Directed Consultation and Supported Professionalism: Promoting Adaptive Evidence-Based Practices in Rural Schools

Abstract

Although there have been several advances in the development of evidence-based practices (EBPs) to support students with disabilities, many rural schools struggle to use EBPs. Rural schools may experience challenges that constrain their potential to provide support for the implementation of EBPs. Furthermore, there may be a mismatch between EBPs and the circumstances, resources, and needs of many rural schools. Directed consultation is an intervention support framework designed to adapt the use of EBPs by using local data and stakeholders’ insights to align strategies to the unique features and needs of rural schools, teachers, and students. This article considers the use of directed consultation to support the individualization and intensification of intervention for students with disabilities in rural schools. The establishment of rural research-practitioner partnerships is also discussed with the goal of developing a broad range of directed consultation content and delivery approaches.

Free Appropriate Public Education in the Time of COVID-19

“…Effective and individualized remote instruction for students with disabilities required another layer of educator training that rural and remote LEAs may have struggled to deliver during the school closures. Rural schools already face a critical shortage of teachers trained to provide specialized educational services for students with disabilities ( Rude & Miller, 2018 ), and often experience constraints (i.e., geographic isolation, few readily accessible specialists) that limit special educators’ access to professional development opportunities that allow them to adapt new instructional practices to meet the needs of their students ( Farmer et al, 2018 ). The shortage of trained personnel and limited access to high-quality professional development likely impacted rural special educators’ ability to rapidly move instruction for students with disabilities to the new remote learning format.…”

Tiered Systems of Adaptive Supports and the Individualization of Intervention: Merging Developmental Cascades and Correlated Constraints Perspectives

“…Likewise, it is necessary to monitor the social context to prevent teasing and bullying and ensure the student maintains positive social roles and relationships that support positive patterns of behavior (Farmer et al, 2019; Farmer, Hamm, et al, 2020). Research is needed to provide teachers with the tools, information, and/or consultation support to guide them in these sorts of assessments and tailoring of interventions, with decision trees that offer the guidance needed to link intervention adaptation to relevant developmental process variables (Bierman et al, 2006; Farmer, Chen, et al, 2016; Farmer et al, 2018).…”

“…Directed consultation (DC) is an intervention support and progress monitoring system designed to integrate practice elements of evidence-based programs (EBPs) into daily activities within classroom and school ecologies (Farmer et al, 2018). It involves four linked components conducted in an iterative and recursive fashion: scouting reports; tailored general training; ongoing support; and implementation consultation which are described in detail in other works (see Farmer et al, 2018; Motoca et al, 2014).…”

“…Although it is necessary to have a systematic approach to assess and intervene with the context as a foundation for intervention, it is critical to have an equally systematic but responsive approach to assess the needs of specific students and to tailor interventions to their characteristics and circumstances (Bierman et al, 2006). To address this, systematic progress monitoring (see Farmer, Gatzke-Kopp, et al, 2016; Farmer et al, 2018; Farmer & Farmer, 2001; Sutherland et al, 2018) and the scouting report (see Farmer, Chen, et al, 2016) can each be conducted at the individual level.…”

“…They need the guidance of experts to assist with data collection, intervention selection, and the modification of interventions in relation to data on changes in various developmental subsystems. Expertise to do this requires understanding the practice elements of EBPs (e.g., Sutherland et al, 2019), a strong knowledge about developmental processes across critical domains of functioning (e.g., academic, behavioral, ecological, emotional, health, psychological, and social), and the ability to use data about the student’s functioning to bring together information about practice elements and developmental processes to guide the implementation and adaptation of interventions for students with intensive needs (Farmer et al, 2018; Maggin et al, 2016; Sutherland et al, 2018).…”