Assessing the Severity of Concerns About Preschool Children’s Self-Regulation of Attention, Behavior, and Emotions Using the ABLE Universal Screener: A Rasch Analysis

Discerning the seriousness of socioemotional symptoms in young children can be difficult. To address this issue, the Attention, Behavior, Language, and Emotions (ABLE) universal behavioral health screener uses a rubric for severity that includes indicators of problem duration, impairment, generalizability, exacerbation, persistence, peer comparison, and need for professional intervention. This report examines whether this rubric can be treated as a unidimensional scale across respondents and problem types and streamlined for more efficient screening. Head Start teachers and parents ( N = 2,643) reported socioemotional, attentional, behavioral, and language problems. Rasch analyses confirmed that the ABLE severity scale is unidimensional but the coherence of severity indicators differed by respondents. Consequently, greater precision in establishing clinical significance can be achieved by weighting severity items differentially for teachers and parents.

Social Studies and RTI

The response to intervention (RTI) service delivery model has been used primarily in the secondary language arts (reading) academic content area and in the various math courses. RTI has rarely, if at all, been introduced in secondary social science courses, even though students struggle in these courses due to the increase in reading and math content embedded within them. This chapter focuses on the implementation of RTI in social studies courses at the secondary level. The utilization of a universal screener, tiers, progress monitoring, and fidelity is discussed, followed by a presentation of specific examples of research-based interventions that can be used at each tier level in the social sciences content areas.

Science and RTI

The response to intervention (RTI) service delivery model has been used primarily in the secondary language arts (reading) academic content area and in the various math courses. RTI has rarely, if at all, been introduced in secondary science courses, even though students are struggling in these courses due to the increase in reading and math content embedded within them. This chapter focuses on implementation of RTI in science courses at the secondary level. The utilization of a universal screener, tiers, progress monitoring, and fidelity is discussed, followed by a presentation of specific examples of research-based interventions that can be used at each tier level in the science content areas.

Initial Validation of an Elementary Version of the Positive Family Support Strengths and Needs Assessment

The purpose of the present study was to conduct an initial validation of the Positive Family Support–Strengths and Needs Assessment (PFS-SaNA) for elementary school children. The PFS-SaNA is designed as a universal screener wherein parents report on common areas their children may need additional support. Parents of children attending one elementary school participated in two consecutive years. A total of 627 parents of elementary school children participated (Year 1 = 368, Year 2 = 259). Exploratory factor analysis was conducted across Years 1 and 2 and a replicability test compared item loadings from Year 1 and Year 2. Finally, evidence of external validity was examined. Results suggested the PFS-SaNA is unidimensional with findings indicating item loadings replicated from Year 1 to Year 2. Finally, evidence of external validity was found. Implications for the PFS-SaNA as a universal parent screener that can be embedded in a multiple gating risk management strategy in elementary school are discussed.

Moving the Needle on Evaluating Multivariate Screening Accuracy

The assessment of screening accuracy and setting of cut points for a universal screener have traditionally been evaluated using logistic regression analysis. This analytic technique has been frequently used to evaluate the trade-offs in correct classification with misidentification of individuals who are at risk of performing poorly on a later outcome. Although useful statistically, coefficients from a multiple logistic regression can be difficult to explain to practitioners as it pertains to classification decisions. Moreover, classifications based on multivariate assessments are challenging to understand how performance on one assessment compensates for performance on another. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate and compare the use of logistic regression with classification and regression tree (CART) models in the identification of students who are at risk of reading comprehension difficulties. Data consisted of 986 Grade 1 students and 887 Grade 2 students who were administered a screening assessment at the middle of the school year as well as the 10th edition of the Stanford Achievement Test. Results indicated that CART performs comparably with logistic regression and may assist researchers and practitioners in explaining classification rules to parents and educators.

Measurement Invariance of a Universal Behavioral Screener Across Samples From the USA and Germany

The current study examines the item and scalar equivalence of an abbreviated school-based universal screener that was cross-culturally translated and adapted from English into German. The instrument was designed to assess student behavior problems that impact classroom learning. Participants were 1,346 K-6 grade students from the US (n = 390, Mage = 9.23, 38.5% female) and Germany (n = 956, Mage = 8.04, 40.1% female). Measurement invariance was tested by multigroup confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) across students from the US and Germany. Results support full scalar invariance between students from the US and Germany (df = 266, χ2 = 790.141, Δχ2 = 6.9, p < .001, CFI = 0.976, ΔCFI = 0.000, RMSEA = 0.052, ΔRMSEA = −0.003) indicating that the factor structure, the factor loadings, and the item thresholds are comparable across samples. This finding implies that a full cross-cultural comparison including latent factor means and structural coefficients between the US and the German version of the abbreviated screener is possible. Therefore, the tool can be used in German schools as well as for cross-cultural research purposes between the US and Germany.

Latent Structure of Scores From the Emotional and Behavioral Screener

The Emotional and Behavioral Screener (EBS) is a recently developed teacher-reported brief screening instrument for identifying students who are at-risk of an emotional or behavioral disorder (EBD). Although prior research supports the technical adequacy of scores from the EBS, there is a gap in the literature regarding strong evidence of the factor structure underlying EBS scores. This study investigated the latent structure of scores from the EBS in a sample of 646 elementary students who were rated by their teachers in a 2-week screening period. Single-factor confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and bifactor models were used to test the hypothesis that EBS scores are a measure of both overall emotional and behavioral risk and students’ externalizing and internalizing behaviors. Results supported a bifactor structure, in that scores from the EBS can be considered to represent a general factor (i.e., risk of EBD) and two group factors (i.e., externalizing and internalizing domains). Findings have implications for interpreting scores when using the EBS as a universal screener for the risk of EBD.

Science, Social Studies, and RTI

The Response to Intervention (RTI) service delivery model has been used primarily in the secondary language arts (reading) academic content area and in the various math courses. RTI has rarely, if at all, been introduced in secondary science and social science courses, even though students are struggling in these courses due to the increase in reading and math content embedded within them. This chapter focuses on implementation of RTI in science and social studies courses at the secondary level. The utilization of a universal screener, tiers, progress monitoring, and fidelity is discussed, followed by a presentation of specific examples of research-based interventions that can be used at each tier level in the science and social sciences content areas.