Single-case experimental designs (SCEDs) are frequently used to evaluate whether a functional relation exists between interventions and student outcomes. A critical factor in decision making is the evaluation of graphical data, typically displayed in time-series graphs. Distortion in the graphical display of data can lead to invalid decisions on…

Researchers sometimes conduct a study and find that the predicted relation between variables did not exist or that the intervention did not have a positive impact on student outcomes; these are referred to as null findings because they fail to disconfirm the null hypothesis. Rather than consider such studies as failures and disregard the null…

Bias poses a significant threat to the validity of research findings as well as practices and policies based on research. Reforms to academic publishing have been proposed and implemented in other fields to address bias in research. In this paper I review some sources of bias in research, some proposed areas of reform in academic publishing (e.g.,…

Debate is occurring about which result interpretation aides focused on examining the experimental effect should be used in single-subject experimental research. In this study, we examined seven nonoverlap methods and compared results using each method to judgments of two visual analysts. The data sources for the present study were 36 studies…

African American students are disproportionately likely to be identified with the emotional disturbance (ED) education disability. To investigate how teachers' perceptions of students might vary by race, we analyzed Black and White teachers' ratings of 769 students with ED, subdivided by race and grade level, on six emotional and behavior problem…

An examination of the way in which Ss were selected in research from 1968 through 1978 on behaviorally disordered students points out imprecision in methodology. The author suggests using control groups and follow-up procedures and emphasizes the need to theorize less while collecting more data. (CL)

A study of 64 single-subject studies examined effectiveness of social skills intervention with students with emotional or behavioral problems. The results of quantitative synthesis procedures that use a percentage of nonoverlapping data suggest that skills interventions had limited empirical support for their overall effectiveness. Implications…

Critiques research findings on the effectiveness of the Early Intervention Project (EIP) for children with autism. The review finds sufficient threats to the experimental validity of the EIP to prevent unqualified endorsement of it as a validated treatment for children with autism. The review found in particular there were threats to external…

Discusses issues and challenges inherent in early research in the field of intervention and prevention of conduct disorders, including recruiting and working with parents who are stressed by the effects of poverty; designing appropriate interventions for young children; and using outcomes measures that reflect developmental continuities, subject…

Colleagues in the field of mental health have made considerable progress developing inventories of evidence-based practice; however, the field of special education for children with emotional or behavioral disorders has only recently begun to do so. This paper provides some personal reflections on four major issues for consideration as we pursue…

This article discusses evidence for functional behavioral assessment (FBA) procedures in terms of the meaning and interpretation of different forms of reliability and validity in FBA. It concludes that additional research needs to be conducted with various target behaviors across different settings to support the continued use of FBA. (Contains…

Discusses the paucity of research investigating the academic instruction of students with emotional and behavioral disorders. Issues of measurements related to academic performance are reviewed, with the conclusion that the rate of academic responses provides the most desirable measure for research as well as for clinical application. (Author/CR)

Discusses logic and interpretation problems inherent in doing quantitative syntheses of single-case research. Addresses the meta-analytic method of using percentage of nonoverlapping data, highlighting special concerns related to withdrawal designs, sensitivity to variability in behavior, social significance of behavior change, and variables that…

In this discussion of quantitative research synthesis, past criticisms of meta-analysis are reviewed along with the ways they have been addressed. Objections to single-subject synthesis methods are discussed, along with the advantages of using the percentage-of- nonoverlapping-data metric. The article concludes by questioning the veracity of…

This article examines the social skills training research-to-practice process and argues that a logical and attendant line of rigorous study is lacking. Areas of social inquiry are drawn from to discuss the need for conceptual frameworks to guide investigation and offer a way for research to be designed and interpreted. (Contains references.)…