Background: Strong classroom management skills are necessary for students' academic and behavioral success (e.g., Korpershoek et al., 2016), and group contingencies are an effective strategy teachers can use to help improve classroom behaviors (Little et al., 2015; Maggin et al., 2012). CW-FIT is one group contingency intervention that helps…

Decades of research has documented the negative effects of physical punishment, including spanking (Heilmann et al., 2021). Since 1998, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has endorsed the use of time out from positive reinforcement (TO) as an alternative to corporal punishment (Sege et al., 2018). Despite urging at the federal level…

Feedback is widely recognized as an effective instructional tool. Different feedback types and the efficacy of their role in the classroom have been researched extensively because all forms of feedback are impressionable to students. Research findings have indicated ways that feedback has been implemented into the classroom successfully. In this…

This article discusses the use of behavior-specific praise (BSP), an effective technique for promoting prosocial behavior and managing classrooms. It addresses the criticism that BSP may reduce students' intrinsic motivation and offers directions on how to use BSP to provide students, especially those with challenging behaviors, with useful…

Pathological thinking surrounding disenfranchised and marginalized communities remains a problem in education policy, popular discourse, and research on marginalized communities. Scholars employ a host of frameworks to challenge such pathological thinking, often through the language of deficits. We argue that in an effort to refute pathological…

Engaging in deliberate practice opportunities during special education teacher preparation may increase the implementation and sustainability of evidence-based practices with fidelity in K-12 classrooms. We used a concurrent multiple baseline design across participants to evaluate the effects of providing immediate feedback through…

Behavior-specific praise (BSP) is a low-intensity strategy widely used to encourage appropriate behavior. We sought to explore the vast literature base for BSP, which spans 50 years, to better understand for whom and under what conditions BSP has demonstrated effectiveness. We conducted a comprehensive review of school-based intervention studies…

Although evidence-based practices for improving academic engagement for students with emotional and/or behavioral disorders (EBD) have been identified, many teachers do not implement these practices with optimal fidelity. Thus, effective strategies are needed to improve teacher fidelity. Performance feedback is an effective professional…

It is little wonder that there is national consensus on the necessity for school physical education to facilitate holistic development of all learners. Moreover, given the increased mental health issues that K-12 students are facing, it is important to consider a strengths-based approach to physical education that focuses on the holistic…

Special education teachers are often encouraged to use praise in their instructional interactions with their students with significant support needs (SSN). It is assumed that reinforcing behavior facilitates learning and academic achievement for these students. Despite a myriad of interventions aimed at increasing special education teachers' use…

Behavior-specific praise (BSP) is a core component of many positive behavioral interventions and supports at each level of prevention, often used to increase student academic outcomes and/or reduce inappropriate behavior. We conducted a systematic literature review to explore this low-intensity, teacher-delivered strategy, applying Council for…

Among the theories that have been advanced for improving the participation of students in STEM is the postulation that family involvement in students' schooling is critical, as early as the precollege years. The prevalence of knowledge about the importance of familial support for students' success in STEM fields notwithstanding, the corpus of…

In this systematic literature review, we examined the effects of coaching (e.g., written, emailed, visual, video, and self-monitored performance feedback; in vivo bug-in-ear prompting; combinations) teachers and other educators to increase their use of behavior-specific praise, a low-intensity teacher-delivered strategy previously determined to be…

In this comprehensive review, 32 studies were identified in which researchers investigated the effect of real-time performance feedback delivered via technology on interventionist implementation of instructional practices. Studies were evaluated for methodological rigor with quality indicators from the Council for Exceptional Children. Twenty-two…

This dissertation is comprised of two separate manuscripts, which coalesce on the topic of interventions for Black students in educational settings. In the first chapter, I provide an overview of existing interventions that have been applied in different academic environments, particularly as they pertain to Black students in PK-12 and college…