seven middle school…

Using a pre-post randomized controlled trial, the purpose of this study was to determine whether a social problem-solving curriculum, "Take CHARGE!," based on a cognitive-behavioral approach, could improve students' knowledge of problem-solving skills, as well as self-report of social behaviors for 92 middle school students with…

An ABAB design was used to evaluate the effectiveness of an interdependent group contingency with randomized components to improve the transition behavior of middle school students identified with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBDs) served in an alternative educational setting. The intervention was implemented by one teacher with three…

In this practice brief, we describe several current examples of approaches that are aimed at improving outcomes for students entering high school. Additionally, we present strategies to disrupt the negative trajectory for students with EBD, who seldom receive coordinated, individualized supports during the critical transition from middle to high…

Two functionally-indicated choice-making interventions were implemented by a classroom teacher to determine the effects on the percentage of task completion, accuracy, and classroom disruption for 9 sixth through eighth grade participants with emotional and behavioral disorders in a residential math classroom using a reversal design. Results…

This article reports that for students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD), difficulties in core academic skills may play a large role in student success or failure in science. Why? Comprehending science texts can be particularly problematic with their complex and often unknown vocabulary words. Another problem identified as an…

Physical health may be an important variable that influences students' behavioral and academic performance in school settings. Poor health status is hypothesized to negatively influence student performance even in the presence of evidence-based practices. In this study, teachers reported their perceptions of students' health status as well as…

In this review, the authors offer a critical analysis of published interventions for improving mathematics performance among middle and high school students with EBD in light of the Common Core State Standards. An exhaustive review of literature from 1975 to December 2012 yielded 20 articles that met criteria for inclusion. The authors analyzed…

The research literature on the use of Functional Behavioral Assessments (FBA) to develop Behavior Intervention Plans (BIP) for students with emotional/behavioral disorders, who present problem classroom behaviors for use in the schools, is well documented. There are school-wide, district-wide, and state-wide plans that are currently being…

Check-in, check-out (CICO) is a secondary-tier intervention with proven utility for reducing problem behaviors and increasing responsiveness to primary-tier expectations of positive behavioral interventions and supports (PBIS). CICO has been investigated at the elementary and middle school levels in traditional school settings with students both…

This study examined programming practices that have identified in the research as critical for school success for students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD). Secondary purposes of the study were to identify the extent to which these practices were used and to examine student social/emotional and academic outcome data in a public day…

Check In/Check Out (CICO) is a secondary tier intervention for those students who are not responsive to universal tier, school-wide positive behavioral interventions and supports. The present study extended the implementation of CICO to six students with emotional and behavioral disorders in a residential facility whose behaviors were maintained…

The authors begin this article by introducing a student, Andy, who has emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD). Andy is the kind of student who needs to be given more responsibility for his own behavior. In this article, the authors illustrate why and how that can be done. The authors focus predominantly on the strategy of self-monitoring and how…