Thirty third and fourth grade students were observed over two entire school days to examine the nature of instruction and academic responding time for students of high, middle, and low teacher-perceived behavioral competence. Across all groups, it was found that students spent about 45 minutes in a typical school day actively engaged in academic responding. Comparisons between groups revealed that while the nature of instruction was similar for students regardless of behavioral competence, students in the lower behavioral competence group spent more time engaged in inappropriate behaviors and received more teacher disapproval. No differences were found in total academic responding time for high, middle, and low behavioral competence students. Findings related to the breakdown of time in a typical school day, variability among students, the relationship between student responding time and achievement, and the relationship between behavioral and academic competence also are presented. Implications of findings for understanding the classroom ecology for students exhibiting behavior problems are discussed. The "Code for Instructional Structure and Student Academic Response" observation system is appended. (Author/DB)