Project Overview
The Individual Formative Assessment of Behavior (IFAB) was funded by the Institute of Education Sciences (IES). The OHIO CIRS team conducted a series of studies to develop and validate items and/or rating scales that assess academic enablers (e.g., study skills, interpersonal skills, motivation/engagement) and disruptive behavior (e.g., noncompliance) to evaluate a student’s response to school-based behavioral interventions.
The study focused on item selection, the evaluation of the statistical properties of those items (e.g., reliability, validity, sensitivity to change) and the development of a web-based system for maximizing the utility of the product for school staff.
Project Goals
Implementation of response-to-intervention (RtI) processes by school professionals has increased dramatically in the last five years. However, there are very few high-quality, feasible tools to assess student behavior in RtI processes.
Tools designed for progress monitoring of social behavior must be statistically sound (e.g., reliable, valid, sensitive to change) and be feasible for teachers to use if the scores generated from them are to be useful in informing decision-making in problem-solving models.
The goals of this project were to:
- Develop a set of single-item and short multi-item scales and procedures for monitoring the effects of Tier 2 and Tier 3 school-based interventions targeting academic enablers (e.g., social skills, motivation, study skills) and disruptive behavior.
- Conduct a series of studies to test and refine the statistical properties of these tools.
- Develop a web-based progress monitoring system to enhance the feasibility of collecting, summarizing and using data measuring student behaviors to make informed decisions.
Collaborators and Contributors
This project was conducted in collaboration with Dr. Robert Volpe and Dr. Amy Briesch at Northeastern University. The OHIO team assisted with studies focused on the refinement of the Direct Behavior Rating (DBR) multi-item scales and on the assessment of the treatment sensitivity of the DBR scale.
The OHIO CIRS team thanks all of the teachers who participated in the project.
Selected findings from the project are presented in the following articles:
- Briesch, A. M., Donaldson, A. R., Matta, M., Volpe, R. J., Daniels, B., & Owens, J. S. (2022). Development of brief rating scales for progress monitoring internalizing behavior. Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders, 30 (3), 199-209.
- Daniels, B., Volpe, R. J., Briesch, A., M., & Owens, J. S. (2021). Content validation of direct behavior rating multi-Item scales for assessing problem behaviors. Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders 29(2), 71-82.
Hustus, C., Owens, J. S., Volpe, R., & Briesch, A. (2020). Treatment sensitivity of direct behavior rating multi-item scales in the context of a daily report card intervention. Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders, 28(1), 29-42. doi: 10.1177/1063426618806281 - Matta, M., Volpe, R. J., Briesch, A. M., & Owens, J. S. (2020). Five direct behavior rating multi-item scales: Sensitivity to the effects of classroom interventions . Journal of School Psychology, 81, 28-46.