This study examined the effects of adjusting the difficulty level of instructional materials on the on-task time and comprehension of four students with emotional and behavioral disorders. All participants previously exhibited low rates of on-task behavior during reading assignments. Students were presented with reading materials at their…

Student problem behaviors in early elementary school have been associated with increased teacher burnout, negative emotions, and stress, along with negative student outcomes, including increased risk of emotional and behavioral disorders (EBDs). This study examined the impact of BEST in CLASS--Elementary (BEST in CLASS-E), a teacher-delivered Tier…

Universal screening for emotional and behavioral risk in schools facilitates early identification and intervention for students as part of multitiered systems of support. Early identification has the potential to mitigate adverse outcomes of emotional and behavioral disorders. The purpose of this study was to extend existing research on the…

We report findings of a convergent validity study examining the internalizing subscale (SRSS-I5) of the newly adapted Student Risk Screening Scale for Internalizing and Externalizing (SRSS-IE12) with the internalizing subscale of the Teacher Report Form (TRF; Achenbach, 1991) conducted in 13 schools across three states with 195 kindergarten…

We report findings of a validity study comparing two screening tools: the Student Risk Screening Scale-Internalizing and Externalizing (SRSS-IE) and the Social Skills Improvement System-Performance Screening Guide (SSiS-PSG; Elliott & Gresham, 2007). Participants were 1,680 kindergarten through sixth-grade elementary students from three…

Students with emotional and/or behavioral disabilities (E/BD), including students with emotional disturbance and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, receiving special education services perform significantly worse on academic performance measures than same age peers. Researchers have focused on reading and math performance while less is…

Office disciplinary referrals (ODR) and classroom exclusions among students from minority backgrounds have been a persistent concern for decades. The purpose of this dissertation was to assess disciplinary characteristics of American Indian students in special education. More specifically, the purpose was to determine (a) the rate at which…

We examined three questions. First, do reading difficulties increase children's risk of behavioral difficulties? Second, do behavioral difficulties increase children's risk of reading difficulties? Third, do mathematics difficulties increase children's risk of reading or behavioral difficulties? We investigated these questions using (a) a sample…

In our previous research (Benner, Nelson, Sanders, & Ralston, 2012), elementary schools were randomly assigned to either a primary-level behavior intervention directed at externalizing behavior (treatment, n = 7 schools) or to business-as-usual condition (control, n = 6 schools). A screening procedure was used to identify K through 3-grade…

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…

This study investigated the effects of small-group reading interventions, implemented within a school wide positive behavior support model, on elementary students with and without risk for emotional and behavior disorders. Participating schools and students were part of a larger randomized controlled group study. A subset of the larger study, four…