Skip Navigation
Funding Opportunities | Search Funded Research Grants and Contracts

IES Grant

Title: Enhancing Individual Education Plans for Children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Using a Daily Report Card
Center: NCSER Year: 2006
Principal Investigator: Fabiano, Gregory Awardee: State University of New York (SUNY), Buffalo
Program: Systems, Policy, and Finance      [Program Details]
Award Period: 7/1/2006 to 6/30/2008 Award Amount: $732,436
Type: Development and Innovation Award Number: R324J060024
Description:

Funded under the Individualized Education Programs topic prior to the establishment of the Systemic Interventions and Policies for Special Education topic.

Purpose: The purpose of this project is to develop and obtain preliminary evidence of the efficacy of an intervention designed to improve the practices of teachers of children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) who have an Individualized Education Program (IEP) and academic and socioemotional outcomes of these children. The researchers will provide preliminary evidence of the efficacy of using a daily report card intervention (DRC), long used as an efficacious intervention for children with ADHD, as a means of linking the child with ADHD's IEP goals and objectives to his/her daily functioning in the classroom environment.

Project Activities: The researchers are investigating the efficacy of the DRC as an enhancement to children with ADHD's IEPs in an experimental study. Children will be randomly assigned to a condition in which a behavioral consultant works with the child's teacher(s) to construct a DRC, implement it, and monitor it for the duration of the school year, or to an IEP as usual condition, in which teachers will attempt to meet the IEP goals and objectives as they typically would. Measures of key outcomes will include academic achievement testing, blinded observations of behavior in the classroom, and parent and teacher ratings of functioning. Secondary outcome measures will include process variables, such as discipline referrals, parent contacts due to problems in academic or behavioral functioning, and teacher adherence to the DRC intervention. Primary and secondary measures of outcome will be analyzed using MANCOVA procedures.

Products: The expected outcomes from this study include:

  1. An intervention to improve the practices of teachers of children with ADHD who have IEPs, and
  2. Presentations on the feasibility of the DRC intervention as applied to ADHD students with IEPs in grades 1–6.

Structured Abstract

Setting: The elementary schools are located in Western New York.

Population: Approximately 60 elementary school children in grades 1–6 will participate in this research. Students will be identified as having ADHD and a Specific Learning Disability, Emotional Disturbance, or Other Health Impairment.

Intervention: A consultant will work with the child's primary special education teacher to develop a DRC that will be linked to the child's IEP goals and objectives, provide a bridge between the IEP and the child's daily functioning in the classroom, and include direct accounting for IEP goals as well as other behavior problems common to a child with ADHD. The DRC is an operationalized list of target behaviors evaluated each day by the child's teacher. It is used as a means of providing the child and parent feedback on the child's progress on a daily basis. The DRC doubles as a mechanism that teachers can use to track and monitor the child's behavior and progress on key functional domains and to modify instructional practices. The DRC will be evaluated and completed by the teacher daily, and feedback will be provided to the child throughout the day on progress made toward DRC goals. Other procedures outlined in the IEP, such as academic interventions, will be implemented as planned. At the end of each day, the teacher will send the DRC home with the child in order to provide feedback on a daily basis regarding the child's behavior at school to parents. In addition, parents will receive instruction on how to reward their child at home for successful attainment of DRC goals.

Research Design and Methods: Approximately 60 children will be enrolled over the two-year experimental research study. Each year, 30 children will be randomly assigned to the DRC experimental condition or to a control condition to determine the potential efficacy of the DRC intervention as compared to the control condition.

Control Condition: Children in the IEP alone control group will be assigned to an IEP as usual condition in which teachers will attempt to meet each child's IEP goals and objectives as they typically would. Additionally, consultants and teachers will use the IEP and other related information to construct an Individualized Target Behavior Checklist (ITCB) for each child to be completed by the teacher everyday and used as a measure of weekly functioning. Information on the ITCB rating scale will not be sent home to the child's parents nor will it be used to make data-driven decisions related to monitoring or intervening with the child throughout the school year.

Key Measures: Key outcomes will include academic achievement in reading, spelling, mathematics, and writing. Secondary outcome measures will include process variables, such as discipline referrals and parent contacts due to problems in academic or behavioral functioning. In addition, researchers will conduct blinded observations of child behavior in the classroom. Finally, data related to parent and teacher satisfaction and teacher adherence to the DRC intervention will be obtained.

Data Analytic Strategy: A combination of quantitative and qualitative data analysis strategies, including MANCOVA and Chi-Square analysis, will be used to show evidence of the potential efficacy of the DRC intervention.

Products and Publications

Journal article, monograph, or newsletter

Fabiano, G A., Vujnovic, R., Naylor, J., Pariseau, M., and Robins, M.L. (2009). An Investigation of the Technical Adequacy of a Daily Behavior Report Card (DBRC) for Monitoring Progress of Students With Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder in Special Education Placements. Assessment for Effective Intervention, 34(4): 231–241. doi:10.1177/1534508409333344

Fabiano, G.A., Vujnovic, R., Pelham, W.E., Waschbusch, D.A., Massetti, G.M., Pariseau, M., Naylor, J., Yu, J., Robins, M., Carnefix, T., Greiner, A.R., and Volker, M. (2010). Enhancing the Effectiveness of Special Education Programming for Children With Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Using a Daily Report Card. School Psychology Review, 39(2): 219–239.

Page, T.F., Pelham, W.E., III., Fabiano, G.A., Greiner, A.R., Gnagy, E.M., Hart, K., Coxe, S., Waxmonsky, J.G., Foster, E.M., Pelham, W.E., Jr. (2016). Comparative Cost Analysis of Sequential, Adaptive, Behavioral, Pharmacological, and Combined Treatments for Childhood ADHD. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 45(4): 416–427. doi:10.1080/15374416.2015

Pelham, W.E., Jr., Fabiano, G.A., Waxmonsky, J.G., Greiner, A.R., Gnagy, E.M., Pelham, W.E., III., Coxe, S., Verley, J., Bhatia, I., Hart, K., Karch, K., Konijnendijk, E., Tresco, K., Nahum-Shani, I., and Murphy, S.A. (2016). Treatment Sequencing for Childhood ADHD: A Multiple-Randomization Study of Adaptive Medication and Behavioral Interventions. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 45(4): 396–415. doi:10.1080/15374416.2015

Vujnovic, R.K., Fabiano, G.A., Pariseau, M.E., and Naylor, J. (2013). Parameters of Adherence to a Yearlong Daily Report Card Intervention for Students With Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. Journal of Educational and Psychological Consultation, 23(2): 140–163. doi:10.1080/10474412.2013.785182


Back