Reciprocal Peer Tutoring and Parent Partnership: Does Parent Involvement Make a Difference?

Teaching Future School Personnel to Train Parents to Implement Explicit Instruction Interventions

Students with disabilities are less likely to be proficient with basic academic skills compared to peers, indicating a need for more quality instructional time. Parent tutoring has been identified as a promising practice for supplementing instruction to improve child outcomes. However, educators are not sufficiently prepared to collaborate with and provide guidance to parents in how to support academic goals at home. We describe how an academic assessment and intervention clinic trains future school personnel to work with families to develop and implement explicit instruction parent tutoring interventions. A case example illustrates the process.

Targeted school-based interventions for improving reading and mathematics for students with or at risk of academic difficulties in Grades K-6: A systematic review

Background

Low levels of numeracy and literacy skills are associated with a range of negative outcomes later in life, such as reduced earnings and health. Obtaining information about effective interventions for children with or at risk of academic difficulties is therefore important.

Objectives

The main objective was to assess the effectiveness of interventions targeting students with or at risk of academic difficulties in kindergarten to Grade 6.

Search Methods

We searched electronic databases from 1980 to July 2018. We searched multiple international electronic databases (in total 15), seven national repositories, and performed a search of the grey literature using governmental sites, academic clearinghouses and repositories for reports and working papers, and trial registries (10 sources). We hand searched recent volumes of six journals and contacted international experts. Lastly, we used included studies and 23 previously published reviews for citation tracking.

Selection Criteria

Studies had to meet the following criteria to be included: Population: The population eligible for the review included students attending regular schools in kindergarten to Grade 6, who were having academic difficulties, or were at risk of such difficulties. Intervention: We included interventions that sought to improve academic skills, were conducted in schools during the regular school year, and were targeted (selected or indicated). Comparison: Included studies used an intervention-control group design or a comparison group design. We included randomised controlled trials (RCT); quasi-randomised controlled trials (QRCT); and quasi-experimental studies (QES). Outcomes: Included studies used standardised tests in reading or mathematics. Setting: Studies carried out in regular schools in an OECD country were included.

Data Collection and Analysis

Descriptive and numerical characteristics of included studies were coded by members of the review team. A review author independently checked coding. We used an extended version of the Cochrane Risk of Bias tool to assess risk of bias. We used random-effects meta-analysis and robust-variance estimation procedures to synthesise effect sizes. We conducted separate meta-analyses for tests performed within three months of the end of interventions (short-term effects) and longer follow-up periods. For short-term effects, we performed subgroup and moderator analyses focused on instructional methods and content domains. We assessed sensitivity of the results to effect size measurement, outliers, clustered assignment of treatment, risk of bias, missing moderator information, control group progression, and publication bias.

Results

We found in total 24,414 potentially relevant records, screened 4247 of them in full text, and included 607 studies that met the inclusion criteria. We included 205 studies of a wide range of intervention types in at least one meta-analysis (202 intervention-control studies and 3 comparison designs). The reasons for excluding studies from the analysis were that they had too high risk of bias (257), compared two alternative interventions (104 studies), lacked necessary information (24 studies), or used overlapping samples (17 studies). The total number of student observations in the analysed studies was 226,745. There were 93% RCTs among the 327 interventions we included in the meta-analysis of intervention-control contrasts and 86% were from the United States. The target group consisted of, on average, 45% girls, 65% minority students, and 69% low-income students. The mean Grade was 2.4. Most studies included in the meta-analysis had a moderate to high risk of bias.The overall average effect sizes (ES) for short-term and follow-up outcomes were positive and statistically significant (ES = 0.30, 95% confidence interval [CI] = [0.25, 0.34] and ES = 0.27, 95% CI = [0.17, 0.36]), respectively). The effect sizes correspond to around one third to one half of the achievement gap between fourth Grade students with high and low socioeconomic status in the United States and to a 58% chance that a randomly selected score of an intervention group student is greater than the score of a randomly selected control group student.All measures indicated substantial heterogeneity across short-term effect sizes. Follow-up outcomes pertain almost exclusively to studies examining small-group instruction by adults and effects on reading measures. The follow-up effect sizes were considerably less heterogeneous than the short-term effect sizes, although there was still statistically significant heterogeneity.Two instructional methods, peer-assisted instruction and small-group instruction by adults, had large and statistically significant average effect sizes that were robust across specifications in the subgroup analysis of short-term effects (ES around 0.35-0.45). In meta-regressions that adjusted for methods, content domains, and other study characteristics, they had significantly larger effect sizes than computer-assisted instruction, coaching of personnel, incentives, and progress monitoring. Peer-assisted instruction also had significantly larger effect sizes than medium-group instruction. Besides peer-assisted instruction and small-group instruction, no other methods were consistently significant across the analyses that tried to isolate the association between a specific method and effect sizes. However, most analyses showed statistically significant heterogeneity also within categories of instructional methods.We found little evidence that effect sizes were larger in some content domains than others. Fractions had significantly higher associations with effect sizes than all other math domains, but there were only six studies of interventions targeting fractions. We found no evidence of adverse effects in the sense that no method or domain had robustly negative associations with effect sizes.The meta-regressions revealed few other significant moderators. Interventions in higher Grades tend to have somewhat lower effect sizes, whereas there were no significant differences between QES and RCTs, general tests and tests of subdomains, and math tests and reading tests.

Authors’ Conclusions

Our results indicate that interventions targeting students with or at risk of academic difficulties from kindergarten to Grade 6 have on average positive and statistically significant short-term and follow-up effects on standardised tests in reading and mathematics. Peer-assisted instruction and small-group instruction are likely to be effective components of such interventions.We believe the relatively large effect sizes together with the substantial unexplained heterogeneity imply that schools can reduce the achievement gap between students with or at risk of academic difficulties and not-at-risk students by implementing targeted interventions, and that more research into the design of effective interventions is needed.

The Effectiveness of School-Based Mental Health Services for Elementary-Aged Children: A Meta-Analysis

OBJECTIVE

Given problems and disparities in the use of community-based mental health services for youth, school personnel have assumed frontline mental health service roles. To date, most research on school-based services has evaluated analog educational contexts with services implemented by highly trained study staff, and little is known about the effectiveness of school-based mental health services when implemented by school professionals.

METHOD

Random-effects meta-analytic procedures were used to synthesize effects of school-based mental health services for elementary school-age children delivered by school personnel and potential moderators of treatment response. Forty-three controlled trials evaluating 49,941 elementary school-age children met the selection criteria (mean grade 2.86, 60.3% boys).

RESULTS

Overall, school-based services demonstrated a small-to-medium effect (Hedges g = 0.39) in decreasing mental health problems, with the largest effects found for targeted intervention (Hedges g = 0.76), followed by selective prevention (Hedges g = 0.67), compared with universal prevention (Hedges g = 0.29). Mental health services integrated into students' academic instruction (Hedges g = 0.59), those targeting externalizing problems (Hedges g = 0.50), those incorporating contingency management (Hedges g = 0.57), and those implemented multiple times per week (Hedges g = 0.50) showed particularly strong effects.

CONCLUSION

Considering serious barriers precluding youth from accessing necessary mental health care, the present meta-analysis suggests child psychiatrists and other mental health professionals are wise to recognize the important role that school personnel, who are naturally in children's lives, can play in decreasing child mental health problems.

Understanding Parent-school Communication for Students with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders

BACKGROUND

Parents of children with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders (EBD) often face barriers to effective communication with schools. They often feel blamed or stigmatized for their children's behavior and, while advocating, can feel adversarial with the school.

OBJECTIVE

The current study aims to describe current communication for parents and teachers of students with EBD, identify parent-school communication barriers, and identify characteristics of effective parent-school communication.

METHOD

We conducted 15 semi-structured, qualitative interviews with parents and teachers of students with EBD. Interview questions focused on descriptions of the tone of their current communication, perceived barriers to communication, and ideas for effective approaches to communication. All interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and coded.

RESULTS

Results show that parents' feelings about their current parent-school communication varied by the type of school students were attending: day-treatment, neighborhood, military charter, or private treatment school. Both parents and teachers brought up complex issues with parent-school communication related to school culture and the impact of parents' prior negative experiences communicating with schools. Parents and teachers identified barriers to communication and suggestions for effective communication related to technology, institutional issues, time, parents' and teachers' lack of interest in communicating, and school proximity to home.

CONCLUSION

Parents and teachers identified parent-school communication as a critical factor to promote children's school success. Three broad recommendations emerged from the interviews targeting malleable factors to increase effective parent-school communication. We also discuss limitations and implications for practice.

Enhancing schools' capacity to support children in poverty: an ecological model of school-based mental health services

School based mental health services for children in poverty can capitalize on schools' inherent capacity to support development and bridge home and neighborhood ecologies. We propose an ecological model informed by public health and organizational theories to refocus school based services in poor communities on the core function of schools to promote learning. We describe how coalescing mental health resources around school goals includes a focus on universal programming, mobilizing indigenous school and community resources, and supporting core teaching technologies. We suggest an iterative research-practice approach to program adaptation and implementation as a means toward advancing science and developing healthy children.

School-based mental health services for children living in high poverty urban communities

Studied the effectiveness of a school-based mental health service model, PALS (Positive Attitudes toward Learning in School), focused on increasing initial and ongoing access to services, and promoting improved classroom and home behavior for children referred for Disruptive Behavior Disorder (DBD) from three high poverty urban elementary schools. Classrooms were randomly assigned to PALS or referral to a neighborhood mental health clinic, with children identified by teacher referral and follow-up parent andeher ratings. Results indicated significant service engagement and retention for PALS (n=60) versus families referred to clinic (n=30), with over 80% of PALS families retained in services for 12 months. PALS services were correlated with positive changes in children's behavior as rated by parents, and with improvements in children's academic performance as rated by teachers. Implications for the design and delivery of mental health services for children and families living in high-poverty urban communities are discussed.

A multilevel approach to family-centered prevention in schools: process and outcome

The Adolescent Transitions Program (ATP) is a multilevel approach to family-based interventions within a middle-school setting. The intervention strategy is based on an ecological framework for studying social and emotional development in children and adolescents, emphasizing a network of contextual factors within which parenting is both directly and indirectly influential on the development of problem behavior. The ATP model includes a universal, selected, and indicated strategy for serving families with young adolescents. The model is designed to address the needs of families of young adolescents that present with a range of problem behavior and diverse developmental histories. The three interventions levels are described, and outcome data are presented, that support the effectiveness of the ATP model. This approach and the associated data are consistent with a broad literature supporting the effectiveness of family interventions, especially for high-risk youth. The effective implementation of family interventions within a school context suggests that these interventions can make a significant contribution to reducing problem behavior and substance use from a public health perspective.

An ecological model for school-based mental health services for urban low-income aggressive children

An ecological model for school-based mental health services that targets urban low-income aggressive children--a highly vulnerable and underserved population--is presented. The goals of the model are to increase children's and teachers' involvement in the delivery of services and to increase the integration of these services into existing school resources and activities. The model proposes that mental health service providers work in collaboration with teachers to deliver services that (1) can be managed by existing school resources and personnel, (2) are related to empirically based factors associated with reduced aggression and increased social functioning, and (3) are group administered to increase the number of children served and to reduce stigmatization associated with mental health services. The model is individualized and flexible by acknowledging that contexts for aggression differ across classrooms and children and by providing services specific to those contexts. Two studies are presented illustrating the application of this model to decrease aggression and increase academic engagement in low-income urban public schools.