Introduction to the Special Issue: Teacher Educators for Children With Behavior Disorders (TECBD) Conference on Severe Behavior Disorders of Children and Youth

We are delighted to present seven articles for this special issue of Education and Treatment of Children (ETC) that have implications for researchers and practitioners serving students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD). These articles are based on papers presented at the 2016 annual Teacher Educators of Children with Behavior Disorders (TECBD) Conference, hosted by Arizona State University in Tempe. This year's special issue presents one meta-analysis, two systematic reviews of the literature, one single case study, one assessment study, and one survey study. These articles represent a variety of investigations addressing a wide range of topics applicable to general and special education, as well as residential and alternative settings. Participants in these studies include students with EBD, autism and intellectual and developmental disabilities, behavioral challenges, as well as teachers and parents. Articles were selected based on a blinded peer-review process focused on relevance and timeliness of research topics, quality of methodology, and clarity in reporting. We hope readers will find the content of these articles current and valuable, and that they add to the existing professional knowledge impacting research and practice. The issue concludes with recommendations for establishing respectful and productive partnerships between researchers and practitioners.

The first article in this issue is a meta-analysis conducted by Losinski, Sanders, Katsiyannis, and Wisemen. Authors examined the evidence of interventions aiming to improve compliance of students with disabilities in school settings. The meta-analysis analyzed 28 experimental studies, in 25 manuscripts, that investigated compliance or non-compliance with 89 students in a school setting between 4–14 years of age. The selected studies were evaluated using The Council for Exceptional Children Standards for Evidence-Based Practices in Special Education (hereby referred to as Standards for EBP; CEC, 2014). Researchers found across intervention strategies targeting non-compliance, the study effects to be generally large, but not all the studies met quality indicators following CEC's Standards for EBP. High probability command sequences was the only intervention that could be described as potentially evidence-based for improving the compliance of students with disabilities in school settings. Authors suggest (a) researchers in the field of special education need to focus on high quality replications of interventions that are socially valid and effective in supporting students with disabilities, and (b) interventions with high socially validity that can be used with high levels of treatment integrity should be considered first for replication.

The next article by Ennis, Royer, Lane, and Griffith focuses on an analysis of the literature on precorrection. Authors identified ten single-case research design studies that (a) evaluated the effects of a precorrection intervention, (b) occurred in a PK-12 traditional school settings, (c) employed experimental or quasi-experimental design, and (d) were published in a peer-reviewed journal. CEC's Standards for EBP were also applied in this study to evaluate the quality of the research utilizing precorrection procedure. of the ten studies, three met all quality indicators outlined by CEC. An additional four articles met a weighted criterion (e.g., 80% of 8.0 quality indicators), suggesting adequate methodological rigor. Authors concluded that generally precorrection meets the CEC requirements as an evidence-based practice when a weighted criterion is utilized, and recommended the use of this strategy in practice. However, they also cautioned that despite the designation of an evidence-based practice, additional research in the intervention of precorrection is warranted. Group experimental methodology, including randomized control trials with larger populations—including students with disabilities—are needed for establishing the generalizability of findings.

Teachers of students with EBD need research to support the selection of evidence-based interventions to improve social and academic performance. Dunn, Shelnut, Ryan, and Katsiyannis conducted a review of the effectiveness of peer-mediated interventions on academic outcomes for students with EBD by also applying CEC's Standards for EBP. Twenty-four studies involving 288 participants met inclusionary criteria. overall, peer-mediated interventions demonstrated moderate to strong effects across effect size metrics. The effectiveness of...