As states develop their accountability and improvement systems under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) they can choose high-leverage measures of school progress that, when combined with effective policies, hold promise for supporting success for the youth most marginalized by the education system. This paper suggests that to promote equity and…

This article examines state-level school laws that emerged over the last decade with regard to bully prevention. The purpose is to determine, among states that legally mandate public schools to address bullying, how extensively they have incorporated language representing the primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention levels. State bully laws…

Over the last decade, bully prevention activities moved from the local districts to the state houses where legislators amended public school laws to incorporate safety regulations. For instance, the 2001 authorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, referred to as No Child Left Behind, included the Safe and Drug-Free Schools and…

School-based prevention and promotion interventions (SBPPI) improve desirable outcomes (e.g., commitment to school and attendance) and reduce undesirable outcomes (e.g., suspensions and violence). Unfortunately, our understanding of how to effectively implement and sustain SBPPI outside of well-controlled conditions is lacking. To bridge this…

This exploratory study sought to determine if a popular school-based drug prevention program might be effective in schools that are making adequate yearly progress (AYP). Thirty-four schools with grades 6 through 8 in 11 states were randomly assigned either to receive Project ALERT (n = 17) or to a control group (n = 17); of these, 10 intervention…

Background: Concerns have been expressed that No Child Left Behind (NCLB) may be reducing the amount of classroom time devoted to subjects other than those for which students are tested. The purpose of this article is to explore whether NCLB legislation has affected the provision of evidence-based drug prevention curricula (EBC) in the nation's…

Current estimates indicate that over 6 million children live with at least one parent who is a substance abuser or is substance dependent. Children who are exposed to drug and alcohol abuse are at a greater risk of experiencing academic and behavior difficulties. Additionally, several studies have shown that students with emotional and behavioral…

Federal mandates such as No Child Left Behind and the Individuals With Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 are prompting elementary schools to carefully monitor early literacy outcomes. The shift toward monitoring early literacy outcomes requires the identification of valid sublexical fluency measures. In the current study, sublexical…

The purpose of this article is to engage in the debate about "Blueprint III" regarding practice and graduate education in school psychology. We use school-based consultation as a lens to uncover meaning and context in the "Blueprint" and give particular attention to the "Blueprint" authors' foregrounding of prevention…

School safety is one of the most important issues facing administrators, teachers, and parents. Several risk factors have been identified as antecedents to aggression including poor social skills, difficulty dealing with anger and frustration, and inadequate problem solving abilities. "No Child Left Behind" requires all schools receiving…

Background: An estimated 1 in 5 American children has a vision problem. Children living in poor urban environments have twice the normal rate of vision problems. Uncorrected vision problems can worsen over time and result in permanent vision loss. Early detection and treatment of vision problems is therefore essential in optimizing children's…

The concept of early intervening services was introduced into public school systems with the implementation of the Individuals With Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA) of 2004. This article describes a program developed for students with speech sound disorders that incorporated concepts of early intervening services, response to…

This study examines prevention practices and perceptions in U.S. schools since passage of federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation, using survey data from state education agencies (SEA) and a population-based sample of school districts. Only one third of U.S. public school districts rely on evidence-based prevention curriculum in middle…

The goal of the RF program, Part B of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB), is to have all children reading at grade level by the end of third grade. There is no legislative precedent for this program, focused as it is on preventing reading failure in the early elementary years (US Department of Education, April 2002). Because the design of…

This paper examines the implementation of the Pyramid of Interventions (POI) at a suburban Georgia Middle School through an examination of teacher understanding, assessment of overall effectiveness, and the need for further professional development. The Pyramid of Interventions is the response to intervention (RTI) component of the Individuals…