There is a need for empirically based educational practices shown to support learning, yet validation tends to require a high degree of experimental control that can limit ecological validity and translation to classrooms. We describe our iterative intervention design to support preschoolers' vocabulary through book reading coupled with playful…

The Good Behavior Game (GBG, Barrish, Saunders, & Wolf, 1969) and the PATHS Curriculum (Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies; Greenberg, Kusche, Cook, & Quamma, 1995) represent 2 universal, elementary school, preventive interventions which have been shown in large-scale, randomized controlled trials to have an immediate and beneficial…

Considerable research has examined interventions that facilitate school readiness skills in young children. One intervention, "Red Light, Purple Light Circle Time Games" (RLPL; Tominey and McClelland, 2011; Schmitt et al., 2015), includes music and movement games that aim to foster self-regulation skills. The present study (N = 157)…

The current paper reports long-term treatment impact estimates for a randomized evaluation of an early childhood intervention designed to promote children's developmental outcomes and improve the quality of Head Start centers serving high-violence and high-crime areas in inner-city Chicago. Initial evaluations of end-of-preschool data reported…

Purpose: This study aimed to examine the initial efficacy of a parent-assisted blended intervention combining components of Structured TEACCHing and Social Thinking, designed to increase social communication and self-regulation concept knowledge in 1st and 2nd graders (n = 17) diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and their parents.…

Behavioral trajectories during middle childhood are predictive of consequential outcomes later in life (e.g., substance abuse, violence). Social and emotional learning (SEL) programs are designed to promote trajectories that reflect both growth in positive behaviors and inhibited development of negative behaviors. The current study used growth…

Children with emotional and behavioral disorders (E/BD) struggle to achieve social and academic outcomes. Many studies have demonstrated self-management interventions to be effective at reducing problem behavior and increasing positive social and academic behaviors. Functional behavior assessment (FBA) information may be used in designing…

Researchers have demonstrated that cognitive-behavioral intervention strategies--such as social problem solving--provided in school settings can help ameliorate the developmental risk for emotional and behavioral difficulties. In this study, we report the results of a randomized controlled trial of Tools for Getting Along (TFGA), a social…

Self-regulatory abilities are robust predictors of important outcomes across the life span, yet they are rarely taught explicitly in school. Using a randomized controlled design, the present study investigated the effects of a 12-week mindfulness-based Kindness Curriculum (KC) delivered in a public school setting on executive function,…

This paper describes a series of school-based randomized trials in over 250 urban schools designed to test the impact of financial incentives on student achievement. In stark contrast to simple economic models, our results suggest that student incentives increase achievement when the rewards are given for inputs to the educational production…

We examined the differential effects of the social cognitive model of sequential skill acquisition (SCM intervention) and the self-regulated strategy development model (SRSD intervention) for writing. One hundred and twenty-one 5th- and 6th-grade Spanish students with learning disabilities (LD) and/or low achievement (LA) were randomly assigned…

An important goal in preventing writing disabilities is to provide effective early instruction to at-risk students to maximize their writing development. This study examined whether or not explicitly teaching six at-risk second-grade writers, including children with disabilities, how to plan and draft stories would improve their story writing as…

This study investigated the effects of an intensive prereading intervention on the beginning reading skills and social behavior of kindergarten children at risk for behavioral disorders and reading difficulties. Children identified through a systematic screening process were assigned randomly to experimental or nonspecific treatment conditions.…

Writing development involves changes that occur in children's strategic behavior, knowledge, and motivation. The authors examined the effectiveness of self-regulated strategy development (SRSD), a strategy instructional model designed to promote development in each of these areas. Instruction focused on planning and writing stories and persuasive…