Students faced many challenges during the onset of COVID-19 across the country, including isolation in their learning from not being able to be in the classroom with their peers. Although we are four years' post- pandemic, a survey found more than 80% of public schools reported "stunted behavioral and socioemotional development" in their…

Family-school partnerships are valuable and are associated with improvements in students' academic success. However, teachers often do not receive sufficient training to confidently collaborate with families. Furthermore, parents report feeling unsure of how to support learning at home and dissatisfaction with the special education process. The…

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore how the use of behavioral skills training of behavioral interventions with staff untrained in ABA influenced participants' overall experience and indicated usefulness of the training procedure in the Northwestern portion of the United States. This study was guided by the theoretical…

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of a multipronged, trauma-informed professional development for teachers at a K-8, Title I public school in an urban city. The instructional approach involved four elements: (1) training on trauma-informed care related to student development, learning, and skill-building, (2) prepared lesson…

Exclusionary discipline practices have a direct negative impact on individual students, schools, and society at large. To improve equity and cultural responsivity, active efforts to assess the contextual fit of effective strategies are necessary. The following study describes the Inclusive Skill-building Learning Approach (ISLA), an intervention…

This doctoral project investigates the impact of Child Adult Relationship Enhancement (CARE) training on teacher behavior management skills, as well as their perceptions of the program. A review of the literature includes research concerning current social emotional learning (SEL) programs, parenting programs, and the role of the therapeutic…

Exclusionary discipline practices have a direct negative impact on individual students, schools, and society at large. To improve equity and cultural responsivity, active efforts to assess the contextual fit of effective strategies are necessary. The following study describes the Inclusive Skill-building Learning Approach (ISLA), an intervention…

Using an adaptation of Brownell and Smith's (1993) conceptual model, this study sought to examine the perception of primary and secondary special educators in St. Lucia of their roles as compared to roles of special education teachers universally. A survey, consisting of 89 Likert-scale statements and five closed ended questions, was administered…

Using a pre-post randomized controlled trial, the purpose of this study was to determine whether a social problem-solving curriculum, "Take CHARGE!," based on a cognitive-behavioral approach, could improve students' knowledge of problem-solving skills, as well as self-report of social behaviors for 92 middle school students with…

We used a multiple baseline design across skills to evaluate the effects of a program to teach a classroom of children to respond to their name and a group call (i.e., precursors) as well as to peer mediate these precursors to promote compliance with a variety of multistep instructions. Teachers taught these skills via classwide behavior skills…

The goal of this pilot study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a multi-component consultation package in improving teachers' classroom management skills, particularly among teachers with lower baseline levels of knowledge, skills, and intervention-supportive beliefs. Participants were 58 elementary school teachers (93% female; 50% non-Hispanic…

The goal of this pilot study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a multi-component consultation package in improving teachers' classroom management skills, particularly among teachers with lower baseline levels of knowledge, skills, and intervention-supportive beliefs. Participants were 58 elementary school teachers (93% female; 50% Non-Hispanic…

Participation in Social Emotional Learning (SEL) programs reduces aggressive and antisocial behavior (Durlak, Weissberg, Dymnicki, Taylor, & Schellinger, 2011). Theoretically, SEL programs foster social and emotionally intelligent youth through improving children's social and emotional skills, defined in the present study as the ability to…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of a behavioral art program in improving social skills for two children with autism in group settings. A multiple probe design across behaviors was used. The results indicated that for both children, the program increased the percentages of spontaneous verbal communications,…

The purpose of the study was to determine the efficacy of the Class-Wide Function-Related Intervention Teams (CW-FIT) program for improving students' on-task behavior, and increasing teacher recognition of appropriate behavior. The intervention is a group contingency classroom management program consisting of teaching and reinforcing appropriate…