The Classroom Environment Scale (CES), originally developed for use in traditional public school classrooms, was revised for use in special education classrooms. The scale, which assesses students' perceptions of various aspects of the classroom, was administered to students in 79 special education classrooms in 16 residential and day treatment schools serving special education students with behavior disorders and emotional disturbance. Psychometric analyses showed that only seven of the nine aspects of the classroom found in the original CES were reliably reported in special education classrooms. The revised scale was found reliable for use in special education classes in residential and day treatment settings.

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Early identification of the lack of behavioral competencies followed by subsequent intervention is critical to reducing the number of students at risk for increasing disciplinary responses and school failure. This study examined scores on the Behavior Objective Sequence (BOS) of elementary school students referred for out-of-classroom disciplinary intervention. The results of this study indicated a distinction between the BOS scores of students referred for disciplinary problems and the scores of students who were never referred. In addition, differences among demographic variables of the sample population were found. These findings provide initial data that support use of the BOS as a strength-based assessment for identifying behavioral competencies of students who may be at risk for increasing rates of disciplinary referrals so skill-focused intervention strategies may be implemented in a timely manner. C 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.Early identification of student behavior problems followed by subsequent intervention is critical in efforts to reduce the number of students at risk for school failure. The extensive literature in this field has emphasized the need for early intervention to facilitate prosocial skills development. Traditional deficit-based assessment tools that describe behavior symptoms for identifying which students need early intervention are plentiful; however, they provide almost no assistance to teachers on what skills should be taught (Epstein & Rudolph, n.d.). Little information is currently available regarding the usefulness of strength-based assessment in targeting students for behavioral interventions.Students exhibiting chronic behavior problems are at risk for negative school outcomes, both academic and social. Without early identification and intervention, many problem behaviors escalate in frequency and severity over time with diminishing responses to intervention and increasing costs associated with secondary and tertiary treatments. These problem behaviors may have lifetime consequences (McClellan & Katz, 2001). Unchecked low-level aggression exhibited by students has been associated with high-level, antisocial, and criminal conduct (Belandcited findings that indicate that children who do not develop prosocial behaviors by about third grade continue to display some degree of antisocial behavior throughout their lives.Reactive efforts too often focus on responding to problem behaviors through the use of punishment or exclusion rather than identifying children who are at risk before problems escalate and providing proactive intervention. Lane, Gresham, and O'Shaughnessy (2002) attested to the reactive approach schools tend to take in addressing problem behaviors. The current trend toward zero-tolerance policies results in the exclusion of children with antisocial behaviors from accessing the intervention and instructional opportunities schools can provide for prosocial development (Kauffman, 1999;Webster-Stratton & Reid, 2002). Students are left with no education and no future, a pra...

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