Effective School Interventions

Since the publication of the first edition of this book, I have been asked this question on countless occasions by teachers, administrators, parents, student support teams members, psychologists, school consultants, and other practitioners endeavoring to help students become more successful in school. Regardless of whether interventions will be implemented by individual educators or psychologists, school-based teams, consultants, or at home by parents, practitioners are eager to learn about strategies that are effective, evidence based, and easy to use, given the realities of today’s classrooms.

For this edition, it took me nearly 4 years to research school interventions that had been empirically demonstrated to be effective in addressing the identified problem and to adapt them from the scientific literature to the realities of the school environment. As in the previous edition, I have used a standardized format describing the purpose of the intervention, listing the necessary materials, and providing step-by-step implementation and evaluation procedures. Feedback on the first edition indicates that this format is accessible, simple to use, and lends itself to individual and group consultation formats, as well as to professional development workshops and seminars.

So I spent the next two years researching school interventions that had been empirically demonstrated to be effective and adapting them from the scientific literature to the realities of the classroom environment. I used a standardized format describing the purpose of the intervention, listing the necessary materials, and providing step-by-step implementation and evaluation procedures.

Of the hundreds of interventions I reviewed, I selected 70 of the best in the same three areas as in the previous edition: (1) proactive classroom management, (2) academic achievement, and (3) behavior and social competence. These interventions have been selected not only for their evidence base but also for their practicality because even interventions with the greatest empirical support cannot improve student outcomes if teachers don’t implement them!

What’s new in this edition?

The two introductory chapters have been substantially modified to incorporate recent research and developments in the field of school-based interventions, including response-to-intervention (RTI) approaches to intervention design and delivery. Other changes include the following:

Updated and Expanded Intervention Coverage

Consistent with the increasing focus on early intervention in federal and state initiatives and in response to requests from users of the first edition, a chapter with interventions for preschoolers has been added.
Of the 70 interventions, 42 are new to this edition – 8 proactive interventions, 24 academic interventions, and 10 behavior interventions.
A seventh category of proactive interventions targeting positive relationships in the classroom has been added. These strategies reflect a growing body of research documenting the powerful contribution of teacher-student relationships to child outcomes and the role of peer influence in shaping norms at the classroom and school level.
Several schoolwide interventions are now included in the section of behavior strategies targeting nonclassroom settings.
Based on field testing and feedback from readers of the first edition, descriptions of intervention procedures have been expanded and tables and figures added to clarify key aspects of implementation and enhance usability.

Updated and Expanded Coverage of Curriculum-Based Measurement Procedures

Descriptions of curriculum-based measurement (CBM) procedures have been expanded to include a measure designed for the content areas (Vocabulary Matching). Procedures for the other four subject areas (reading, mathematics, spelling, and writing) have been extensively revised and expanded.

New Features and Resources

In response to reader requests and changes in federal laws and regulations, the section on legal and ethics considerations has been expanded to provide additional guidance to practitioners, especially those participating in response-to-intervention approaches and intervention assistance programs.
Each intervention section now includes a cross reference box to help readers locate strategies in other parts of the book with similar components but different targets and/or other strategies that can be implemented to improve outcomes in the targeted area.
Special topics sections throughout the text highlight key concepts, critical issues, and best practices in areas such as evaluation, motivation, academic engagement, brief experimental analysis, and functional behavioral assessment.
An appendix summarizing intervention targets and characteristics is provided at the end of each of the four intervention chapters to help readers locate appropriate strategies and compare strategies within the same domain.

What are the most popular interventions?

Popular proactive interventions
Of the proactive interventions, Say Show Check: Teaching Classroom Procedures, which provides a framework for teaching classroom routines as well as a vehicle for introducing many behavioral interventions, continues to be very popular with consultants and teachers alike.

Popular academic interventions
Of the academic interventions, Class-wide Peer Tutoring (CWPT) has been very well received by teachers and students. CWPT applications for several academic subjects are included, all of which are simple to use, fun for students, and effective in improving achievement in a wide variety of subject areas.

Popular behavior and social competence interventions
Of the behavior and social competence interventions, the most popular by far is the Good Behavior Game Plus Merit. This strategy, which uses a game-like format to encourage productivity and effort, is so effective and so easy to implement that I often demonstrate it for teachers during an initial classroom consultation. After students see how it works, they usually ask the teacher if they can keep on playing the game!

Popular preschool interventions
Although all of the preschool interventions have been highly acceptable to teachers, one of the most popular has been Improving Compliance with Precision Requests and a Time-Out Ribbon, a strategy that combines systematic teacher directives with a simple response cost procedure. It can be implemented on a classwide basis or for one or more target children and is especially helpful with preschoolers with oppositional behavior.

In addition, preschool educators attest that Sit and Watch: Teaching Prosocial Behaviors, which appears in the proactive chapter, is a keystone strategy in creating a classroom that maximizes learning opportunities and minimizes disruptive behavior. This intervention combines a nonexclusionary time-out procedure with choice making and peer observation to help children regulate their own behavior.

Are these interventions practical for teachers?

All of the interventions can be delivered by regular classroom teachers using resources that are already present in most classrooms or that can be prepared or obtained with minimal cost and effort. None of them requires purchasing special curricular materials or special equipment.

How can I use the interventions?

“This is exactly what we’ve been looking for to make our Response-to-Intervention approach work!”
Comment by an administrator

“It’s my “New Teacher Bible”! I keep it right on my desk in the classroom!”
Comment by a first-year teacher

If you’re a teacher, you can consult the index or table of contents to find interventions designed to enhance the learning environment (that is, proactive classroom management interventions), academic achievement, or behavior, depending on the type of problem you’re having. If you’re a preschool educator, the strategies in the preschool intervention chapter are divided into the same three categories. Then you can select the interventions in that section that match your own instructional, management, and personal style as a teacher.

If you’re a school consultant, you can use the interventions in individual consultations with teachers, group teacher consultations, intervention assistance team meetings, or professional development programs. Several interventions are designed for parents, while others can be adapted for use at home. Interventions are presented in a standardized format specifically designed for consultation. Procedures are spelled out step by step, and methods for determining whether the intervention was effective are included for each strategy. If you’re a psychologist conducting assessments in school, agency, or private practice settings, you can incorporate the interventions in the recommendation sections of psychological and psychoeducational reports. Examples of this application are provided in Chapter 2.