Prereferral Intervention to Increase Attention and Work Productivity Among Difficult-To-Teach Pupils

Abstract

Since the U.S. Department of Education's first child count in 1976-77, the number of students served under the Education for All Handicapped Children Act and Chapter 1 has grown each year, with an increase of 712,688 children, or 16%, from 1976-77 to 1986-87 (see U.S. Department of Education, 1988, p.4). To some extent this growth is a result of legal, legislative, and professional initiatives helping to assure handicapped youth a free and appropriate education. There is increasing suspicion, however, that too many children are being identified as handicapped. Incorrect identification is undesirable for numerous and obvious reasons, including the unnecessary separation and stigmatization of children (e.g., Reynolds & Balow, 1972), disruption of school programs (e.g., Will, 1986), and high costs (e.g., Singer, 1988). TEACHER REFERRALS Contributing to the apparent overidentification of handicapped children is a large number of teacher referrals. New referrals for the 1984-85 school year, reported by 28 large urban districts (Research for Better Schools, 1986), ranged from a low of 600 (Memphis) to a high of 33,855 (New York City). The median number of new referrals for the districts was 2,358. Over half of these students were certified handicapped, indicating the importance of teacher referral to eventual special education placement. Many students referred for testing and possible special education placement are characterized as "off-task," or by related adjectives such as "inattentive," "distractible," and "unproductive" (Bahr, Fuchs, Stecker, Goodman, & Fuchs, 1988; Hutton, 1985). Offtask behavior also seems to describe many children eventually labeled learning disabled (LD) as indicated by teacher ratings (e.g.

Self-Monitoring and at-Risk Middle School Students

“…Teaching students to self-monitor places the responsibility for managing behavior on the students, not on external change agents (teachers, principals, etc.). Additionally, this may be a valuable prereferral intervention strategy for at-risk students (Fuchs et al, 1990;Prater, 1994). Self-management procedures promote independence, which promotes decision-making skills (National Middle School Association, 1995, 1997.…”

Improving Academic and Behavior Skills Through Self-Management Procedures

“…In another study, Fuchs et al (1990) examined the effectiveness of applying self-management procedures as intervention assistance for "difficult-toteach" students not previously identified for special education services. The intervention consisted primarily of the following sequence.…”

Rural Preassessment Team Members' Perceptions of Effectiveness

“…By the late 1980's over one-half of SEAs had either mandated or recommended the development of school based consultation teams (Carter & Sugai, 1989). These consultation/collaborative procedures referred to variously as preassessment, prereferral, teacher assistance, or student assistance teams provide general educators with professional support and technical assistance to facilitate the success of students who are experiencing learning and/or behavior problems in the general education classroom (Bay, Bryan & O'Connor, 1994;Carter & Sugai, 1989;Fuchs, Fuchs, Bahr, Reeder, Gilman, Fernstrom & Roberts, 1990;Graden, Casey & Bonstrom, 1985). The major benefit derived from effective preassessment interventions is maintenance of more students in the general classroom (Harrington & Gibson, 1986).…”