General Education Teachers’ Use of Evidence-Based Practices: Examining the Role of Student Race and Risk Status

Abstract

This exploratory study occurred in Title 1 schools located within a large urban area. The sample included 23 general educators and 551 students in second through fifth grade, with 57 students identified as at risk for an emotional or behavioral disorder. The purpose of this study was to determine (a) to what extent general education teachers used evidence-based practices—specifically, opportunities to respond, positive specific feedback, and precorrections—during classroom instruction, and (b) if those practices occurred at different rates across demographic groups (i.e., race and disability risk). The results indicated that teachers used higher rates of opportunities to respond and positive specific feedback with students not at risk compared with at-risk students. We did not find main effects of race or race-by-disability risk interaction effects. These findings support the need to continue examining teachers’ differing uses of evidence-based practices.

Evidence-Based and Culturally Sustaining Practices for Diverse Students With Emotional and Behavioral Disorders

“…The literature is replete with statistics showing the negative academic outcomes and the overrepresentation of Black, indigenous, and students of color receiving special education services (Domina et al, 2017;Erevelles, 2014;Green et al, 2020). The cultural mismatch between teachers and students and a lack of cultural competency among teachers is one of the major contributing factors in the overidentification of Black, Indigenous, and students of color (Green & Stormont 2018;Leath et al, 2019).…”

“…Opportunity to respond was selected, among other evidence-based practices, due to its strong evidence to increase academic success, reduce rates of undesired behavior (Haydon et al, 2010), and feasibility. For example, Green et al (2020) found that when general education teachers implemented OTR, teachers used them at higher rates for students not at risk for EBD. These findings reemphasize that teachers use lower rates of evidence-based practices with students who engage in undesired behaviors.…”

Disparities across race and disability risk: Assessing teacher practices

“…Data collection training and data collection were completed as part of the aforementioned larger study with which this study was associated (Green et al, 2020).…”

“…One recent study conducted by Gion et al (2020) found a functional relation between a classroom intervention focused on increasing culturally responsive practices and teachers' increased rates of praise and decreased use of reprimands towards Black students. Another study (Green et al, 2020) found teachers differential use of EBP across student groups. That is, teachers used lower rates of OTR and PSF with students at‐risk.…”

“…That is, teachers used lower rates of OTR and PSF with students at-risk. Therefore, to address this line of inquiry and add to the dearth of research in this area, this study was completed as part of a larger study analyzing teacher differential treatment across student groups (Green et al, 2020). The purpose of this study was to determine whether specific EBP were applied differently across demographic groups (i.e., race and disability risk).…”