Evidence-Based Teaching Strategies for Students With · PDF file · 2013-06-07Evidence-Based Teaching Strategies for Students With EBD ... for a learning disability (Glassberg, Hooper,

Evidence-Based Teaching Strategies for Students With EBD

Joseph B. Ryan, Clemson University

Corey D. Pierce, University of Northern Colorado–Greeley

Paul Mooney, Louisiana State University

Students with emotional andbehavioral disorders (EBD)struggle in school, perhaps

more so than any other group ofstudents. Whereas it is commonlyrecognized that these children andadolescents have severe social skillsdeficits, which impede developmentof meaningful relationships withpeers and teachers, it is also true thatstudents with EBD evidencesignificant academic deficiencies. Onaverage, these students perform 1.2–2grade levels behind their peers whilein elementary school (Trout,Nordness, Pierce, & Epstein, 2003).

Unfortunately, this discrepancyonly worsens with age, and by thetime these students reach highschool, they are performing almost3.5 grade levels below their peers,with less than one third of studentswith EBD functioning at or abovegrade level in any academic area(Coutinho, 1986; Epstein, Kinder, &Bursuck, 1989). This is notsurprising, given that more than halfof students with EBD also may meetone or more of the eligibility criteriafor a learning disability (Glassberg,Hooper, & Mattison, 1999). Thesesignificant academic deficits haveresulted in students with EBDattaining one of the worst graduationrates (32.1%) of students with anydisability (U.S. Department ofEducation, 2006). Given that manystudents with EBD fail to masterbasic academic skills that areessential to functioning successfullywithin the community, this elevatedschool dropout rate only makes asuccessful transition to the jobmarket more challenging (Gunter &Denny, 1998). As a result, 4 yearsafter leaving high school, thispopulation experiences a postschool

unemployment rate of 52% (D’Amico& Marder, 1991).

Despite these dismal academicoutcomes, the majority ofinterventions conducted with thesechildren have focused primarily onbehavior modification, oftenneglecting glaring academicdeficiencies (Ryan, Reid, & Epstein,2004). Recently, however, researchershave begun to place an increasedemphasis on addressing the academicdeficits of students with EBD toincrease their engagement in school,with the hope of improvinggraduation rates (Mooney, Epstein,Reid, & Nelson, 2003). Given thedaunting challenges that teachers ofstudents with EBD face whileattempting to address these students’social and academic deficiencies, it isimportant they incorporateempirically based teaching methodsinto their classrooms to maximizetheir teaching effectiveness.

Recently, researchers at theUniversity of Nebraska’s Center forAt-Risk Children’s Services (e.g.,Epstein, Nelson, Trout, & Mooney,2005) summarized the interventionliterature targeted at improving theacademic skills and performance ofstudents with EBD served in publicschools. Conclusions from analyses ofthis small body of literature indicatedthat positive outcomes were reportedacross participants, settings, andsubject areas (Nelson, Benner, &Mooney, 2008). In general, theseresearchers divided academicinterventions into three primarycategories: (a) peer-mediatedinterventions (e.g., cross-age tutoring,classwide peer tutoring), in which thestudent’s peers were responsible forproviding instruction; (b) self-mediated interventions (e.g., self-

monitoring, self-evaluation), in whichthe responsibility for implementingan intervention rested with thestudents themselves; and (c) teacher-mediated interventions (e.g., storymapping, mnemonics) wherein theteacher provided the academicinstruction to the students.

The purpose of this manuscript istwofold: (a) to highlight findings ofthese literature reviews covering overthree decades of research conductedwith students with EBD; and (b) toprovide teachers a condensedsummary of teaching strategies thathave demonstrated efficacy ineducating some of the mostchallenging students in today’sschools.

Procedure

Each author acted as leadresearcher/author for one of threedifferent academic literature reviewsthat assessed the efficacy of threetypes of academic interventions (i.e.,peer-mediated, self-mediated, andteacher-mediated) for students withEBD (see Mooney, Ryan, Uhing, Reid,& Epstein, 2005; Pierce, Reid, &Epstein, 2004; Ryan et al., 2004). To beincluded in these three reviews,articles: (a) must have been publishedin a peer reviewed journal within thepast 40 years; (b) must contain anoriginal report of quasi-experimentalor experimental research; (c) mustinclude manipulation of anindependent variable; and (d) mustinclude at least one academicmeasure as a dependent variable.Study participants were required tohave a verified emotional, behavioral,or conduct disorder, disability, ordisturbance, either through theIndividuals with Disabilities

EFFECTIVE TEACHING STRATEGIES

22 B E Y O N D B E H A V I O R

Education Act (IDEA) orclassification systems of theDiagnostic and Statistical Manual ofMental Disorders IV, or to be describedas having behavioral or emotionalproblems while being educated in aself-contained classroom for studentswith EBD.

Results

Peer-Mediated Interventions

Peer-mediated interventionsrequire students to implement teacher-selected instruction for their peers asopposed to the more traditionalmethod of teacher-led instruction(Hoff & Robinson, 2002). A widevariety of techniques fall under the

peer-mediated instruction category,including peer modeling, peermonitoring, peer network strategies,peer tutoring, cross-age tutoring,reverse-role tutoring, classwide peertutoring (CWPT), peer-assistedlearning strategies (PALS), classwidestudent tutoring teams, reciprocal peertutoring, peer counseling, peerassessment, peer mentoring, andcooperative learning (Utley &Mortweet, 1997). A brief descriptionfor each of these instructionalmethodologies and the age groups(e.g., elementary and secondary) withwhich they have demonstratedefficacy is provided in Table 1.

After applying inclusion criteria,Ryan and colleagues (2004) identified

14 studies from nine different specialeducation journals that involvedpeer-mediated interventionsconducted with students with EBD.These studies included 169participants, of whom 64% were boysand 16% were girls. Five of thestudies (36%) were conducted withparticipants between the ages of 6and 11 years (n 5 44), and theremaining 9 studies (64%) involvedadolescents older than 12 years of age(n 5 125).

Overall, peer-mediatedinterventions demonstrated stronglypositive findings relative toimproving academic performance. Asreported by effect size (ES), whichrepresents the strength of an

Table 1 TYPES OF PEER-MEDIATED INTERVENTIONS

Intervention Description

Evidence Base

Elementary Secondary

Classwide peer tutoring(CWPT)

Entire class simultaneously participates in tutoring dyads. Duringeach tutoring session, students can participate as both tutor andtutee, or they can participate as either the tutor or tutee.

X

Cooperative learning Small teams composed of students with different levels of ability usea variety of learning activities to improve the team’s understandingof a subject. Each member of a team is responsible not only forlearning what is taught but also for helping teammates learn.

X

Cross-age tutoring Older students are matched with younger students to deliverinstruction. Tutors are typically at least 2 years older than the tutees.There do not need to be large differences in skill levels between thetutor and tutee.

X X

Peer tutoring Students who need remedial support are paired with select tutors(perhaps highly skilled peers, peers also in need of remedial work, orcross-age tutors). Each member of the dyad may receive and providetutoring in the same content area, or tutors can provide instruction ina content area in which they are highly skilled.

X X

Peer-assisted learningstrategies

A version of CWPT in which teachers identify children who requirehelp on specific skills and the most appropriate children to helpthem learn those skills. Pairs are changed regularly, and over time,as students work on a variety of skills, all students have theopportunity to be ‘‘coaches’’ and ‘‘players.’’

X

Peer assessment Peers are used to assess the products or outcomes of learning ofother students of similar status.

X

Peer modeling Students acting as peer models receive instruction in desiredbehaviors, then engage in these behaviors in front of studentsdeficient in these areas. The teacher draws the student’s attention tothe peer model and identifies the desired behaviors the studentshould emulate.

X X

Peer reinforcement Peers provide reinforcement for appropriate responses within thenatural environment. The purpose is to reinforce appropriatebehaviors of students with disabilities by their peers.

X


S P R I N G 2 0 0 8 2 3

intervention or outcome through anumerical rating in which an ES of 0–0.3 is considered small, 0.3–0.8 ismedium, and greater than 0.8 is large(Cohen, 1988), the results were quiteremarkable. The authors reported thatthe overall ES of peer-mediatedinterventions was 1.875. Whenevaluating the effectiveness of peer-mediated interventions acrossacademic subject areas, the findingswere equally impressive, with largegains seen in math (2.08), history(1.15), and reading (0.81). In addition,Ryan et al. (2004) found that studentsbenefited from this form of instructionregardless of the role they held, be it astutor (2.02), tutee (0.63), or whensharing both roles (2.12). Similarpositive findings were reported evenacross age groups, be they inelementary grades or high school.Finally, and critical to practitioners,both the students and teachers enjoyedusing peer-mediated interventions,reporting high levels of consumersatisfaction. Students made positivecomments, claiming that tutoringhelped them understand their peers’needs (e.g., empathy), as well as howto ignore inappropriate behavior.

Two specific peer-mediatedinterventions that demonstrated high

levels of efficacy were cross-age andsame-age peer tutoring. A successfulexample of cross-age peer tutoringwas conducted by Cochran, Feng,Cartledge, and Hamilton (1993). Inthis study a special education teacherhad half her class of fifth-gradeAfrican American boys acting astutors for teaching sight words toyounger students. The tutees werelow-performing second-gradeAfrican American boys also identifiedwith EBD. Following 8 weeks of peertutoring sessions that lastedapproximately 30 minutes per day,both the tutors and tutees showedgreater increases in both sight wordsand positive social interactions thandid their classmates who had notparticipated in peer tutoring.

Similarly, Falk and Wehby (2001)demonstrated the efficacy of same-age peer tutoring by implementing aninstructional program calledkindergarten peer-assisted learningstrategy (K-PALS), in which higher-functioning readers were paired withlower-performing classmates forreading instruction. The studentsswapped roles throughout thesemester, each taking turns as eitherthe coach or reader during a varietyof activities developed to enhance

reader fluency and comprehension.Results of the study found thatstudents increased reading skills bothin letter-sound correspondence andin blending sounds.

In conclusion, Ryan andcolleagues’ (2004) review of peer-mediated interventions demonstratedthat this form of instruction has theability to produce large academicgains for students with EBD in amanner that both teachers andstudents enjoy. In addition, Utley andMortweet (1997) posited that peer-mediated interventions provide bothan effective means for offsetting highteacher-pupil ratios and an effectivealternative to one-on-one instructionfor students with severe academicdeficiencies.

Self-Mediated Interventions

Self-mediated interventions arethose in which the studentsthemselves are responsible forproviding academic instruction.There are five common types of self-mediated interventions (also knownas self-management or self-regulationinterventions), including self-monitoring, self-evaluation, self-instruction, goal setting, and strategyinstruction. Table 2 provides a brief

Table 2 TYPES OF SELF-MEDIATED INTERVENTIONS

Intervention Description

Evidence Base


Self-monitoring A two-stage process of observing and recording one’s behaviorwherein the student: (a) discriminates occurrence/nonoccurrence ofa target behavior; and (b) self-records some aspect of the targetbehavior.

X X

Self-evaluation A process wherein a student compares her/his performance to apreviously established criterion set by student or teacher (e.g.,improvement of performance over time) and is awardedreinforcement based on achieving the criterion.

X

Self-instruction A procedure wherein a student uses self-statements to directbehavior.

X

Goal setting A process wherein a student self-selects a behavioral target (e.g.,term paper completion), which serves to structure student effort,provide information on progress, and motivate performance.

X*

Strategy instruction A process wherein a student is taught a series of steps toindependently follow in solving a problem or achieving an outcome.

X X

Note. Goal-setting was used as part of a multicomponent intervention.



description of each and the specificage groups with which they havedemonstrated efficacy, based oncurrent research. In self-mediatedinterventions, teachers are initiallyresponsible for teaching studentshow to carry out the instructionalactivities and ensuring that studentscan, in fact, complete the tasks.Eventually, the responsibility forcarrying out the task transfers to thestudent.

In all, Mooney and colleagues(2005) identified 22 studies that metinclusionary criteria. These studiesinvolved 78 participants. Studentsages 5–11 were included in 12 of thestudies (n 5 40), with 9 of the studiesincluding only students in that agegroup. Students 12 years of age andolder were participants in 8 studies (n5 38) by themselves and in 3 studieswith younger age students (i.e., 5- to11-year-olds).

Overall, Mooney and colleagues’(2005) review of self-mediatedinterventions demonstrated positivefindings for these academicinterventions. The ES or strength ofthese interventions was impressive.The authors found the overall ES ofself-mediated interventions was large(1.80). Individual ESs for each specifictype of self-mediated interventionwere also large, including those forself-monitoring (1.90), self-evaluation(1.13), strategy instruction (1.75), andself-instruction (2.71). Whencomparing the effectiveness of theseinterventions for specific academicsubject areas, self-mediatedinterventions resulted in large gainsin writing (1.13), math (1.97), reading(2.28), and social studies (2.66). Areview of Table 2 indicates that self-mediated interventions were morelikely to be used in research aimed atsecondary-age students.

We highlight two specificexamples of effective self-mediatedinterventions. The first interventioninvolves a self-monitoringintervention, whereas the second is astrategy-instruction intervention.Regarding self-monitoring, threemiddle school boys, ages 13–15 years,

were taught to monitor their ownacademic accuracy and productivityacross subject areas and duringindependent work time in the self-contained classroom in which theywere enrolled (Carr & Punzo, 1993).Accuracy in reading, for example,was defined as the number of itemscompleted correctly divided by thenumber of items completed.Productivity was defined as thenumber of items completed dividedby the number of items given.Initially, data were gathered onstudent performance duringindependent work times duringwhich students could ask questionsabout assignments but were expectedto complete worksheet activities bythemselves and then turn them in.The teacher then graded the students’work and returned it to them withoutverbal feedback.

Self-mediated interventiontraining in Carr and Punzo (1993)involved the teacher completing thefollowing steps: (a) providingstudents an explicit definition ofacademic achievement, a rationale forimproving accuracy and productivity,and examples of achievement fromstudents’ own written work; (b)teaching students to count thenumber of items given, completed,and completed accurately, as well ashow to record those numbers on aself-recording sheet; (c) modelingaccurate item counting and recording;and (d) asking students to repeat thedefinition of achievement andrationale for improved importanceand to demonstrate accurate self-recording procedures. Followingtraining, data gathering indicated thatall three boys improved theiraccuracy and productivitypercentages across subject areas.Improvements also were noted in on-task behavior. Additionally, teacherchecks of students’ self-recordingefforts indicated that students werewell able to accurately carry out thetasks.

A second effective self-management strategy was strategyinstruction. Skinner, Belfiore, and

Pierce (1992) evaluated the effects ofcover, copy, and compare (CCC), aninstructional technique that promoteshigh rates of correct and overtstudent academic responses acrossmultiple content areas. CCCessentially involves students learningand completing the following steps:(a) looking at an item and solution;(b) covering the item and solution; (c)writing the item and solution; and (d)comparing their written response withthe original item and solution to checkits accuracy. Students whosecomparisons are correct move on tothe next item in their seatwork,whereas students whose writtenresponses are incorrect repeat theprocess until their written work iscorrect (Skinner, Ford, & Yunker,1991). Skinner et al. (1992) applied theprocess to social studies with sevenupper elementary-aged studentsserved in a self-contained classroom.The students’ teacher taught thestudents the steps in CCC andevaluated its effects on students’abilities to accurately identify states ona map of the United States. Findingsindicated that not only did theintervention result in improvedaverage class accuracy over a baselinecondition, but that students rated theprocedure as highly acceptable as well.

In conclusion, similar to peer-administered treatments, self-mediated interventions havedemonstrated their ability to producelarge academic gains for studentswith EBD across subject areas.Teachers, then, can fully expectstudents, particularly secondarystudents, to monitor their ownacademic performance as well as toset goals for academic improvement.

Teacher-Mediated Interventions

Teacher-mediated interventionsare those in which the teacher (or anadministrator of the interventionother than the student himself/herself or a peer) takes responsibilityfor treatment, through manipulationof antecedents and/or consequences.Table 3 provides a description ofinterventions focusing on the


S P R I N G 2 0 0 8 2 5

Table 3 TYPES OF TEACHER-MEDIATED ANTECEDENT-FOCUSED INTERVENTIONS

AntecedentInterventions Description

Evidence Base


Verbalize mathproblems

A process wherein teachers ask students to say math problems aloudbefore solving them.

X

Cubicles A process wherein teachers have students complete their work attheir desk in study cubicles enclosed on three sides.

X

Structured academictasks

A process wherein teachers require students to complete specifictasks in a sequential order.

X

Modeling, rehearsal, andfeedback

A process wherein teachers model a skill, have the student rehearsethe skill, and provide direct feedback about the student’sperformance.

X X

Teacher planningstrategies

A process wherein teachers are trained to use daily planningprocedures based on trend analysis and error analysis.

X

Life space interviewing Crisis intervention technique in which a student’s behavior isdiscussed with him/her at the time of the problem’s occurrence.Practitioners of this approach believe that the student is mostreceptive to ideas for change when he or she is in crisis.

X X

Adjusting task difficulty Teachers adjusted difficulty of arithmetic tasks depending upon astudent’s success level and failure level.

X

Previewing A comprehension strategy that involves activating prior knowledge,predicting, and setting a purpose to improve reading performance.

X

Sequential prompting Teachers use multiple levels of prompts (administered in order frommost independent to most dependent) to increase academicperformance.

X

Adjusting presentationand point-delivery rate

Teachers used two presentation rates and two point-delivery rates todetermine best combination for higher student performance.

X

Teach test-taking skills Teachers taught students four specific test-taking skills: stemoptions, absurd options, similar options, and specific determiners.

X X

Mnemonic instruction A memory-enhancing instructional strategy that involves teachingstudents to link new information being taught to information theyalready know to help students retain specific information.

X

Taped words and drillinstruction

Procedure in which students read lists of words along with a tapethat is presented at 80 words per minute.

X

Trial-and-error versustime delay

Teacher allowed students either to read a word immediately whenshown a list or to pause until the teacher reads the word and thenrespond.

X

Personalized system ofinstruction

Teachers used written study objectives, division of the course intosmall units of material, use of the written word, student self-pacingthrough the curriculum, a high-mastery criteria for advancement tonext unit of material, immediate feedback for exams, and use ofstudent tutors to improve spelling performance.

X

Structured instructionalsystem

Teachers implemented a modified version of the School SurvivalSkills Curriculum.

X X

Intertrial intervalduration

Teachers adjusted amount of time that occurred between a studentreading a word and the presentation of the next word, zero or5 seconds.

X

Incorporating studentinterest

Teachers considered student interest in development and content oflesson.

X

Teacher versus childcontrol of choice of taskand reinforcement

Teachers selected rewards and tasks or allowed students to chooserewards and tasks from a predetermined list.

X

Story mapping Process that creates a visual depiction of the settings or the sequenceof major events and actions of story characters. Procedure helpsstudents identify the characters, setting, problems, events, andoutcomes in narrative text to increase student comprehension.

X

(Continued on p6)



manipulation of antecedents. Theseinterventions attempt to identifyways in which teachers can intervenebefore inappropriate behaviors occurthat negatively impact academicperformance. Table 4 showsinterventions that targetmanipulation of consequences. Theseinterventions help teachers determinewhat reinforces students’ appropriateresponses to instruction. Examples ofteacher-mediated interventionsinclude token economies,contingency contracts, adjustments totask difficulty, and story mapping. Ineach of these interventions, theteacher is in charge of developing andimplementing the treatment toproduce a change in academic (e.g.,math) skills.

Overall, 30 studies from 11different journals met criteria for

inclusion in Pierce and colleagues’(2004) teacher-mediated review.There were 242 participants, 78% ofwhom were boys and 14% were girls.The remaining 8% of the participantswere in 5 studies that did not providegender information. Forty-sevenpercent of the participants were 5–11 years old, and 40% were 12 yearsor older. Thirteen percent of thestudies did not report age-specificparticipant characteristics.

Pierce and colleagues’ (2004)review of teacher-mediatedinterventions demonstrated positivefindings, with more than 90% of thestudies reviewed showing positiveoutcomes. The overall mean ES for allteacher-mediated studies was 1.05.Effects of treatment across bothantecedent- and consequence-focusedinterventions were large in

magnitude (i.e., ESs of 1.31 and 0.80,respectively). When comparingefficacy across subject areas, teacher-mediated interventions appeared tobe most successful in reading,resulting in very high ESs rangingfrom 1.12–2.68. Gains in math weresuccessful, but less dramatic, withlow to moderate ESs ranging from0.22–0.72.

Although the findings of Pierceand colleagues (2004) were bothimpressive and important for ourfield, two different but equallystriking findings emerged. First, theseinterventions were effective despitebeing implemented only for veryshort durations (i.e., an average of22 days per treatment). It isencouraging to know that these typesof interventions can have such apositive impact over such a short

Table 4 TYPES OF TEACHER-MEDIATED CONSEQUENCE-FOCUSED INTERVENTIONS

ConsequenceIntervention Study

Evidence Base


Token reinforcementsystem

Teachers provided points or tokens to students for retention ofinformation gained while watching television news.

X

Contingency reinforcers Teachers examined effect of teacher-specified contingencies versusstudent-specified contingencies to improve academic performance.

X

Use of free time Teacher provides increasing amounts of free time to students basedon increasing number of sight words learned.

X

Academic contracting Teachers contracted with student to earn specified reinforcer forpredetermined levels of academic improvement.

X

Written feedback Teacher provides written feedback on accuracy in reading todetermine effects on improvement in reading.

X

Bonus contingency intoken program

Teacher added bonus contingencies into a standard token economywhen students earned 80% or higher accuracy on math assignments.

X

AntecedentInterventions Description

Evidence Base


Choice-makingopportunities

Teacher used a six-step method for choice making: Offer student twoor more options, ask student to make choice, provide wait time tomake choice, wait for individual’s response, reinforce with optionchosen, and prompt student to make choice if one is not made.

X

Individual curricularmodification

Teachers review functional behavioral assessment results forstudents to determine instructional and curricular variablesassociated with undesirable behavior during academic assignmentcompletion.

X

Table 3 (Continued)


S P R I N G 2 0 0 8 2 7

duration. Still, research has shownthat we may not be maintainingtreatments long enough to effectsignificant, durable change forstudents with EBD (McConaughy,Kay, & Fitzgerald, 2000). Second, itwas difficult to judge the functionalvalue of these interventions, becauseonly 23% of the studies reviewedreported any type of social validityinformation. That is, it is difficult todetermine whether the interventionsreviewed were useful and useable forteachers in other classrooms (Ruhl &Berlinghoff, 1992). This leavesteachers who read these studies withfew options but to infer judgmentabout the potential effectiveness ofthe interventions in their ownclassrooms.

Several successful examples ofteacher-mediated instruction areprovided. The first involves the use ofpersonalized systems of instruction(PSI) to improve spellingperformance of 10 elementary-agedboys with EBD (McLaughlin, 1991).Researchers examined the number ofspelling tests students passed with100% accuracy. Initially, data werecollected on student spellingperformance given regular spellinginstruction. Data were then collectedto determine student performance inspelling when PSI was used andstudents were not given theopportunity to retake a spelling test.Finally, data were collected onstudent performance on spelling testswhen PSI was implemented andretakes were allowed. Teacher-mediated intervention training inMcLaughlin (1991) involved accurateimplementation of PSI. Teachers weretrained in the following areas: (a)written study objectives, (b) divisionof course content into smaller units,(c) use of the written word, (d)student self-pacing through thecurricula, (e) a high-mastery criteriato advance to the next unit ofmaterial, (f) immediate feedback as toperformance on exams or quizzes,and (g) the use of student proctors ortutors. Following training andimplementation, results indicated

that student performance on spellingtests increased each week with a largeimprovement in spellingperformance overall.

Another example of a successfulteacher-mediated interventioninvolved the use of story mapping toimprove reading comprehensionskills of students with EBD (Babyack,Koorland, & Mathes, 2000). Fourth-and fifth-grade students took part ina program that was designed toimprove academic skills and providebehavior support. The researchersused a method that included teachingthe parts of a story and the use of FiveStory Parts worksheets, focusing onthe main character, setting, problemin the story, story outcome, and majorevents. Students were asked a seriesof eight questions relating to the storymapping worksheet after they read astory (e.g., When did the story takeplace? What four things thathappened when ______ tried to solvethe problem?). Overall, resultsshowed students made large gains intheir reading comprehension skills.

In conclusion, we have evidenceto support the use of teacher-mediated interventions for improvingthe academic performance ofstudents with EBD. Many of theinterventions reviewed in Tables 3and 4 showed the potential forsubstantial improvement of variousacademic skills for students withEBD. However, results of Pierce et al.(2004) also indicated that there arestill issues within this body ofresearch that need to be addressedbefore we can confidently generalizesome of the findings demonstrated inthe studies reviewed to widerpopulations of students.

Discussion

Given that research hasdemonstrated that poor academicperformance frequently leads tonegative outcomes for students withEBD in both the short term (e.g.,school failure and increased dropoutrates), and long term (e.g.,unsuccessful transition to the job

market and community) (U.S.Department of Education, 2006), it iscritical for educators to properlyaddress the serious academicdeficiencies of students with EBD.Currently, there is a clear and forcefulcall for educators to incorporateevidence-based procedures inschools. In fact, the essence of the NoChild Left Behind Act of 2001 was forschools to focus on academicinstruction and methods that havebeen proven effective. The purpose ofthis paper was to provide educators areview of academic interventions (i.e.,peer-, self-, and teacher-mediated)that have been demonstrated to beeffective for teaching students withEBD.

Limitations. It is important toremember that although the academicinterventions discussed herein haveresulted in positive outcomes forstudents with EBD, many of thestudies were conducted withrelatively few students. This meansthat many of the studies did notinclude a representative sampling ofall types of students with EBD (e.g.,female, Hispanic). Hence, it isdifficult to generalize these findingsto all students with EBD. In order tostrengthen these findings, additionalstudies will need to be conducted inthe future on a larger scale. Inaddition, the academic interventionsdiscussed were conducted underrigorous monitoring and supervisionto ensure the specific interventionswere implemented as intended.Deviation from the prescribedprocedures may impact anyintervention’s efficacy.

Implications. Educators ofstudents with EBD realize that thestudents they teach face an inordinatecombination of academic and socialchallenges in comparison with manyof their peers. Researchers have longargued over the causal relationshipbetween a child’s behavior and his orher poor academic performance.Some researchers today acknowledgethat there is likely a reciprocalrelationship between the twovariables (Trout, Nordness, Pierce, &



Epstein, 2003). To help enhance thesestudents’ chances of success in schooland as adults within the community,it behooves teachers to incorporateempirically based teaching methodswithin their classrooms. The authorshighly encourage practitioners toread further about each of theseinterventions to determine whichmethods would be most suitable toincorporate into their particularclassroom settings.

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