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Strength-based assessment has achieved acceptance from educational, mental health, and social service professionals as a means to measuring emotional and behavioral strengths of children. Several standardized, norm-referenced tests have been developed to assess these strengths; however, the primary mode of assessment is via informal interviews of parents and caregivers. In many cases, these interviews lack psychometric support, including basic validity and reliability. The purpose of this study was to document the multistep process used to establish the content validity of a newly developed instrument: Behavioral and Emotional Rating Scale: Strength-Based Interview. Specifically, the results of a survey of 40 U.S. professional mental health staff and educators are described where respondents rated the importance of interview questions to the construct of strength-based assessment. The findings of the survey as well as the 18 items deemed most important are reported. Research limitations, future research, and implications for mental health and educational professionals are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This review examined the effectiveness of teacher-mediated interventions with respect to the academic functioning of students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD). Thirty studies using a variety of teacher-mediated interventions met the criteria for inclusion in this review. Findings from these studies indicate teacher-mediated interventions are successful across academic subject areas. However, the participant characteristics were defined poorly, and the settings used within these studies did not accurately reflect the current EBD population's actual classroom placement. Finally, a lack of programmatic research on teacher-mediated interventions has made it difficult, if not impossible, to generalize the outcomes of these studies to broader populations of students with EBD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]