A randomized controlled trial on the interconnected systems framework for school mental health and PBIS: Focus on proximal variables and school discipline.

This study reviews findings for the first randomized controlled trial (RCT) on the Interconnected Systems Framework (ISF) for school mental health (SMH) and Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS). Since its development in the late 2000s, the ISF has been supported by federally funded centers for SMH and PBIS, and, guided by a national workgroup, is being implemented in >50 communities in the United States. This experimental evaluation of the ISF involved an RCT implemented in 24 schools in two southeastern states, with the ISF implemented in eight schools, PBIS alone implemented in eight schools, and typically co-located PBIS+SMH implemented in eight schools. Related to very poor implementation, documented by two sources of fidelity data, two ISF schools were dropped from major analyses; hence, the study used a treatment on the treated (ToT; Rubin, 1974) as compared to a more traditional Intent-to-Treat approach (ITT; Lachin, 2000). This is the first paper from this large study, with emphasis here on proximal variables and school discipline. Within schools' multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS), ISF schools delivered more Tier 2 (early intervention) and Tier 3 (treatment) interventions to a greater proportion of students than the other two conditions by the second year of the intervention. There was also a dramatic difference in the provision of interventions by community mental health clinicians in ISF schools (almost half of interventions delivered) as compared to PBIS+SMH schools (around 3% of interventions delivered), underscoring the critical role of the ISF in integrating clinicians into MTSS teams and core school functions in SMH. As compared to the other two conditions, ISF schools also had reduced office discipline referrals (ODRs) and in-school suspensions, as well as reduced ODRs and out-of-school suspensions for African American students. Findings are discussed in relation to future directions of education-mental health system partnerships in improving the delivery and impact of SMH programs and services, demonstrated in the ISF.

Meta-analysis of the relationship between academic achievement and broad abilities of the Cattell-horn-Carroll theory.

Interpretation of intelligence tests has changed over time, from a focus on the elevation of general ability in the early 1900s, to the shape and/or scatter of subtest and index scores in the mid-1900s to the early 2000s, and back to elevation today. The primary emphasis of interpretation now, however, is widely recommended to be on normative strengths and weaknesses of scores reflecting broad and narrow abilities in the Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC) theory (Schneider & McGrew, 2012). Decisions about which abilities are important to assess for the diagnosis of learning difficulties are based largely on literature reviews by Flanagan, Ortiz, Alfonso, and Mascolo (2006) and McGrew and Wendling (2010). These were narrative research syntheses, however, and did not attempt to estimate the magnitude of the relations between CHC abilities and academic achievement. The purpose of this study, therefore, was to conduct a meta-analysis to determine the effect size for these relations across age groups. Results of our analyses found that psychometric g and one or more broad cognitive abilities are substantially related to each area of academic achievement. Across all achievement domains and ages, g had by far the largest effect, with a mean effect size of r2 = 0.540. In fact, psychometric g explained more variance in academic outcomes than all broad abilities combined. Most broad abilities explained less than 10% of the variance in achievement and none explained more than 20%. Some age-related changes in cognitive ability-achievement relations were also observed. In sum, results of our meta-analysis support the interpretation of the overall score on intelligence tests as a measure of psychometric g for diagnosing difficulties in reading and mathematics, but only the interpretation of index scores measuring Comprehension-Knowledge (Gc) when diagnosing difficulties in reading. Implications of these results for research and practice are discussed.

A quantitative review of overjustification effects in persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

The overjustification hypothesis suggests that extrinsic rewards undermine intrinsic motivation. Extrinsic rewards are common in strengthening behavior in persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities; we examined overjustification effects in this context. A literature search yielded 65 data sets permitting comparison of responding during an initial no-reinforcement phase to a subsequent no-reinforcement phase, separated by a reinforcement phase. We used effect sizes to compare response levels in these two no-reinforcement phases. Overall, the mean effect size did not differ from zero; levels in the second no-reinforcement phase were equally likely to be higher or lower than in the first. However, in contrast to the overjustification hypothesis, levels were higher in the second no-reinforcement phase when comparing the single no-reinforcement sessions immediately before and after reinforcement. Outcomes consistent with the overjustification hypothesis were somewhat more likely when the target behavior occurred at relatively higher levels prior to reinforcement.

School climate and bullying victimization: a latent class growth model analysis.

Researchers investigating school-level approaches for bullying prevention are beginning to discuss and target school climate as a construct that (a) may predict prevalence and (b) be an avenue for school-wide intervention efforts (i.e., increasing positive school climate). Although promising, research has not fully examined and established the social-ecological link between school climate factors and bullying/peer aggression. To address this gap, we examined the association between school climate factors and bullying victimization for 4,742 students in Grades 3-12 across 3 school years in a large, very diverse urban school district using latent class growth modeling. Across 3 different models (elementary, secondary, and transition to middle school), a 3-class model was identified, which included students at high-risk for bullying victimization. Results indicated that, for all students, respect for diversity and student differences (e.g., racial diversity) predicted within-class decreases in reports of bullying. High-risk elementary students reported that adult support in school was a significant predictor of within-class reduction of bullying, and high-risk secondary students report peer support as a significant predictor of within-class reduction of bullying.