Implementing Interventions in Schools

August 6, 2012

About 6% of school-aged children exhibit disruptive behaviors that cause problems in the classroom. Implementing evidence-based prevention and intervention can help these students, but only with buy-in by professionals. Unfortunately, research suggests that evidence-based mental health treatments for children are not being readily adopted. A new project directed by professors Tom Kratochwill and Jennifer Asmus will address whether functional behavior assessments can be adapted to evaluate the behavior of a system. Specifically, they will study the activities of school-based intervention teams, or student assistance teams, also called Problem Solving Teams (PSTs). This research will identify barriers to teams' adoption of EBPs to assess and treat students' disruptive behaviors. It also will devise steps to overcome those barriers. Activities will take place in 14 K–5 schools in 7 school districts in southern Wisconsin. In Year 3, three pilot schools in the same area will implement the fully developed intervention. More about UW-Madison’s School Psychology program is available here.