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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 who exhibited externalizing behavior. The results showed that treatment students (n = 44) exhibited lower levels of problem behavior (ES = -0.99) and higher rates of on-task behavior (ES = 0.61) compared to controls (n = 26). The results also suggested that individual baseline behavior and school context as measured by free and reduced-priced meal rates moderated the findings. Given this latter finding, our interest in the current study was to test whether individual and school aggregate baseline behavior levels moderate students' response to two years of the behavior intervention. Schools originally assigned to treatment continued to implement the intervention during the subsequent academic year; schools in the control condition continued with their business-as-usual behavior management approaches. During the winter of the second year, students who remained in their schools were re-assessed on their behavior (n = 35 and n = 19 in treatment and control conditions, respectively). Analyses involving multilevel context modeling showed that students with relatively high initial baseline behavior levels (pretreatment) were more responsive to the intervention if they were in schools with higher school aggregate baseline behavior levels. Conversely, students tended to be less responsive to intervention if they were in schools with lower school aggregate baseline behavior levels. Limitations and practical implications are discussed. (Contains 2 tables and 1 figure.)

The findings of a meta-analysis of the effect of reading instruction on the reading skills of students with or at risk of behavioral disorders (BD) are reported. The goal of the synthesis was to extend the work of Coleman and Vaughn by (a) detailing independent variables and outcome measures for each study, (b)including studies sampling from students with or at risk of BD, (c) analyzing study outcomes using average effect size estimates as a common metric, and (d) summarizing literature on reading interventions conducted with students with or at risk of BD over nearly four decades (from 1970 to present). Results of the review suggest that effective literacy instruction has a positive effect on the reading skills of students with or at risk of BD. Limitations and future directions are presented. (Contains 4 tables.)

A plethora of research has indicated that emotional disturbance (ED) and language deficits frequently co-occur. Scant research, however, has examined the characteristics of public school students with comorbid ED and language deficits. Furthermore, researchers have not studied children with IQ and language skill discrepancies. The overall purpose of this cross-sectional study conducted with students in grades K through 12 (N = 69) with ED and comorbid language deficits was to detail the academic and social adjustment characteristics of students with an IQ/language skill discrepancy (i.e., a negative standard deviation difference or greater between IQ and total language score). In addition, the types of dimensional behaviors that predict the language skills of these students was explored. Forty-five percent (n = 69) of the original 152 randomly selected students with ED evinced a language deficit. Students with language deficits were likely to exhibit comorbid written language (46%), reading (41%), and math deficits (31%). Delinquent behavior predicted total and receptive language discrepancy scores of students. Results and limitations are discussed. (Contains 3 tables.)

This cross-sectional study used random sampling procedures to (a) establish proportions of K-12 students meeting borderline and clinical cut scores on the Teacher Report Form (TRF) of the Child Behavior Checklist, (b) examine age and gender differences in distributions of students meeting borderline or clinical levels of problem behavior, and (c) determine proportions of students displaying comorbid problem behaviors. Overall, our findings indicate that (a) more students met borderline or clinical cut scores on the Total and Externalizing broad band scales than on the Internalizing scale, (b) larger proportions of children met the cut scores on the TRF Total, Externalizing, and Internalizing broad bands and a majority of narrow band scales than adolescents, (c) larger proportions of girls than boys met cut scores on the three broad band and four narrow band scales (i.e., Aggressive Behavior, Withdrawn, Social Problems, Attention Problems), and (d) larger proportions of children exhibited clinical levels of comorbidity on the TRF broad and narrow bands than adolescents. The results, limitations, and implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]