This study was an initial psychometric investigation of the Universal Behavior Screener (UBS), a nine-item screening measure developed by psychologists within the Hawai'i Department of Education (HIDOE) to identify elementary school youth at risk for social, emotional, and behavioral concerns. Data from nine teachers reporting on 230 students at…

Thousands of schools across the United States, and worldwide, implement School-Wide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (SWPBIS). SWPBIS provides a framework whereby teams of educators engage in data-based decision making to select, implement, and monitor a continuum of behavioral supports and build sustainable systems to promote…

Although professional development is an important means of improving both teachers' skills and student outcomes, there is a dearth of high quality empirical research on the efficacy of such efforts. The efficacy of the Challenging Behavior Process was assessed using a mixed method approach which included the use of pre-, post-, and follow-up…

Background: Escalation of youth violence within a large geographic school-complex area in southeastern rural Hawaii became a major problem in 2006. How cultural forces impact the problem was an impetus to examine youth violence from perspectives of adults and children in rural communities. Gathering these data was an essential first step toward…

The article introduces some crucial issues in the area of childhood emotional disturbance and behavioral disorders in the schools of Hawaii and U.S. dependencies in the Pacific Basin region. (DLS)

This study was undertaken to determine the relative risk of violence among students attending Hawaii schools with higher proportions of children of Department of Defense (DOD) personnel. Approximately 12% of the total public school enrollment of nearly 190,000 students is DOD connected. Forty-eight schools (8 high schools, 8 intermediates, and 32…

This study was undertaken to determine the relative risk of violence among students attending Hawaii schools with higher proportions of children of Department of Defense (DOD) personnel. Approximately 12% of the total public school enrollment of nearly 190,000 students is DOD connected. Forty-eight schools (8 high schools, 8 intermediates, and 32…

High school students (n=96) from 4 ethnic groups in Hawaii (of European, Japanese, Polynesian, or Filipino ancestry) reported their own and their parents' behavior in the resolution of conflicts during the previous year. Polynesian parents were reported to exhibit the most aggression. Students with European American parents were most likely to…

The Child Welfare League of America (CWLA) is the nation's oldest and largest membership-based child welfare organization committed to engaging people everywhere in promoting the well-being of children, youth, and their families and protecting every child from harm. By publishing a diverse range of views on a wide array of topics, "Children's…

An informal survey of Hawaiian school teachers and administrators revealed a considerable variance among communities in the type of problems mentioned. A model was formulated to specify the characteristics of the communities in the hope of discovering a basis for allocating future program resources. The model consists of two dimensions: density of…

The State of the Science conference was held in May, 2007 as part of the ongoing series of national conferences, "Building on Family Strengths," conducted by the Research and Training Center on Family Support and Children's Mental Health at Portland State University. The theme of this State-of-the Science conference was "Effective…

"Positive Action," a K-12 program, aims to promote a positive self-concept, character development, healthy behavior, and social-emotional skills and to reduce disruptive and problem behavior. The curricula for elementary and middle school students each have seven units per kit, with nine kits per grade level. The high school curriculum…

This paper describes a community research project which preceded the development of the Kamehameha Early Education Project (KEEP). The community project was designed to assist teachers in solving classroom behavior and academic problems. The initial focus on workshops and theories proved inadequate for dealing with daily classroom problems. A…

Few would argue against the idea of planning and implementing improvements to the nation's schools. This report contends, school improvement planning processes have frequently not been conceived in ways likely to produce desired learning outcomes for many students. The analyses presented in this report focus on a lack of attention to how schools…