Jason Downer

In this project, researchers will evaluate the efficacy of RULER, a school-wide intervention that is designed to provide opportunities for teachers and students to enhance their social-emotional skills. As of 2017, RULER is being used in over 1,500 schools nationwide. Despite being a widely-used intervention, RULER has been evaluated by only one randomized-control trial that was implemented in limited grades and settings. The current study aims to build on the promising findings from that ea...

The purpose of this study is to test the optimal sequence of two teacher-implemented supplemental interventions for kindergarten students at risk for reading difficulties. The first intervention, Read Well Kindergarten (RWK), teaches evidence-based foundational reading skills and the second intervention, Banking Time (BT), is meant to enhance teacher-student relationships to decrease challenging behavior. Both have been shown to be effective and feasible in classroom settings, but they have ...

The purpose of this proposal is to test the impact of the Learning to Objectively Observe Kids (LOOK) consultation model when implemented with preschool teachers. Developed with IES funding, LOOK is designed to improve preschool teachers' use of effective social-emotional strategies and to improve children's self-regulatory, behavioral, and social-readiness skills. Early self-regulation difficulties, particularly evident in children from low-income families, often result in patterns of disru...

Reading comprehension is critical to academic success, employment in the modern workplace, and to lifelong learning. Large numbers of students, however, are unable to read beyond a basic level of understanding. Recent studies indicate that comprehensive literacy-coaching interventions that combine formal learning opportunities for teachers (e.g., coursework) with individual coaching to support teachers' implementation of new instructional strategies can successfully increase the quality of ...

Social-emotional skills and academic achievement are intertwined, with research showing that poor academic achievement is both predicted by aggressive, disruptive behavior and a predictor of maladaptive behavior. Learning in a school context involves social and interactive processes among teachers, students, and their peers. Students' social-emotional competencies and self-regulation skills serve as important mechanisms for obtaining information and benefiting from instruction and learning a...

Early self-regulation difficulties, particularly evident in children from low-income families, often result in patterns of challenging behaviors (e.g., impulsivity) that negatively impact academic achievement and are demanding for teachers to manage. Evidence-based practices exist for preschool teachers to apply in their work with children with challenging behaviors, but the promise of such practices has gone unrealized as teachers either do not use them or apply them ineffectively. The purp...