Emotional and Behavioral Disorder

     As an educator, I know that the need for evidence based practices is key to an instructor's credibility and success in the classroom and among peers and administrators.  This article chose to overview emotional behavior disorders, describe two specific evidence based practices (EBPs) with proven outcomes of academic success(for transition-aged youth), and guide teachers to finding more EBPs to help students in the classroom and without.
     First of all, the two key evidence based practices listed are peer-assisted learning and self management.  According to Farley et. al., peer assistance in education involves mixed-ability grouping of students to support each other through learning processes and tasks (Farley et. al., 2012).  These models can be implemented in many ways and help students to benefit from playing the role of student as well as teacher.   "Peer-assisted learning also increases opportunities for students to receive one-to-one instruction, repeated practice, and immediate feedback, all of which support increases in academic achievement (Farley 2012)." One of the most effective evidence based practices under the peer-assisted learning umbrella is called CWPT, classwide peer tutoring.  The guidelines for it are explicit but bare bones, it happens for 20 minutes a day, 10 minutes for students to be the teacher and 10 minutes for students to be the learner.  
     The second evidence based practice is self management.  The article by Farley et. al. defined self management as, "methods used by students to manage, monitor, record, and/or assess their behavior or academic achievement (Farley 2012)."  Since students with EBD struggle to be successful in school with these skills, self management interventions help them to practice academically appropriate behavior.  The five most frequently used types of self management interventions Farley et. al. listed were :  self-monitoring, self-evaluation, self-instruction, goal-setting, and strategy instruction.  
     Connections I made to our class centered around the definition and needs of students with EBD.  I feel that this article is very helpful and user friendly.  It lists multiple websites for teachers to use to research evidence based practices for students with EBD.  EBPs are one of many important buzz words in education today.  I've struggled to find confirmation that the practices I've used in my own class room fell under the umbrella of evidence based practices, as opposed to what I pulled out of my hat at the moment that just so happened to work.  
     This article also offers other resources to help guide teachers to valid, evidence based practices.  While I feel that giving only two strategies (self management and peer-assisted learning) may seem simplistic, I feel that the instructions for implementing the strategies and trying them out is expansive in detail and seems very well laid out for a teacher looking for something to use to truly meet the student with EBD's educational needs.   I would recommend anyone read this article and pay attention to the instructions of how the researchers implemented both strategies. 

Farley, C., Torres, C., Wailehua, C. T., & Cook, L. (2012). Evidence-based practices for 
               students with emotional and behavioral disorders: Improving academic achievement.
               Beyond Behavior, 21(2), 37-43.

"Parent involvement in the transition process of children with intellectual disabilities: The influence of inclusion on parent desires and expectations for postsecondary education"

     Wow, that was a long blog title!  It's actually the title of the article.
     The reason I chose this article is because the transitioning process is so key for families of students with intellectual disabilities as well as the students themselves.  What is also interesting is the fact that this article highlights a more recent trend in families with students who have intellectual disabilities.  It seems that more and more parents want to have some type of post secondary education experience for their child (Martinez, Conroy & Cerreto, 2012). 
     Now, since I worked at private school that included education and transition programs that helped provide services to people with disabilities from ages 3-22, I'm aware of a handful of transition options.  I have less knowledge of post-school options and resources like college classes for students with intellectual disabilities. I'm interested to explore what that looks like in context.  Also, from experience, I have heard comments from parents with regard to their fears, concerns, and then triumphs when they find a right-fit placement for their young adult.  
      According to Martinez et al., "while parents may desire an outcome for their
 young adult, professionals offer preselected "realistic" options often placing  parents in the dilemma of selecting compromises that differ from their original expectations and desires (Cooney, 2002)(Martinez et al., 2012)."  As a teacher and special education advocate, I would like to educate myself so I don't find myself in the same position.  That position being, doling out preselected, 'realistic' options.  I think that the options vary on a student by student basis.  I think it's important to seek out information and be a great resource for parents wading through the transition process, which can be stressful, emotional, and very challenging.
       This article shared a survey given to parents to assess three areas of concern which had to do with parental access to adequate resources for their students as well as researching any correlation between parental involvement, time included in a general education curriculum, and a parent's desires and expectations for transitioning programs.
       This article seemed limited in that they created a survey based on data from a 2007 census.  The survey was limited to be completed in 30 minutes of time, and some of the questions seemed to lack room for parents to be able to expand to give a greater depth in their answers.  For example, because the survey was brief and had to remain simple , it collected only the perceptions of the parents of the time their kids were included in the general education curriculum (Martinez, 2012).  Perceptions are subjective and not something to solely inform your decision making.
        I appreciated the concern that Geenen, Powers, and Lopez-Vasquez's (2001) study found.  They stated that materials for transition planning and resources must be accessible to parents in multiple formats and also reflect cultural values.  Their study showed that, "reported school staff perceived culturally and linguistically diverse parents as unresponsive and uninvolved though the parents reported active involvement in their young adult's transition outside the realm of school-based planning (Martinez, 2012)."  It's very important to remember what a diverse, global world we live in.  Resources need to cross cultural boundaries and be inclusive.

- i

Martinez, D. C., Conroy, J. W., & Cerreto, M. C. (2012). Parent involvement in the transition process of   
         children with intellectual disabilities: The influence of inclusion on parent desires and expectations for 
         postsecondary education. Journal Of Policy And Practice In Intellectual Disabilities, 9(4), 279-288.

CBM embedded in Online Learning Environments, a study

The article I read was a study that sought to discover the benefits of embedding curriculum based measurement into a UDL (universally designed learning) online learning environment using a research based reading tool, Strategic Reader.  The study involved 14 classrooms and 284 students. Of this participant group,  participants that were trained to participate in the study were chosen from a middle school and there was a percentage of students with disabilities and without disabilities.

These students chose 2 of 4 texts to complete reading in the online UDL environment.  Strategic Reader provided these digitial texts with many options for supports, such as highlighting text, changing fonts, and choosing whether to give required responses in text or orally.

There were two treatment groups.  The first group, called Treatment 1, used Strategic Reader and their teachers could utilize the online tools that would allow them to progress monitor their students online.  The second group, Treatment 2, used all the same things, except their teachers had to progress monitor the students with paper/pencil, or with any other offline progress monitoring method.

The results of the study showed a statistically significant improvement in scores for students who had disabilities.  The research of this team seemed to show that using online tools to progress monitor created more improvement in reading comprehension scores.  These teachers could scaffold with the tools Strategic Reader offered and create more interventions for their students.  The teachers who had to use offline methods of progress monitoring showed a lesser percentage of growth.

Also, the ease of use of the online progress monitoring showed that teachers who had access to it created more interventions for their students.  In my opinion, this ability to use the online tool is what may have helped those students improve more.  The teachers had access to students results that were computer generated and could point-click and create more specific interventions than those teachers who had to progress monitor on their own.

My connection to this topic, and the reason I chose to write about this article is because I was able to use a similar program for my first grade students last year.  The program I used all year was called Imagine Learning.  It was paid for by the district and was part of our K-3 Intervention plan.  While using this program, I found the ease of creating interventions and interpreting data to be beyond beneficial and amazing.  I also found my students improved greatly on standard tests at benchmarks and I attribute it to the supplemental use of this program.  It helped to reteach things I had already taught.  I could go over a lot of data (when I had the time) and see exactly where the breakdowns in their learning were taking place.  I will say that the classrooms that were part of this study were more supported than I was.  While I saw awesome improvement and achievement from my kids, it would've been nice to have a grade level meeting or data day to go over the results and really be able to delve deeper into more intense planning.

I feel that this article was helpful and practical because the things that it was seeking to research were clear and measurable.  I think that I agree with some of the limitations listed, such as the age levels weren't as mixed as they intended at the beginning.  They sought to test middle schools evenly (sixth, seventh, and eighth graders) and their median age of participants was around 11 years old.  This shows their study was mostly sixth grade participants.   I think the article's strongest point was the statistically significant scoring of students with LDs when they are given progress monitoring via online tools.  It shows that these students can improve even more when they are engaged and enjoy technology.  The weakest part for me was the scope of the research.  Or maybe, what I mean by that is, I'd like a follow up to show the results of an intervention program with a younger group of readers.

Hall, T. E., Cohen, N., Vue, G., & Ganley, P. (2015). Addressing learning disabilities with UDL and technology: Strategic  reader. Learning Disability Quarterly, 38(2), 72-83.  Retrieved September 14, 2015 from EbscoHost.