Measuring Teachers’ Perceptions of Student Behavior Using the Systematic Screening for Behavior Disorders in Middle School Students

Abstract

Educating students with emotional and behavioral difficulties presents a significant challenge for teachers and school systems resulting in disproportionately high rates of teacher stress, attrition, and loss of instructional time (Cross & Billingsley, 1994). Emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) are characterized by a pattern of maladaptive behaviors that significantly restrict individuals' ability to function successfully in academic and interpersonal activities (Walker, Ramsay, & Gresham, 2004). The behavior patterns of students with EBD are usually divided into two dimensions: externalizing and internalizing behaviors (Achenbach & Rescorla, 2001). Externalizing behaviors are undercontrolled, disruptive behaviors directly outwardly toward the environment. In school settings, examples of externalizing behaviors include defying the teacher, talking out of turn, and engaging in aggressive behaviors. In contrast, internalizing behaviors are overcontrolled behaviors directed inwardly toward oneself and include behaviors such as fear, anxiety, depression, and social withdrawal. The relationship between problem behaviors and negative academic and social outcomes is well established in the literature (Malecki & Elliott, 2002). Research indicates that children with EBD exhibit low academic achievement in all academic subjects and, on average, perform 1 to 2 years below grade level, are more likely to be retained, and often are either suspended or expelled from school (Nelson, Benner, Lane, & Smith, 2004; Wagner, Kutash, Duchnowski, Epstein, & Sumi, 2005). Furthermore, these early academic and behavioral challenges have negative effects on later academic outcomes with roughly half of students with EBD failing to finish high school (Wagner et al., 2005). Long-term outcomes of EBD classification were investigated in the National Longitudinal Transition Study-2 that followed a sample of 11,000 students with disabilities over 10 years (Wagner et al., 2005). About 8 years post high school, 75% of students with EBD had been involved with the criminal justice system in some way. Specific data showed that 75% of these students had been stopped by the police for traffic or other minor violations, 60% had been arrested, and 37% had spent a night in jail. Also, 50% of those students with EBD who were employed, had a greater job turnover rate than any of the other disability groups 763110E BXXXX10.

Evaluating a Unified Screener for Adolescent Internalizing and Externalizing Problems

“…Perceptions that screenings are excessive in cost, difficult to administer, and overly time-consuming are common concerns from educators and school administrators (Bruhn et al, 2014; Dever et al, 2012). For example, although both the BASC-3 Behavioral and Emotional Screening System (BESS; DiStefano et al, 2017) and the Systematic Screening for Behavior Disorders (SSBD; Erickson & Gresham, 2019) are widely used and evidence-based measures of both internalizing and externalizing problems, neither is free nor publicly available. Moreover, although the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED; Kragh et al, 2019) and the Revised Children’s Anxiety and Depression Scale (RCADS; Chorpita et al, 2005) are widely used, evidence-based, and freely available to the public, both only measure internalizing concerns—neither account for externalizing problems.…”

Universal screening in middle and high schools: Who falls through the cracks?

“…Second, ratings scales that only assess teacher-report, including the Systematic Screening for Behavior Disorders (SSBD; Walker, Severson, & Feil, 2014) and the Student Risk Screening Scale for Internalizing and Externalizing (SRSS-IE; Lane et al, 2016), miss important, incrementally valid information that may be obtained through self-report. Although in secondary schools the SSBD and SRSS-IE teacher reports have each been shown to identify at-risk youth who would be missed by other rating scales or academic data (Erickson & Gresham, 2018; Lane et al, 2016), the lack of self-report data may result in underidentification of many at-risk students.…”

Middle school students' preferences for praise

“…During middle school, students move from a single‐classroom environment with centralized instruction and resources to a multiclass schedule. This change in environment is accompanied by a need for students to navigate larger school campuses, multiple teacher relationships (Erickson & Gresham, 2019), and new pressures of self‐directed time management. A larger student body provides more opportunities for peer interactions or social withdrawal as students manage new and emerging peer relationships (Lane, Oakes, Lusk, Cantwell, & Schatschneider, 2016).…”