Across the modern history of the field of special education and emotional/behavioral disorders (EBD), direct observation of student and educator behavior has been an essential component of the diagnostic process, student progress monitoring, and establishing functional and statistical relationships within research. This article provides an…

Students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) are often placed into self-contained settings to provide more focused academic and behavioral supports. Little is known, however, about differences in the instructional contexts of self-contained and general education classrooms. Using direct observation and self-report measures, the present…

Although functional assessment-based interventions have produced desired outcomes in student behavior in applied settings, most of those interventions involved strong, sustained participation with researchers in intervention design, implementation, and assessment. In this article, we describe a systematic approach to designing, implementing, and…

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a comprehensive reading program using the Scott Foresman Reading program (Foresman, 2000), supplemented with Torgeson and Bryant's (1994) Phonological Awareness Training for Reading (PATR) program in a general education classroom with four kindergarten special education students identified as…

It is assumed that students with EBD who have more severe deficits in academic, behavior, and/or social domains are placed in more restrictive settings. However, this assumption has not been empirically tested. This study compared students educated in self-contained classrooms to students educated in a self-contained school to determine if the…

Little attention has been dedicated to monitoring the educational progress of students with EBD receiving services in restrictive settings, using empirically validated tools and procedures. This study compared the progress of students with EBD receiving special education services in either a self-contained school or self-contained classrooms to…

In this article, the authors examined (a) the accuracy of teacher nominations in identifying (N = 178) high school students with externalizing, internalizing, comorbid, and typical behavior patterns, as well as students who were receiving special education services for high-incidence disabilities, (b) the level of treatment fidelity and access to…

A study examined the effectiveness of the Kindergarten Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies (K-PALS) in increasing the beginning reading skills of six kindergartners identified as having emotional or behavioral disorders. The peer tutoring phase of K-PALS led to increases in student scores on letter-sound correspondence and blending probes. (Contains…

A study involving three elementary students with emotional/behavioral disorders in a self-contained special education classroom compared the effects of choice and no choice conditions on academic and social behaviors. Opportunities to make choices during academic situations positively affected the academic and social behaviors of two of the three…

This article reviews eight experimental studies on the effectiveness of cooperative learning as an instructional model for students with emotional and behavioral disorders (E/BD). The studies' methodological strengths and weaknesses are noted. The paper concludes that the effectiveness of cooperative learning for improving the academic achievement…

This introductory article to this special issue considers four reasons why there has been little research on the academic needs of students with emotional and behavioral disorders: (1) student behavior interferes with instruction; (2) students influence teacher behavior; (3) lack of teacher preparation; and (4) lack of research. (Contains…

This study examined the effectiveness of a modified and comprehensive version of the "Open Court Reading Curriculum" with two groups of children with emotional and/or behavior disorders. Results showed moderate gains in reading achievement but no changes in observed problem behaviors. (Contains references.) (Author/DB)

A procedure assessed the effectiveness of three academic strategies based on the assessment results for three elementary boys with emotional and behavioral disorders and academic difficulties in mathematics. Following the implementation of the academic strategy identified in this procedure, all three students demonstrated an increase in their…

This study examined the relationship between opportunities to respond (OTR) to academic requests and teacher praise in 20 classrooms for students with emotional and/or behavior disorders using time-window sequential analysis. Results suggest that: (1) a summary-level relationship represented by a significant positive correlation and (2) a…

Highlights a number of recommended best-teaching practices, selectively reviews the research literature on teacher interactions in classrooms for students with emotional and behavioral disorders, provides a possible interpretative framework for the apparent discrepancies between research and practice, and makes recommendations for future research.…