Creating Instructionally Effective Classrooms Contexts for Middle School Students with EBD

1. Creating Instructionally Effective Classrooms Contexts for Middle School Students with EBD The work reported in this symposium is supported by: Office of Special Education Programs Institute of Education Sciences(National Research Center on Rural Education Support)

2. Presenters Kevin Sutherland – General Academic Support Linda Mason & Ray Taft – Supporting Writing Tom Farmer & Deb Brooks – Social Dynamics

3. Developmental Issues in Middle School Changes in Context • Less structure and predictability • More adults but fewer personal relationships • More individual responsibility and academic press • Changes in the social hierarchy (i.e., jockeying for power) Changes in Students • Greater need for autonomy and independence • Physical maturation and interest in romantic relationships • Peer influences and being “cool” become more important • Socially vulnerable (bullying, social aggression, victimization)

4. Empirical Foundations of this Symposium: Pilot Outcomes of Project REAL • Students’ sense of classroom belonging declined sharply between fall and spring in control schools, but remained stable and positive across the year in intervention schools • Students’ positive ratings of classmates’ acceptance of academic effort and achievement declined in control schools but remained positive and stable across the school year in intervention schools • At the end of the intervention year, students in intervention schools showed fewer teacher-rated aggressive behaviors compared to students in control schools • Parallel analyses indicated that students in intervention schools, as compared to control schools, rated their classrooms as less emotionally risky at the end of the school year

5. Creating Supportive Classroom Social Contexts Social Dynamics in Middle School • Distinct Peer groups • Social Hierarchies • Dominance Strategies • Physical Aggression • Social Aggression

6. Creating Supportive Classroom Social Contexts Social Risks in Middle School • Bullying • Victimization • Affiliations with peers who support problem behavior • Social roles that support problem behavior • “Cool” and noncompliant aggressive leader • Socially incompetent and aggressively reactive scapegoat

7. Implications for Intervention: The Role of Teachers in Classroom Social Dynamics While the context and “mix” of students contribute to whether aggression is associated with social prominence and whether popular-aggressive youth become dominant in the class, it appears that teachers play an important role --Teachers as an “invisible hand” in directing classroom social structures and social dynamics --Considerable variability in teachers’ ability to identify peer groups and social roles (e.g., bullies, victims, leaders) --Teachers appear to have more accurate conceptions of girls’ groups and social roles as compared to the groups and social roles of boys

8. Implications for Interventions: Supporting Students with EBD • Universal Interventions are needed that focus on classroom social dynamics (i.e., creating contexts that reduce hierarchical social structures) • Functional assessments for students with high incidence disabilities should center on the social functions and supports for their behavior • There is a need to be cognizant of the different subtypes of youth with EBD and to establish interventions that correspond with their social roles (i.e., socially prominent, socially marginalized) and their peer affiliation patterns

9. Implications for Intervention: Universal Intervention by teacher awareness --Classroom social hierarchies and social roles --Peer group affiliations and peer support processes --Differences between sociometric popularity, perceived popularity, and peer affiliation

10. Implications for Intervention: Individualized Individualized social interventions for students with EBD should be responsive to: --Peer affiliations (i.e., popular peers, aggressive peers, marginalized, socially isolated) --Social roles (i.e., leader, bully, bully/victim, victim) --Interaction patterns (synchronous support & peer reinforcement)