Previous research has demonstrated a need for contextual fit when implementing behavior supports in high schools (Flannery et al., "The High School Journal," 96(4), 267-282, 2013; Flannery & Kato, "Preventing School Failure: Alternative Education for Children and Youth," 61(1), 69-79, 2017). As high schools move beyond the…

When implementing schoolwide PBIS in secondary schools, creating effective acknowledgment systems for expected student behavior can be challenging. To overcome this challenge, it is helpful to understand acknowledgement preferences from the student point of view. In this study, we surveyed students in three middle, two traditional, and two…

Crisis intervention programs have been developed to help educators be better prepared to prevent and respond to students in crisis. Schools spend millions of dollars for the use of these commercial programs, many of which are based on the principles of the Cycle of Acting Out Behavior (Colvin & Scott, 2015), which is considered the "gold…

We examined changes in school discipline policies and the odds of suspension for students by race in one state. Consistent with previous research findings, Black students continue to be suspended at higher rates than White students. School district code of conduct policies indicated that many school districts have started to incorporate…

This study investigates the primary factors influencing school achievement during the COVID-19 pandemic from students' perspectives. The pandemic exacerbated educational inequalities, emphasizing the essential role of teacher effectiveness in boosting student achievement and the significant impact of remote learning challenges. Using focus groups…

In this article, we introduce behavior-specific praise as a portable, feasible strategy for teachers and families to increase student engagement as well as to decrease off-task and disruptive behaviors in a variety of environments. We provide step-by-step guidance to illustrate how behavior-specific praise can be used by teachers during in-person…

At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, schools across the United States transitioned to some form of emergency remote instruction. Preliminary research suggests that special education services may have been disjointed and many caregivers assumed a primary role in service provision during emergency remote instruction. To extend this work with a…

Class-Wide Function-Related Intervention Teams (CW-FIT) is a classroom management system using a group contingency involving direct teaching of classroom rules/skills, differential reinforcement of appropriate behaviors, and minimized social attention to inappropriate behaviors. We investigated elementary school teachers' implementation of CW-FIT…

Many novice teachers leave the field shortly after being hired due to student problematic behaviors. Utilizing effective strategies is not easy, given the disconnect between what the teachers and the students perceive as appropriate behavior. In this study, the researcher analyzed some strategies first-year teachers used to stop and/or deescalate…

Elementary teachers (N = 160) from two districts responded to survey questions about inservice professional development and administrator feedback and support for implementing research-based, effective classroom and behavior management (C/BM) strategies. Results indicated slightly more than half (55%) of teachers reported their participation in…

Professional development for educators is often not evidence-based and insufficient to improve classroom management skills. Video-analysis has been shown to be effective at improving pedagogy of classroom teachers. We expanded on prior literature by using an early childhood general education teacher. A multiple baseline design across behaviors was…

The literature on "what works" in disciplinary alternative education is inconclusive. Our current understanding of effective disciplinary alternative education programs is based primarily on quantitative data collected for administrative purposes. The voices of youth directly affected by disciplinary alternative education programs are…

In response to the call for inclusion, teachers are now managing challenging behavior in the general education classroom at increased rates. Co-teaching has been relied on by many teachers in order to create more inclusive classrooms, however, teachers continue to report feeling ill-prepared to manage student behavior effectively. Although many…

Using administrative data from an urban school district, two series of predictive models were tested for their ability to project a student's high school graduation status. The models included student grades, attendance, behavior, demographic predictors, and school-level variables. Eighth and ninth-grade variables were tested for two graduation…

For many students, placement in an alternative education setting is temporary, and once they make progress, they will be expected to return to their home school setting. An effective transition between settings is essential in order to ensure the student meets the behavioral expectations in the home school and to prevent poor outcomes such as…