Severe Behavior Disorders of Children and Youth: Editors' Introduction

This special edition of Education and Treatment for Children (ETC) celebrates the best papers presented at the 30^th Annual Teachers Educators for Children with Behavioral Disorders (TECBD) conference in November 2006. This 30-year milestone for the conference clearly establishes it as one of the premier venue for our discipline where researchers, teacher educators, and educators can meet to share ideas which positively influence our field of emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD). The 13 articles published in this volume have been specifically chosen for their broad appeal and focus on evidence-based practice.

We begin this issue with C. Michael Nelson's tribute to Dr. Robert Rutherford, who passed away this spring. The tribute recalls the history of Dr. Rutherford's involvement as the founder of the TECBD conference, his leadership and editorial positions with CCBD, and his long-term commitment as editor of this special edition of ETC. Dr. Rutherford was adored by all and will be deeply missed. This tribute is followed by a keynote address on ethics by Sarup Mathur, president of the Council for Children with Behavior Disorders. In "Understanding emotional and behavioral disorders: Are we paying the cost of borderline ethics", she reflects on our policies, practices, and services for students. She reminds us of us that we still have a lot to discover and much work remains in helping children with EBD.

The next two articles in this issue present us with the educators' perspectives on our field. Timothy Landrum, Brian Cook, Melody Tankersley, and Shawn Fitzgerald's study on "Teacher perceptions of the usability of intervention information from personal versus data-based sources" investigates teacher preferences for accessing research. This study has broad implications in disseminating research-to-practice teaching strategies. Following this is an article authored by Lori Anderson and Jo Hendrickson examining the correlation between new teacher knowledge and their classroom use of individual support strategies in "Early-career EBD teacher knowledge, ratings of competency importance, and observed use of instruction and management competencies". Implications for teacher education changes are discussed.

The implementation of functional behavior assessments (FBA's) are the focus of three articles in this issue. First, Erica Blood and Richard Neel, authors of "From FBA to implementation: A look at what is actually being delivered", share the results of their research on the actual impact of FBA's on behavior interventions plans. Teacher interviews from elementary through high school were conducted to assess the degree of implementation. Next, the results of an FBA and a peer-mediated intervention plan are examined in "Behavioral intervention planning: Increasing appropriate behavior of a socially withdrawn student". This study by Lynette Christensen, K. Richard Young, and Michelle Merchant utilized a single-subject design combined with qualitative data gathered from the teacher, students, and peer-mentor. Again, the alignment between FBA plans and actual implementation of the plan is studied. Finally, we conclude our FBA section by examining treatment fidelity in a study by Brenna Wood, John Umbreit, Carl Liaupsin, and Frank Gresham titled "A treatment integrity analysis of function-based intervention". This study sheds light on the difference in student behavior observed when an FBA derived treatment was implemented with and without fidelity. Implications for research and practice are examined. Treatment fidelity, as an important intervention factor, is further examined in the article "Treatment fidelity in applied educational research: Expanding the adoption and application of measures to ensure evidence-based practice". Here, Stephen Smith, Ann Daunic, and Gregory Taylor discuss their implementation of a framework for reporting treatment fidelity in research. Monitoring the accuracy of classroom interventions is a timely topic since reports of treatment fidelity in special education literature is limited.

The next four articles in this issue keep us firmly planted in examining important school issues. In "Identifying and supporting students at risk for emotional and behavioral disorders within multi-level models: Data driven approaches to conducting secondary interventions with an academic emphasis", Katheen Lane questions the common three-tiered model of behavior intervention support and examines how we can address their shortcomings. This stimulating discussion provides...