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Given the high prevalence of Tier 2 behavioral intervention use and calls to examine mediation and moderation effects on treatment for children, this study tested the mediation effect of the daily progress report and moderation effects of coach-student, teacher-student, and student-teacher relationships and their interactions for 95 elementary school students who received the Check, Connect, and Expect intervention. The only significant finding was the moderating effect of the student-teacher and teacher-student relationships. A significant interaction between the moderating effects showed that a positive student-teacher relationship showed overall reductions in total problem behavior across an academic year. This result is interpreted as students' perception of a positive relationship with their teacher as critical to the therapeutic mechanism of Tier 2 behavioral interventions.

Students' oral reading fluency growth from first through fourth grade was used to predict their achievement on the Stanford Achievement Test (9th ed.; SAT-9 Reading) using a latent growth model. Two conditional variables related to student status were used to determine the effects on reading performance--English language learners (ELLs) with low socioeconomic status and low socioeconomic (SES) status alone. Results revealed that both types of student status variables reliably predicted low performance on initial first grade oral reading fluency, which later predicted fourth grade performance on the SAT-9. However, the reading fluency trajectories of the ELLs and monolingual English students were not significantly different. In addition, when both student status variables and letter naming fluency were used to predict initial oral reading fluency, letter naming fluency dominated the prediction equation, suggesting that an initial pre-reading skill, letter naming fluency, better explained fourth grade performance on the SAT-9 than either ELL with low SES or low SES alone. The discussion focuses on how to better enable these readers and how oral reading fluency progress monitoring can be used to assist school personnel in determining which students need additional instructional assistance.

Elementary students (N = 104) at risk for severe behavior problems or with special education eligibility participated in three validity studies of the daily progress report (DPR) used in a Tier 2 behavioral intervention known as "Check, Connect, and Expect" (CCE). In Study 1, the relationship between teachers' ratings of students' externalizing problem behavior and students' DPR scores was established. In Study 2, behavior specialists' use of the DPR to make student treatment decisions in the CCE program was partially validated. The utility of placing students with low DPR percentages into interventions based on functional behavior assessment (FBA) was validated. In Study 3, the treatment duration of 4 weeks above the 75th percentile on the DPR proved to be an efficacious treatment outcome predictor versus 8 weeks duration, which was originally recommended in the CCE protocol. Future implementation of the CCE program would suggest assigning students who meet the 4-week DPR criterion to the self-monitoring phase of the intervention, allowing behavior specialists more time to facilitate individualized FBA-based interventions for students who fail to respond to the basic intervention. (Contains 1 table and 1 figure.)

Reading fluency is a critical component of effective reading instruction for students of early elementary age. However, national data suggest that 40% of U.S. fourth-grade students are nonfluent readers. Implementing evidence-based, time-efficient, and procedurally standardized instructional strategies may help address this problem. This study evaluates the efficacy of two such programs designed to supplement a core reading curriculum for all emerging readers: the Great Leaps K-2 Reading Program, which is currently used in schools throughout the United States, and the Helping Early Literacy With Practice Strategies (HELPS) Program, which was developed for the purposes of this study. Each program was implemented with second grade participants, and each program was evaluated against a wait-list control group. Results indicated that students receiving the HELPS Program scored significantly better than students in the control group across several measures of early reading, with effect sizes ranging from medium to large. No other statistically significant differences were found. Implications of these findings are discussed in terms of increasing the use of evidence-based reading practices in schools. (Contains 3 tables and 2 footnotes.)

Within 3-tier behavioral models, universal interventions are expected to prevent the onset of problem behavior in a majority of children altogether and to sustain improvements in child outcomes by the selected and indicated interventions. A cohort longitudinal design was used to assess the extent to which a 3-tier model achieves these expected outcomes. The respective universal, selected, and indicated interventions included Behavior and Academic Support and Enhancement, First Step to Success, and MultiSystemic Therapy. A total of 407 children in Grades K-3 from 1 of 4 longitudinal cohorts participated. The results of 2-level linear growth analyses indicate that the 3-tier behavior model achieved the anticipated outcomes with respect to social behavior. The results, limitations, and implications are discussed. (Contains 2 figures and 6 tables.)

Two hundred seven students in Grades 1 through 5 who were at risk for severe behavior problems participated in a 2-year study of the effects of the "Check, Connect, and Expect" (CCE) program. The CCE program combined the essential intervention procedures of the "Check & Connect Program" and the "Behavior Education Program." A stratified random sample of students based on school assignment was used to compare the outcomes of 121 CCE program students with 86 comparison students. Sixty percent of the CCE students (n = 73) graduated from the program and 40% (n = 48) did not. Linear growth analyses of eight different outcome measures found that three standardized problem behavior measures significantly decreased to normative levels for CCE graduates. Social skills and academic measures did not significantly change over time. The discussion focuses on the comparative efficacy of CCE as a targeted intervention for students at risk for severe behavior problems. (Contains 6 tables and 3 figures.)

Multinomial stepwise logistic regression analyses were used to establish the most robust set of risk factors that would best predict low basic reading skills (i.e., a standard score less than 85 on the Woodcock Reading Mastery Test-Revised Basic Reading Skills cluster) of kindergarten and first-grade children at risk for emotional and behavioral disorders. Results showed that among the 11 risk factor domains considered, four were most predictive of low reading skills: demographic characteristics, childhood maladjustment, family functioning, and maternal depression. Within these four domains, the most robust set of individual risk factors were gender, history of psychiatric hospitalization, abusive to animals, and maternal depression. Results, limitations, and implications are discussed. (Contains 3 tables.)

The primary purpose of this study was to assess the effects of contextually-based multiple meaning (i.e., words with multiple meanings) vocabulary instruction on the vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension of students. Third and 5th grade students received either contextually-based multiple meaning vocabulary instruction embedded in the standard language arts instruction offered to all students over a three-month period or the standard language arts instruction alone (i.e., non-specific treatment). Students who received the contextually-based multiple meaning instruction generally showed statistically and educationally significant gains in their vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension relative to students who did not. These gains were most evident in reading comprehension. Additionally, students with low initial vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension achievement tended to show greater gains than those with average to high achievement. These effects were more pronounced in the case of 3rd grade students. The results and limitations are discussed. (Contains 3 tables.)

As schoolwide positive behavior supports (PBS) become more commonplace in public schools, efficiently and effectively identifying and supporting students who are at risk for school failure has become increasingly important. This descriptive study examines the functioning of 72 students identified as at risk in 3 elementary schools with established PBS systems, using schoolwide screening, rating scale instruments, and office discipline referrals. The students were identified through the use of the "Systematic Screening for Behavior Disorders" (Walker & Severson, 1992) administered in the fall. School teams matched the identified students to existing supports and tracked their functioning twice monthly. Teachers completed the Social Skills Rating System (Gresham & Elliot, 1990) on each of the students in the following spring. The number of office discipline referrals for each student was monitored, as was the number of students referred to school-based support teams--such as a Student Study Team, a Functional Behavior Assessment Team--and the number of students who qualified for special education that year. Results suggest that students at risk for school failure are best identified by monitoring office discipline referrals and the use of a systematic schoolwide screening process. (Contains 1 figure, 7 tables and 2 notes.)

Nonword spellings were obtained from children in kindergarten through third grade in a study of the development of young children's phonological and orthographic knowledge. Results indicated that young children's nonword spellings reflected the joint influences of linguistic knowledge and psychological processes. (GLR)