The relation between items assessing knowledge about educating students with disabilities and the Tschannen-Moran and Hoy's Teachers' Sense of Efficacy Scale (TSES; 2001) was explored for 140 preservice, general education teachers using biserial correlation coefficients and a multiple regression equation. From the data collected, 8 correlations…

The purpose of this study was to examine the changes in initial eligibilities of elementary students across Tennessee since the implementation response to intervention (RtI), as well as understand the perceptions of elementary school psychologists related to those changes in identification and eligibility. RtI is a Tennessee mandated initiative,…

This study explored the practices rural schools in Wisconsin have in place to meet the needs of students at grades PK-3 with Emotional and Behavioral Disabilities (EBD). The research question was as follows: What practices do rural elementary schools use as they strive to meet the Individual Education Plan (IEP) Objectives of PK-3 grade students…

P.S. 52 Sheepshead Bay School in Brooklyn, New York, serves more than 850 students from pre-kindergarten to fifth grade from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds. After scores on the 2014 New York State English language arts assessment were unsatisfactory, first-year principal Rafael Alvarez searched for a way to improve academic outcomes for his…

The purpose of the study was to determine if the interventions utilized by an external provider was impacting the student achievement for ninth-graders in an urban high school. The Response to Intervention (RTI) model is currently being utilized by the external provider to provide interventions for incoming ninth-graders in the areas of literacy…

Universal screening and progress monitoring are two essential components of the response-to-intervention (RTI) framework. Within RTI models, teachers are commonly expected to collect, score, and use much of the associated student performance data. One measure that is commonly used within RTI models is Curriculum-Based Measurement in Reading…

Fragile X syndrome (FXS) is the most common inherited cause of intellectual disability and the most common known genetic cause of autism. FXS is associated with psychiatric impairments, including anxiety disorders. There is a paucity of well-developed measures to characterize anxiety in FXS. However, such scales are needed to measure therapeutic…

Background: Regular school attendance is foundational to children's success but school absenteeism is a common, serious, and highly vexing problem. Researchers from various disciplines have produced a rich yet diverse literature for conceptualizing problematic absenteeism that has led to considerable confusion and lack of consensus about a…

Children with the lowest oral language and early literacy skills at entry to kindergarten are the most vulnerable to poor literacy outcomes. This article describes the programmatic development of a Tier 3 early literacy intervention for preschool children who are most in need of intensive support to achieve early literacy outcomes. The…

Implementation fidelity is crucial to the success of behavioral interventions. However, measuring and maintaining intervention implementation fidelity in schools' natural settings can be challenging. This article reports findings from a study examining the implementation fidelity of check-in check-out interventions at an urban school district…

The purpose of this action research study was to design, implement, analyze, and evaluate a series of interventions to increase the elementary teachers' utilization of the RtI process. Another purpose of the study was to determine the teachers' background knowledge and perceptions about the Responsiveness to Intervention (RtI) process at the…

School psychologists' training provides a variety of skills from which its practitioners may draw, including consultation, intervention, counseling, staff development, and assessment. Despite these broad skills, school psychologists' primary roles involve assessment and assessment-related tasks, generally as related to eligibility determination…

Special educators assume an essential leadership role in school-wide multilayered instructional systems for teaching culturally and linguistically diverse learners with and without disabilities, including learners at risk of being inappropriately referred for special education. Research findings from a model demonstration project are presented…

This case demonstrates the efficacy of utilizing an intensive, multi-faceted behavioral intervention paradigm. A comprehensive, integrative, school-based service model was applied to address attention deficit hyperactivity disorder symptomology, oppositional behaviors, and explosive anger at the secondary level. The case reviews a multi-modal…

Response to Intervention (RTI) has become the gateway to identification for many students with specific learning disabilities. Those include students in the 17 states that require RTI as the source of eligibility data as well as many students in the 33 states that allow districts to choose RTI among other options (e.g., discrepancy). There is…