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School climate measures are increasingly utilized as one indicator of school quality within educational accountability systems. However, concerns have been raised about the accuracy of these indicators given that school climate surveys are often not validated using multilevel methods. Further, cross-school comparisons in climate may not be trustworthy because the school-level invariance of climate surveys has not been investigated. There is a need to examine the validity of school-level climate constructs and to determine if surveys measure climate equitably for schools that serve underrepresented populations. The aim of the current study was to examine the multilevel factor structure of a statewide school climate survey to determine whether it measured climate equitably for students of different races/ethnicities and across schools with varying racial/ethnic and socioeconomic compositions. Participants included 259,778 students from 427 middle schools throughout a southeastern U.S. state. Cross-level invariance analyses revealed that the climate constructs were measured differently across levels of analysis, and school-level climate could not be interpreted as merely the aggregate of individual-level climate. Student- and school-level factorial invariance was tested using multilevel modeling procedures. Results revealed item bias with respect to student and school characteristics, and the relationships between school climate and student and school demographics changed after accounting for identified bias. As more educational agencies consider including school climate surveys in their accountability systems, these findings suggest that multilevel validation procedures and school-level invariance analyses are necessary to ensure accurate and equitable measurement.

There are many measures of student perceptions of school climate; accordingly, there is a staggering amount of research examining those perceptions and related outcomes. There is a comparatively sm...

The aim of the current study was to examine whether collective moral disengagement in the classroom was associated with bullying perpetration and victimisation. One-thousand-and-fifty-four students...

Researchers have suggested that bystander behaviors and victim coping play an important role in counteracting the negative effects of bullying. The current study investigated the relationship between students' ratings of coping effectiveness when addressing bullying and their behaviors as bystanders when witnessing bullying. Surveys were administered in a Midwestern, suburban school district. Some associations between perceptions of coping effectiveness and bystander behavior supported our hypotheses (e.g., constructive coping associated with defending bystander behaviors, externalizing associated with pro-bullying behaviors). However, some findings did not support hypothesized relationships. For example, higher ratings of effectiveness for cognitive distancing as a coping strategy were associated with increased defending behaviors as a bystander. Gender moderated some of these relationships. Pro-bullying bystander behavior was associated with increased ratings of cognitive distancing and decreased reports of constructive coping effectiveness for girls. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.

The commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) is a form of childhood sexual abuse involving the sexual exploitation of youth for economic gain. School-based CSEC prevention efforts have inc...

This commentary underscores efforts of this special issue to highlight concepts related to culture and cultural competence designed to broaden thinking about multicultural consultation through research, practice, and training. It does this by illustrating the insights presented regarding (a) cultural issues in training, (b) the effect of client-centered consultation procedures on supervision of multicultural cognitive behavior therapy, (c) interactions between social capital and cultural variables, and (d) the importance of culturally sensitive research models. Further, this commentary proposes the participatory culture-specific intervention model and organizational consultation as two frameworks that can be used to enhance cultural competence and multicultural consultation in ways that are consistent with the ideas presented in this special issue.

One evaluation measure available through the Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports framework is the Effective Behavior Support Self-Assessment Survey (SAS). Evaluations of the SAS have supported its factor structure. However, the SAS is designed to be completed by school personnel who are nested within other levels of analysis (e.g., schools, grade level, district). There have been no studies examining the SAS from a multilevel perspective. The current study addressed this gap by evaluating the SAS using data from 1,726 respondents across 36 public schools in 3 school districts. Another purpose of this study was to evaluate whether the SAS can be shortened yet remain psychometrically sound to encourage completion of the survey by busy school staff members. Intraclass correlation coefficients indicated substantial dependence in item responses. Factor correlations were substantial across all models tested. Compared with a 2nd-order, hierarchical model and the basic 4-factor model based on the original hypothesized structure of the SAS, the best combination of fit and parsimony was obtained from a reduced set of 24 of the original 46 items organized within a multilevel bifactor structure (e.g., comparative fit index = .979, root-mean-square error of approximation = .019), suggesting that the SAS may be shortened. The bifactor model partitioned item variances to a general implementation fidelity factor and to 1 of the 4 hypothesized factors. These results suggest that the SAS items aim to describe dimensions for measuring implementation status that may be as relevant at the school level as they are at the individual level. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

School climate has been established as an important construct to measure because of its connections to student psychological, social, and academic outcomes (Anderson, 1982; Koth, Bradshaw, & Leaf, 2008; Kuperminc, Leadbeater, Emmons, & Blatt, 1997). Prior research has also established relationships between student perceptions of school climate and individual (i.e., race and ethnicity, gender), classroom (i.e., class size, academic environment), and school (i.e., school size, teacher characteristics) cultural factors. While these variables provide insight into the ways that students come to experience school climate differently, there still remains a need to examine the effect of additional cultural and ecological variables that also have a proximal effect on students' school experiences and perceptions of climate. The current paper presents the Cultural-Ecological Model of School Climate as a method for understanding the interrelationships between personal characteristics, culture, ecological contexts, an...

The Participatory Culture-Specific Model of Course Development (PCSMCD), adapted from the Participatory Culture-Specific Intervention Model, is a proposed framework to address challenges to social justice education by addressing the following four course variables: instructor characteristics, instructor experiences, student characteristics, and student experiences. This article proposes a new model through which qualitative and survey culture-specific data related to the 4 variables are collected at the onset of the course and incorporated into every phase of course development and implementation. Obtaining and utilizing data about student and instructor characteristics and experiences facilitates both culture specificity and ensure that the course content and process are both appropriate and acceptable for students and instructors. This article proposes the 10-phase PCSMCD as it would look during course development and implementation, and provides social justice resources and activities specific to schoo...

This article presents the conceptual foundations and specific features of an ecologically oriented model of school-based organizational consultation. We begin by providing an overview of ecological theory. This is followed by a brief description of a model of school-based organizational consultation with a special focus on the ecological elements of the approach. Next, several trends in educational service delivery (i.e., high-stakes educational assessment, Response to Intervention, Positive Behavior Supports, school climate, and social justice) that require substantial systemic changes are discussed. These trends highlight the need for effective ecological approaches to organizational consultation. We present recommendations regarding how an ecologically oriented model of school-based consultation might be used to facilitate systemic change efforts in relation to the educational trends discussed.

Victimization resulting from bullying affects millions of school children worldwide each year (e.g. Nansel et al., 2001; Sapouna, 2008; Smokowski & Kopasz, 2005). These children face the fear and humiliation of verbal, physical, and relational aggression and as a result, often suffer psychological ill effects (e.g. Kochenderfer-Ladd, & Skinner, 2002). This study examined the coping strategies of victims of bullying using qualitative research methodology. One-hundred-and-two fourth through eighth grade students participated in group interviews discussing the topics of bullying and coping with victimization. A coping model emerged from this study that included the primary categories of problem-focused coping and emotion-focused coping, and eight subcategories, self-defense, stand up to the bully, seeking social support, distancing, internalizing, tension-reduction/externalizing, focus on the positive, and self-blame. Results revealed that problem-focused coping was the type of coping most often used by victims of bullying. Externalizing and seeking social support were the most commonly reported problem-focused coping strategies used by victims. Boys discussed using externalizing strategies with greater frequency than girls, whereas girls reported seeking social support more often than boys. Results also indicated that children generally found their implemented strategies to be ineffective in resolving their problem. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.

The purpose of this article is to engage in the debate about Blueprint III regarding practice and graduate education in school psychology. We use school-based consultation as a lens to uncover meaning and context in the Blueprint and give particular attention to the Blueprint authors' foregrounding of prevention as a basis for school psychological services, a comprehensive consultation model for school psychological services, integration of concepts derived from positive psychology and public health in school psychology, and culture in school-based consultation. We offer suggestions to address barriers that may impede implementation of some of the worthwhile initiatives delineated in the Blueprint and develop approaches to strengthen graduate education. We conclude with a proposed agenda for research that may ground, justify, and enhance the preservice and inservice implications of Blueprint III, resulting in a substantial and well-founded impact on the field. As the authors of Blueprint III intended, we ...

Defending behaviors by bystanders in bullying situations have been associated with decreases in the frequency and negative effects of bullying incidents. The current study utilized qualitative methodology to investigate the role of perceived school personnel support and nonsupport in students' decisions to display defending behaviors. Forty-six semi-structured interviews were conducted with upper-elementary (n=26) and middle school (n=20) students in the southeastern United States. Qualitative data were analyzed using constant comparison and a recursive inductive-deductive approach. The findings resulted in the conceptualization of a combined social support-nonsupport framework that provides details about the source, description, evaluation, and perceived effects of different types of support and nonsupport bystanders receive from school personnel. Unique contributions to the literature included expanding the sources of support and nonsupport to consider school personnel other than teachers, providing descriptions and evaluations of support and nonsupport specific to bystanders, and demonstrating an overlap between various types of support and nonsupport reiterating the need to consider both supports and nonsupports concurrently. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

SUMMARY The purpose of the Peer Victimization Intervention (PVI) was to develop and implement a culture-specific pilot intervention to address the effects of bullying on middle school students who are victims utilizing the Participatory Culture-Specific Intervention Model (PCSIM; Nastasi, Moore, & Varjas, 2004). The involvement of participants who serve as cultural brokers in the system and/or stakeholders was used to encourage acceptability, integrity, ecological validity, sustainability, and institutionalization of the intervention. The pilot intervention was conducted in an urban, multiethnic school system and implemented during the school day by a multidisciplinary team of service providers. Twenty-eight students (11 sixth graders, 13 seventh graders, 4 eighth graders) participated in a 6-session pilot intervention group. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected from the students and cofacilitators of each group to assess acceptability, integrity, and efficacy. Quantitative pilot data indicate...

This article underscores the potential advantages of qualitative methods to illustrate the depth and complexity of social validity. This investigation evaluates the social validity of Check and Connect with Early Literacy Support (CCEL) , through the perspectives of teachers and caregivers whose children participated in the intervention. Teachers from six classrooms and caregivers from six families participated in evaluating the social validity of this intervention using a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods. Participants completed the Treatment Acceptability Rating Scale—Revised ( TARF-R ; Reimers, T. M., Wacker, D. P., Cooper, L. J. & DeRaad, A. O. (1992). Clinical evaluation of the variables associated with treatment acceptability and their relation to compliance. Behavioral Disorders , 18(1), 67–76.), a quantitative measure of treatment acceptability (a component of social validity), and were interviewed using qualitative interviews and focus groups. Results were analyzed through ethnographic methodology and indicate complex, reciprocal relationships among factors related to social validity. This investigation is considered in light of recent efforts to develop a systematic approach to evaluate the adequacy of intervention research using qualitative methods.

The Invitational Conference on the Future of School Psychology held at Indiana University in 2002 had implications for consultation. It addressed projected shortages in school psychologists that provide a rationale for service delivery models integrating consultation and prevention. The conference discussed the need for effective work with children, families, and professionals from diverse cultures; success in fostering productive home-school connections; optimal and ethical use of rapidly changing technologies; and the use of empirical evidence to inform practice. This article presents a model of consultation and prevention informed by recent research in positive psychology as well as public health models. This model is discussed in the context of these and other important developments in the field of school psychology.

One factor that contributes to adolescent positive mental health is active engagement. Engagement is defined as any activity that is initiated to attain an outcome. In general, two forms of activities exist that correspond with engagement: solitary, non-structured, and non-cooperative pursuits, often without adult supervision (e.g., playing video games, watching television) and highly structured, collaborative activities that are under the guidance of a competent set of adults (i.e., structured extracurricular activities, or SEAs). Although large amounts of time spent in unstructured activities is related to negative psychosocial outcomes, participation in SEAs has been related to a variety of positive outcomes for students. This paper reviews current research regarding adolescent participation in SEAs and its effects on academic and personal-social variables (i.e., self-concept, life satisfaction), as well as potential preventive effects for youths considered to be “at-risk” for negative developmental outcomes. The paper also examines research investigating the potential benefits and shortcomings of different types of SEAs. Finally, suggestions for future research and school-based preventive intervention are presented. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 41: 31–41, 2004.

The Invitational Conference on the Future of School Psychology held at Indiana University in Fall 2002 included a number of paper presentations and group discussions. Toward the end of the conferen...

The present study addresses school violence and school drop out and proposes that the underlying factor of school connectedness/school climate should guide preventive and intervention efforts. Data were gathered from five schools in a small city school district in north Georgia. Group and individual interviews served as the basis for constructing a 78-item district-wide survey administered to 304 school employees. Data are presented on individual items from the survey. Principal components analysis revealed five distinct factors: school connectedness/positive school climate, causes of violence, causes of school drop out, interventions for drop out, and interventions for violence. The principal components analysis was the basis for construction of a revised scale. Differences between revised scale scores were noted as a function of whether respondents were from central office, elementary or secondary schools. The five revised scales had correlation ranging from .31 to .59. Implications for research and practice are discussed. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Student perceptions of school climate represent the ways students feel about the school environment. These include perceptions regarding safety, teaching and learning, and relationships within the school. It has been found that student perceptions of school climate are positively correlated with academic achievement (Brookover et al., 1978), and negatively correlated with risky behaviors (Bandyopadhyay, Cornell, & Konold, 2009; Bayar & Ucanok, 2012; Wang, Berry, & Swearer, 2013). The Georgia Brief School Climate Inventory (GaBSCI) is a measure of student perceptions of school climate. The brevity of the 9-item instrument makes it ideal as a general measure that can be used to monitor student perceptions of school climate. The survey was anonymously administered to 130,968 sixth- and eighth-grade students in the state of Georgia. Cronbach's alpha for the scale was 0.71. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses verified the scale's structure. Student perceptions of climate from the GaBSCI varied based on race/ethnicity, gender, and grade. Additional support for the construct validity of the GaBSCI was obtained based on its relationships with several behaviors related to bullying, and the moderating effects of grade and gender on these relationships. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Despite recent attention to shared decision making as an approach to school reform, relatively little research has been conducted on the topic, and much of that research has relied on interviews and field notes, rather than systematic observation of team functioning. This investigation integrated systematic observations and interviews. The purpose of this study was to describe the leadership behaviors exhibited by principals, team leaders, and other team members (teachers, parents, students). We defined leadership according to team member contributions to decisions (decision content, decision-making processes, and statement function, such as initiating topics and making suggestions). This investigation used a comparative case study approach to examine the shared decision-making teams from three schools during the teams' first year. Results revealed variability in leadership across the three teams. Two teams were characterized by positive group process procedures with active involvement from a number of te...

The research and practice of consultation, by nature and definition, affect people from across the range of human diversity. The emergent literature of cross-cultural consultation, including the co...

This article provides an introduction to the mini-series theme, Multicultural and Cross-Cultural Consultation in Schools: Cultural Diversity Issues in School Consultation. It discusses the context,...

Recently, developmentally appropriate practices have been distinguished from traditional practices and have been advocated as one way to reform primary general education classrooms. Relatively little research has examined the efficacy of developmentally appropriate versus traditional practices. In particular, concerns have been raised about the effectiveness of this approach for students with disabilities. This study examined the relationship between primary teachers' implementation of developmentally appropriate and traditional teaching methods and the mathematics achievement of general and special education students. Observations, interviews and questionnaires were used to measure the mathematics teaching practices used with general and special education students. Because developmentally appropriate and traditional teaching practices are often characterized in terms of a continuum, principal components methods were used to generate continuous composite variables that described teacher presentation, mate...

This research addressed two questions about instruction to enhance the social competence of students with disabilities: (a) How adequate were individualized education program (IEP) statements of present level of functioning and goals related to peer interactions? and (b) How appropriate to pupil peer interaction needs and how extensive was instruction? Data sources included IEPs; observations of pupils and teachers in content area, special area, and special education settings; and interviews. Analysis indicated that the IEP accurately characterized peer interactions, but that instructional practices to foster peer interaction were not appropriate, and were provided only to a limited extent. General education settings were somewhat more likely than special education settings to foster peer interaction, providing support for claims that inclusion fosters social integration.

Prereferral intervention teams provide consultation to teachers using a problem-solving process to better serve students, provide teachers with skills to assist future students, and prevent inappro...

(1997). A Novel Methodology for Describing Integration Practices. Exceptionality: Vol. 7, No. 4, pp. 263-266.

This paper is an examination of the influence Jack Bardon had on school psychology throughout his career from 1952 to 1993. A summary of this influence is presented that is based on a review of his publications and a survey of three groups of school psychologists (certificate-level Nationally Certified School Psychologists, doctoral-level Nationally Certified School Psychologists, and fellows of the American Psychological Association, Division 16). Those areas in which Jack Bardon has made a substantial impact are as follows: role and definition of school psychology; professional organization issues; debate over level of training; and consultation. These are discussed along with a comparison of how Jack Bardon's influence differs across the three groups represented in the sample.

Prereferral intervention is an approach to the prevention of special education problems that, although frequently recommended in recent years, has not received sufficient attention as a research topic. The purpose of this article is to provide data descriptive of the typical procedures and the collaborative problem-solving processes used by the prereferral intervention teams in eight urban schools. In addition to describing the model and its implementation, this article provides data indicating educators' perceptions of the goals of these teams, and their strengths and weaknesses, as well as describing the nature of consultation that is provided to classroom teachers and offering recommendations for improving these teams. The qualitative data sources used in this research included surveys, interviews, and team observations. Surveys were administered to team members and teachers, followed by interviews with these two groups. This resulted in 134 surveys and 91 interviews that were available for analysis. A...

A positive attitude toward mainstreaming or inclusion among general education teachers is necessary, although not sufficient, for the success of the Regular Education Initiative. Previous research assessing general education teacher views is limited by an emphasis on questionnaire methodology and failure to account for teacher experience with integrated programs. This study sought to overcome these limitations by using interviews supplemented by a range of qualitative data to clarify the context in which the data were gathered. In this study, the views of general education teachers participating in integrated pull-in programs were compared to those of colleagues whose students were served by pull-out programs. Support for integrated programs and novel categories of responses emerged in this process, as did group differences. Pull-in teachers stressed that pull-in met student needs and provided benefits to the teacher and the class, whereas pull-out teachers were less positive about pull-in and emphasized ...

(1996). The Role of the Researcher as Change Agent. Exceptionality: Vol. 6, No. 2, pp. 125-128.

This article reviews Meyers' 1973 article, 'A Consultation Model for School Psychological Services,' which proposed a model of school-based consultation. Key components from the original article are discussed, including: (a) four variables reflecting the process of interaction between consultant and consultee and (b) a description of the content of consultation based on four different approaches to school-based consultation. Each of these components is discussed by considering how it is used in schools, how it has evolved in the past 20 years, and how it is conceptualized at the present time. Particular focus is given to the influence of current social conditions and to directions for research regarding school-based consultation.

In this study, pull-in and pull-out approaches to delivering reading services to elementary special education and remedial students were compared. Students' reading activities were observed using a revision of the Student-Level Observation of Beginning Reading (SOBR-R), and reading comprehension assessed using the Stanford Achievement Test. Students in pull-in programs did not differ from students in pull-out programs in gains in reading comprehension. Pull-in and pull-out approaches did not differ in total time devoted to reading instruction each week, but there were differences in time spent on non-reading activities. Time spent on reading and non-reading activities did not predict reading achievement. Data are also presented documenting how reading instruction time is spent in six different models of pull-in and pull-out, to illustrate the variability within each approach to service delivery. It is suggested that these differences in how teachers implement pull-in and pull-out need to be considered in ...

This article reports the first study from the School Consultation Research Project, a cooperative group of school psychologists from four universities interested in exploring relationships among processes and outcomes in consultation. Using an interpersonal perspective, statistical relationships between 12 dyadic process variables and 4 consultation outcome variables were examined. The central hypothesis was that the more that consultant and consultee see the process in a similar way, understand their roles, and work together as a team, the more favorable are consultee perceptions of (a) the beneficialness of consultation, (b) consultee competence, (c) client improvement, and (d) consultant effectiveness. Data were collected from 61 consultant-consultee dyads situated in four locations in the northeastern, southeastern, and southwestern U.S. Results supported the hypothesis as well as the value of assuming an interpersonal perspective in future consultation research.

This paper criticizes past research in consultee-centered consultation because of the inadequate description of techniques and subjective criteria which are not based on directly observable behavior. A research design based on the use of a small number of subjects is proposed as one way to improve this research. This design is then evaluated in relationship to the internal and external threats to validity discussed by Campbell and Stanley (1963).

(1978). Training School Psychologists for a Consultation Role. School Psychology Review: Vol. 7, No. 3, pp. 26-32.

This paper presents the results of a national survey of school psychologists to determine the impact of PL 94-142 on the role of the school psychologist. Data were based on responses to 856 surveys by practicing school psychologists who were selected randomly from the NASP membership list during 1979-80. The results suggested that this legislation has had remarkably little impact on the evaluation procedures used or on the school psychologist's role. The two clear changes that have occurred may have negative implications for psychological services (e.g., an increased focus on handicapped children and increased paperwork). It was found that many school psychologists are involved in evaluation, but do not have time to be involved in the IEP process, or to provide follow-up consultation, or direct intervention for prevention and/or therapeutic purposes. This problem was exacerbated in districts that had ratios of greater than 1,000 to 1. Despite these problems, many respondents view the legislation in positive terms, and feel it has helped to enlarge the scope of practice.

The present investigation was an attempt to examine the possibility of experimentally manipulating the process of consultation. In this instance, the process of consultation was conceived in terms of the Transactional Analysis paradigm. The study employed a small-N analogue to consultee-centered consultation with the experimental treatment consisting of a training session in Transactional Analysis for the consultants. The treatment effect was assessed against three dependent measures: (a) the subjective evaluations of the consultant-consultee pairs; (b) the percent of behavioral change toward goal; and (c) the number of Adult-Adult transactions characterizing the consultation exchange. The data indicate increases in the number of Adult-Adult transactions, the Average Subjective Evaluation, and the Percent of Goal Attainment for two of the four experimental subject pairs. However, the result for only one subject met the requirements of the multiple baseline design, so that it could be concluded that the observed gains for this subject probably could be attributed to the T.A. training session. In addition to suggesting the influence of Adult-Adult transactions on consultation, this study is felt to offer insight to researchers seeking appropriate experimental designs for manipulating relevant process variables in consultation and detecting the effects of these manipulations.