Program Announcement: Social and Behavioral Outcomes to Support Learning CFDA 84.324A

Program Officer:
Dr. Jacquelyn Buckley
Jacquelyn.Buckley@ed.gov
(202) 219-2130

Purpose

The purpose of the Social and Behavioral Outcomes to Support Learning (Social/Behavioral) research grant program is to contribute to the prevention or amelioration of behavior problems in students with or at-risk for disabilities and concomitantly, improve their academic outcomes by: (1) exploring malleable factors¹ (e.g., children's skills, classroom management practices) that are associated with better behavioral, social, or emotional competencies that support learning for students with or at risk for disabilities, as well as mediators or moderators of the relations between these factors and student outcomes, for the purpose of identifying potential targets of intervention; (2) developing innovative programs that are intended to improve behavioral, social, or emotional outcomes of students with or at risk for disabilities; (3) evaluating the efficacy of fully developed interventions that are intended to improve behavioral, social, or emotional outcomes of students with or at risk for disabilities; (4) evaluating the effectiveness of interventions intended to improve behavioral, social, or emotional outcomes of students with or at risk for disabilities that are implemented at scale; and (5) developing and validating social and behavioral assessment tools and procedures for students with or at risk for disabilities and intended for use by practitioners.

The long-term outcome of this program will be an array of tools and strategies (e.g., assessments, interventions) that have been documented to be effective for preventing behavior problems and improving the behavioral, emotional, social skills, and likewise, the academic performance of students with or at risk for disabilities from kindergarten through Grade 12.

Background

Research on the efficacy of behavioral interventions and supports designed to manage, control, and prevent a range of behavior and antisocial problems (e.g., violence toward peers or adults, self-injury, noncompliance, bullying, withdrawal, truancy) in a range of settings (e.g., school, general and special education classrooms, home, work, community) is historically robust (e.g., Baer, Wolf, & Risley, 1968; Becker, Madson, Arnold, & Thomas, 1967; Safran & Oswald, 2003; Sugai et al., 2000). However, much remains to be done to understand and advance the application, scalability, and sustainability of these behavioral interventions and supports.

Through the Social/Behavioral program, the Institute supports research to develop or evaluate interventions to improve social or behavioral outcomes for students with or at risk for high- or low-incidence disabilities. Interventions may be delivered as school-wide or classroom-wide programs or to individual or small groups of students and may be delivered by teachers, related service providers, school psychologists, or other school staff. For example, researchers may develop a classroom-based program to decrease problem behaviors (e.g., aggression, disruption) and increase appropriate behaviors (e.g., positive social interactions) for students with autism in inclusive classrooms. The program might include specific classroom management strategies for the teacher along with specific behavior skills for a student with autism taught by a para-professional.

The Institute encourages research to develop innovative programs and interventions that combine the disciplines of special education and mental health with the goal of preventing behavior problems and improving the academic outcomes for students with disabilities. Considerable work focusing on interventions that are aimed at preventing or ameliorating behavior disorders in children and youth has been conducted in the areas of developmental psychopathology, prevention research, and children's mental health services. Much of this work focuses on improving social and behavioral functioning in schools and other community settings, yet there has been relatively little systematic effort to bridge these efforts with prevention and intervention research in special education. The Institute also encourages researchers to consider, for example, tailoring programs developed in children's mental health aimed at preventing behavior and mental health disorders (e.g., conduct disorder) and evaluating the impact of those programs on school-based behavior and academic outcomes, including referral and classification for special education.

The Institute recognizes that applicants to the Social/Behavioral research program typically propose models that involve multiple steps. For example, an applicant might choose to evaluate a program intended to improve teacher's behavior management skills. For the purpose of illustration, a simple model of change for this program might be:

Intervention	Mediator	Mediator	Mediator	Student Academic Outcome
Teacher training on classroom management strategies	Improve teachers' classroom practices	Decrease student disruptive behaviors	Increase instruction time Improve students' engagement Reduce suspensions	Improve grades and test scores Improve graduation rates

In this model, improved student academic outcomes is the most distal outcome that the intervention seeks to improve. The Institute requires applicants to obtain measures of student education outcomes (e.g., grades, test scores, high school completion). In strong applications, researchers would also propose to measure the mediators between the intervention (i.e., training teachers on classroom management strategies) and the education outcomes (i.e., grades, test scores, graduation rates).

The Institute invites research to explore the relations between malleable factors (e.g., classroom management practices, students' social skills) and behavioral, social, or emotional competencies that support learning for students with or at risk for disabilities for the purpose of identifying potential targets of intervention. This is translational research intended to inform development of innovative programs, practices, or products to improve outcomes for children with disabilities. Under the Social/Behavioral research program, malleable factors may be underlying competencies (e.g., self-regulation) that are correlated with social, emotional, or behavioral outcomes in the classroom. In addition, malleable factors appropriate for the Social/Behavioral research program include behavior management strategies, as well as interventions for improving the social, emotional, and behavioral outcomes that are associated with academic learning for children with disabilities or at risk for disabilities. For example, researchers could propose to conduct detailed, quantifiable observational measures of behavior management (e.g., types of strategies, frequency, duration, under what circumstances), and then use these data to identify strong correlates of subsequent student social, emotional, and behavioral outcomes. Researchers who can identify strong correlates of student outcomes could use this information as the basis for developing an intervention.

Under the Social/Behavioral program, the Institute also supports research to develop and validate assessments intended for use by practitioners for purposes such as screening or progress-monitoring. For example, behavior problems can be evident in early childhood, yet some children do not evince behavior problems until later such as middle school. Accurately identifying students with later onset behavior problems is the necessary first step in providing needed intervention services to older students. To contribute to solving this problem, researchers could analyze an existing large group longitudinal dataset to determine which variables are most strongly correlated with late onset behavior problems. Researchers could then use this information to develop a screening instrument that can be practically used by school personnel to accurately identify students at risk for late onset behavior problems. The instrument would also be beneficial for researchers developing interventions targeting this population.

References

Baer, D.M., Wolf, M.M., Risley, T.R. (1968). Some current dimensions of applied behavior analysis. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 1, 91–97.

Becker, W.C., Madson, C.H., Jr., Arnold, C.R., & Thomas, D.R. (1967). The contingent use of teacher attention and praise in reducing classroom behavior problems. Journal of Special Education, 1967, 287–307.

Safran, S. P., & Oswald, K. (2003). Positive behavior supports: Can schools reshape disciplinary practices? Exceptional children, 69(3), 361–374.

Sugai, G., Horner, R.H., Dunlap, G., Hieneman, M., Lewis, T.J., Nelson, C.M., Scott, T., Liaupsin, C., Sailor, W., Turnbull, A.P., Turnbull, H.R., III, Wickham, D., Reuf, M., & Wilcox, B. (2000). Applying positive behavioral support and functional behavioral assessment in schools. Journal of Positive Behavioral Interventions, 2, 131–143.