Positive Behaviour for Learning (PB4L) is a flexible framework that can be localised to ensure it is a culturally responsive approach to protect and promote student wellbeing and positive behaviour. One of the downsides is that it requires much paperwork. Teachers need to record behaviour, reward positive and report negative behaviour, and file…

Statewide technical assistance providers support many school teams through training, consultation, and coaching to improve systems and outcomes for mathematics for every student. They have the opportunity to work with many school psychologists, who often indicate they are more comfortable engaging in systems-level work for literacy, behavior, and…

The field of special education has become increasingly interested in and concerned about the costs associated with delivering programs and services to students. Yet, to date, there has been relatively limited data on the costs or return on investment of special education services and preventive interventions. There is an opportunity to learn from…

Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) is an evidence-based approach to addressing behavior issues in schools. Typically, the Minnesota Department of Education and the Regional Training Projects sponsor three training sessions per year for schools that are participating in Minnesota's two-year training sequence for PBIS. However,…

This study aimed to provide evidence for the reliability and validity of the "Systems Coaching Survey (SCS)." Systems coaching is an approach to building capacity among groups of educators to drive educational reform efforts by employing seven interdependent sets of skills (interpersonal communication, data-based problem solving, team…

This thesis was written to gain a better understanding of the barriers and beneficial resources as perceived by service providers of students with an emotional disturbance. This study approaches the literature with a focus on human development. Gaps in the research consist of various theories by groundbreaking theorists that have paved the way for…

Relative to peers without disabilities, students with disabilities are more likely to experience exclusionary discipline. Specifically, students with disabilities experience disproportionate levels of restraint, seclusion, out-of-school suspension, expulsion, and contacts with law enforcement. Further, after controlling for race (Black/African…

Restraint and seclusion (R/S) negatively affect students; for example, numerous investigations have demonstrated that serious injuries result from R/S (e.g., Chan et al., 2012; Mohr et al., 2003; Nunno et al., 2006). Changing policy and practice to reduce R/S is critical to promote safety and improve the educational experience and benefit for…

Background: Students with behavioral support needs are educated in elementary classrooms daily. However, teachers receive limited training to support students, resulting in limited preventative and intervention services for such students. It is currently unclear what types of training preservice and inservice teachers receive, their perceptions of…

Students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often display serious problem behavior that hinders educational and social progress. Educators in public schools are often untrained in the use of intensive evidence-based positive behavior technologies. This study describes the preliminary investigation of a coaching and consulting model for increasing…

The Pyramid Model has a strong base of implementation research with in-service teachers. However, an entire population of the future workforce has been excluded from the research: pre-service teachers. The purpose of this multi-case qualitative study was to investigate pre-service teachers' (N = 80) attitudes and beliefs, after receiving training…

School climate is comprised of experiences of school life that reflect norms, values, relationships, teaching practices and systemic structures. A student's perception of school climate can be impacted by individual-level (race and gender), school-level (school socioeconomic status, school size, and schoolwide practices), and district-level…

The problem addressed in this study is the disproportionality in office discipline referrals (ODRs) for Black students at a Northeast Florida Middle School despite the implementation of School-wide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (SWPBIS). The purpose of this qualitative case study was to understand middle school teachers'…

School-Wide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (SWPBIS) are an integral part of schools across the United States. When implementing SWPBIS, academic achievement, emotional regulation, prosocial behavior increases while behavioral problems, bullying, exclusionary discipline teacher stress and teacher burnout decrease. Despite the…

Despite the potential benefits of integrating family-school partnerships into school-wide PBIS, many barriers persist that limit a school's ability to engage in meaningful family-school partnerships. These barriers to implementation suggest the importance of understanding the extent to which school teams can overcome these obstacles and promote…