High-Leverage Practices in Special Education A Look at Social/ Emotional/ Behavioral Effective special education teachers establish a consis- • Provide positive and constructive feedback to tent, organized, and respectful learning environment to guide students’ learning and behavior (HLP8). support student success. They recognize that academ- The purpose of feedback is to guide student ic and behavioral support strategies are more effective learning and behavior and increase student mo- when delivered within the context of positive and car- tivation, engagement, and independence, lead- ing teacher-student relationships, in a respectful and ing to improved student learning and behavior. Effective feedback must be delivered strategically culturally responsive manner. and be goal directed; feedback is most effective High-leverage practices 7– 10 are related to the social/ when the learner has a goal and the feedback emotional/behavioral area. A brief description of each informs the learner regarding areas needing im- follows. [Note: The practices are applicable to all teach- provement and ways to improve performance. ers who work with students with disabilities.] Feedback may be verbal, nonverbal, or writ- ten, and should be timely, contingent, genuine, • Establish a consistent, organized, and re- meaningful, age appropriate, and at rates com- spectful learning environment (HLP7). To build mensurate with the task and phase of learning and foster positive relationships, teachers should (i.e., acquisition, fluency, maintenance). Teachers establish age-appropriate and culturally re- should provide ongoing feedback until learners sponsive expectations, routines, and procedures reach their established learning goals. within their classrooms that are positively stated and explicitly taught and practiced throughout • Teach social behaviors (HLP9). Teachers the school year. When students demonstrate should explicitly teach appropriate interper- mastery and follow established rules and rou- sonal skills, including communication, and tines, teachers should provide age-appropriate specific performance feedback in meaningful and caring ways. By establishing, following, and reinforcing expectations of all students within the High-Leverage Practices classroom, teachers will reduce the potential for The twenty-two high-leverage practices for special edu- challenging behavior and increase student en- cation are designed to serve as a road map for guiding gagement. When establishing learning environ- teacher preparation, professional development, and/ ments, teachers should build mutually respectful or current self-assessment. To make the practices more relationships with students and engage them in understandable and easier to use, they are organized setting the classroom climate (e.g., rules and rou- around four intertwined areas of practice—collaboration, tines); be respectful; and value ethnic, cultural, assessment, social/emotional/behavioral, and instruction. contextual, and linguistic diversity to foster stu- dent engagement across learning environments. © 2019 Council for Exceptional Children & CEEDAR Center 1 self-management, aligning lessons with class- Deepen Your Knowledge of room and schoolwide expectations for student behavior. Prior to teaching, teachers should Social/Emotional/Behavioral determine the nature of the social skill challenge. High-Leverage Practices If students do not know how to perform a target- Effective special education teachers ensure that students ed social skill, direct social skill instruction should with disabilities have the academic and behavioral sup- be provided until mastery is achieved. If students display performance problems, the appropriate ports they need to achieve success in school. The Council social skill should initially be taught, then empha- for Exceptional Children has resources to extend your un- sis should shift to prompting the student to use the derstanding of social/emotional/behavioral high-lever- skill and ensuring that the “appropriate” behavior age practices and help you apply that understanding to accesses the same or a similar outcome (i.e., is re- educational settings. inforcing to the student) as the problem behavior. • Conduct functional behavioral assessments to develop individual student behavior sup- The High-Leverage Practice in Special port plans (HLP10). Creating individual behavior Education— Social/Emotional/ plans is a central role of all special educators. A Behavioral Research Syntheses major part of developing such plans is to con- duct a functional behavioral assessment any time https://highleveragepractices.org/wp-content/ behavior is chronic, intense, or impedes learning. uploads/2017/06/SEBfinal.pdf A comprehensive functional behavioral assess- The document reviews research for each of the social/ ment results in a hypothesis about the function of emotional/behavioral high-leverage practices. Learn the student’s problem behavior. Once the func- more about what research and policy tell us about the tion is determined, a behavior intervention plan is social/emotional/behavioral practices, such as the fol- developed that teaches the student a pro-social lowing examples: replacement behavior that will serve the same or similar function; alters the environment to make • Just like academic skill mastery, if teachers want the replacement behavior more efficient and students to build social behavior skill mastery, they effective than the problem behavior; alters the en- must provide specific, contingent feedback. vironment to no longer allow the problem behav- Social skill instruction paired with generalization ior to access the previous outcome; and includes • strategies can lead to improved social-emotional ongoing data collection to monitor progress. functioning of students with disabilities. • Interventions that are based on a functional be- havioral assessment have been found to be more efficient and effective in reducing challenging be- havior among students with disabilities and those at high risk than interventions that are nonfunc- tional based. High-Leverage Practices in Special Education www.pubs.cec.sped.org/p6255/ This book (2017) provides evidence-based information about the twenty-two high-leverage practices—includ- ing those for social/emotional/behavioral—which can be used to understand the practices more fully and the ra- Academic and behavioral support strategies are more effective when delivered tionale for using them. For each practice area, there is an within the context of positive and caring teacher-student relationships. 2 © 2019 Council for Exceptional Children & CEEDAR Center “Learning environments that are consistent, organized, and respectful can serve as a strong platform to successfully implement all the other high-leverage practices.” overview and research synthesis, including reference lists • “Consistent, Organized, Respectful Learning and a glossary, for each area practice. Environment.” The chapter reviews several strat- egies that teachers can use in establishing pos- Educators will find it helpful to have all of the practices itive learning environments, including how to in one book when learning and planning next steps for develop clear classroom procedures that cover implementation. critical times of the day, and how to create class- room expectations and rules that target multiple behaviors. High Leverage Practices for • “Using Feedback to Improve Student Outcomes.” The chapter focuses on how teacher-provided Inclusive Classrooms feedback can reinforce pro-social skills. It reviews www.pubs.cec.sped.org/p6298/ strategies that teachers can use to implement high rates of specific, positive feedback through- High Leverage Practices for Inclusive Classrooms (2019) out the school day. delves deep into the set of practices that are essential to effective teaching and fundamental to supporting stu- • “Teaching Social Skills.” The chapter outlines a dent learning. The book focuses primarily on Tiers 1 and process for developing an instructional logic, 2 in a multi-tiered system of support, or work that occurs using engagement strategies for students during mostly with students in grades K – 12 with mild disabilities instruction, and facilitating practice to mastery. It in general education classrooms. For each high-leverage also identifies special considerations for teachers when teaching social skills in the classroom, such practice area there is an overall introduction, followed by as monitoring progress, including students in all a chapter for each of the high-leverage practices found aspects of instruction and practice, and promot- in that area. The goal of the book was to discuss selected ing home-school collaboration. critical practice applications that would be most useful to teachers. • “Conducting Functional Behavior Assessments to Develop Individualized Behavior Support Plans.” Four chapters provide educators with insights into what The chapter discusses beginning special educa- the high-leverage social/emotional/behavioral practices tion teachers’ roles and responsibilities related to look like in action. Vignettes and tips show how the prac- students who need individualized behavior sup- tices can enhance teaching and learning. The social/ port. It focuses specifically on the essential compo- emotional/behavioral chapters address the following nents of functional behavioral assessments and topics: individual behavior support plans. © 2019 Council for Exceptional Children & CEEDAR Center 3 High-Leverage Practices in