School teams regularly meet to review academic and social problems of individual students, groups of students, or their school in general. While the need for problem solving and recommendations for how to do it are widely documented, there is very limited evidence reflecting the extent to which teams effectively engage in a systematic or effective…

Developed in 2003 by the Sisters of Charity Foundation of Canton with a grant from the Kellogg Foundation, "Supporting Partnerships to Assure Ready Kids" ("SPARK Ohio") is a family-centered kindergarten readiness program that works with families, schools, and the community. From its initial sites in Stark County, "SPARK…

Reading Recovery is a short-term early intervention designed to help the lowest-achieving readers in first grade reach average levels of classroom performance in literacy. Students identified to receive Reading Recovery meet individually with a specially trained Reading Recovery teacher every school day for 30-minute lessons over a period of 12 to…

Although there is a strong legislative base and perceived efficacy for multidisciplinary team decision making, limited evidence supports its effectiveness or consistency of implementation in practice. In recent research, we used the Decision Observation, Recording, and Analysis (DORA) tool to document activities and adult behaviors during positive…

Decades of evidence demonstrates that high-quality, well-implemented early education can positively impact the learning trajectories of vulnerable, high-needs young children. Yet, the majority of publicly-funded programs nationwide struggle to implement to quality standards with fidelity and fail to significantly advance children's early…

The purpose of this study was to describe levels of RTI implementation in West Virginia elementary schools. Little is known about the national efforts that states are collectively undertaking to scale up implementation of RTI (Hoover, Baca, Wexler-Love, & Saenz, 2008). West Virginia's elementary schools were required by state policy to…

The period of transition from high school is challenging for most adolescents. There are a substantial number of life-changing decisions that transpire during this time. Choices must be made regarding career paths, continued education, future residence, and avenues for social activities and general integration in the community. Person-centered…

Response to Intervention has the potential to help schools reach the goals of both the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act and Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEIA) 2004. The course of action with the Response to Intervention model is to apply instructionally sound practices based on students' needs, monitor students'…

The Educator Evaluation Pilot Project Midyear Survey gathered teacher feedback about (a) how well various components of the new evaluation system are being implemented; (b) how much time, on average, is required to complete each component of the system; (c) how much each component contributes to professional growth; (d) perceptions and attitudes…

Background: Evidence suggests that the KiVa anti-bullying programme may contribute to a reduction in bullying and victimisation, especially in primary school level. What is more, the level of implementation moderates the programme effects: the more the programme was implemented, the more bullying was reduced. Purpose: Consequently, it is of…

Although the number of schools implementing School-Wide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (SWPBIS) is increasing, and there is great demand for evidence-based Tier 2 and 3 interventions for students requiring additional support, little systematic research has examined administrator support for such programming. This article examines…

The pace of implementation of PBIS in restrictive settings for juvenile offenders is accelerating. Recommendations for future research include the following: examine effects of PBIS on preventing entry into the school-to-prison pipeline, identify factors that influence PBIS implementation, develop the capacity of restrictive settings to engage in…

The purpose of the study was to examine the effectiveness and feasibility of using tiered instruction to increase the frequency of conversational turn taking (CTT) among preschoolers with and without disabilities in an inclusive setting. Three CTT interventions (Universal Design for Learning, Peer Mediated Instruction, and Milieu Teaching) were…

Increasing attention to "Implementation Research" and the "Implementation Problem" has given rise to confusion about matters such as the role of "empirically-supported practices," "fidelity of implementation," and "monitoring fidelity of implementation." To clarify the matters, we approach these topics from the broad perspective of efforts to…

Structural, process, and content dimensions of a coaching-based professional development (PD) intervention were examined in an implementation fidelity study. The intervention focused on Head Start teachers' vocabulary and phonemic awareness instruction, and was delivered through onsite classroom visits and technologically mediated methods that…