Preliminary Study of the Effects of BEST in CLASS—Web on Young Children’s Social-Emotional and Behavioral Outcomes

Abstract

Many young children entering early childhood programs demonstrate challenging behaviors that place them at risk for emotional/behavioral disorders (EBDs), which impact their future success in school. The purpose of this study was to conduct a conceptual replication of BEST in CLASS by examining child outcomes from BEST in CLASS—Web, a web-based professional development intervention supporting teachers’ use of effective practices for ameliorating young children’s challenging behaviors. Participants included 29 early childhood teachers and 54 children (ages 3–5 years old) who were identified at-risk for EBD. Positive outcomes were found for both BEST in CLASS—Web and BEST in CLASS in reductions of children’s problem behaviors and conflictual relationships with their teachers as well as increases in social skills, engagement, and closeness with teachers in comparison to children who did not receive the intervention. In some cases, positive child outcomes were greater when teachers received professional development in the web-condition as compared to the onsite condition. Future research directions and implications are discussed.

Examining the Role of Student Responsiveness in Treatment Effects of a Tier 2 Program Targeting Reductions in Problem Behavior

“…The present study includes teacher and student participants from four federally funded research studies testing an intervention designed to address the behavioral, social, or emotional needs of young students who demonstrate persistent and intensive challenging behaviors in classroom settings (Conroy et al, 2022a ; Sutherland et al, 2018a , 2020a , b ) as well as ongoing multi-site randomized controlled trial examining the efficacy of BEST in CLASS. The first study was a large 4-year randomized controlled trial of BEST in CLASS with children at risk for EBD in early childhood classrooms.…”

“…Teachers rate items on a 4-point Likert scale (0 = never to 3 = almost always), indicating how frequently students exhibit behaviors; higher scores indicate more problem behavior. Cronbach’s alpha levels did not differ across studies and ranged from 0.89 to 0.95 for Problem Behavior at the pretest and post-test (note that the early childhood BEST in CLASS Web project did not report alphas due to the small sample size; Conroy et al, 2022a ). The present study used standardized scores (standardized by child age and gender) and integrated the data across all four studies.…”

Examining the Psychometric Integrity of the Social Skills Improvement System Teacher Rating Scale Scores for a Sample of Preschool-Age Children

“…The Problem Behaviors scale was designed to identify behaviors that interfere with the acquisition and performance of social competence (Gresham & Elliott, 2008b). The SSIS-TRS has been widely used in intervention studies conducted with preschool-age children at risk for social–emotional and behavioral difficulties (e.g., BEST in CLASS (Conroy et al, 2021), First Step to Success (A. J. Frey et al, 2015), Pyramid Model (Hemmeter et al, 2021)).…”

Iterative Design and Pilot Implementation of a Tiered Coaching Model to Support Socio-Emotional Teaching Practices

“…PBC is supported by a growing body of rigorous research. It has been used to support Pyramid Model implementation (Artman-Meeker et al, 2014;Golden et al, 2021;Hemmeter et al, 2015;McLeod et al, 2019), teachers' implementation of Tier 2 behavior supports in preschool (Conroy et al, 2014(Conroy et al, , 2021, and embedded instruction (Snyder et al, 2018). PBC is a cyclical process in which collaborative coaching partners engage in a process of goal setting, focused observation, and reflection and feedback around effective teaching practices such as the Pyramid Model.…”