This study sought to determine the efficacy of a self-administered folding-in technique to help fourth grade students at-risk for math difficulties improve their fluency with multiplication facts. The investigators used a multiple baseline across participants design during a two-phase intervention. While 4 of the 5 students made progress during the first phase of the intervention, all student participants demonstrated significant gains in math fact performance during the second phase of the intervention. During the second phase, the investigators divided the students' cards into known and unknown piles weekly. This preliminary research suggests interspersal technology may allow students to make progress on fluency tasks with limited adult supervision.
Schools are tasked with the mission of preparing students for future success. Whether success is defined in terms of preparedness for a personally meaningful life, employment, or continued education, educators clearly maintain a responsibility to facilitate the acquisition of skills that may be applied outside the school environment. The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) of 2015 legislates this responsibility through provisions that ensure schools use evidence-based instructional strategies to prepare all students for successful employment and/or postsecondary education (U.S. Department of Education, 2016). Alignment with the mission of the educational system and adherence to ESSA therefore requires educators to implement evidencebased strategies to increase the likelihood that skills acquired in the context of a classroom generalize to other environments and maintain over time. In other words, the "train and hope" approach (see Stokes & Baer, 1977) is no longer acceptable, and educators maintain a responsibility to explicitly program for generalization and maintenance.
Adaptive behavior rating scales are widely used assessments that ask teachers and parents to rate how well students care for themselves, interact with others, and exhibit practical and academic skills. While adaptive rating scales have yielded reliable and valid results, it is unclear how the readability of the rating forms may impact the results, especially for parents who may have lower literacy levels. Using three readability indices—the Flesch Reading Ease for English, the Fernández Huerta for Spanish, and the Automated Reading Index for both English and Spanish—the readability of the English and Spanish parent/caregiver forms of the Vineland‐3 and ABAS‐3 was assessed. Results indicated that the reading grade level equivalent of the English and Spanish versions of the ABAS‐3 was on average greater than the recommended sixth grade level. In contrast, the readability of the Spanish and English versions of the Vineland‐3 was on average sixth grade level and below. Based on these results, when using parent/caregiver adaptive behavior rating forms, school psychologists should take precautions to ensure valid results by ascertaining parent/caregiver reading proficiency, providing additional explanations as permitted by the assessment protocols, and using alternative interview forms provided by publishers as needed.
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