Teachers and Parents as Partners During Middle School

There are two aims of this study (a) to examine the effect of Teachers and Parents as Partners on student, parent, and teacher outcomes in middle school and (b) identify barriers and facilitators to implementing Teachers and Parents as Partners in middle school for students with behavior concerns.

Teachers and Parents as Partners will occur in a series of stages comprised of approximately four structured meetings over approximately 8 weeks. A Teachers and Parents as Partners consultant will meet together with a student's parent(s), teachers, other school personnel (as appropriate), and the student (as appropriate). The Teachers and Parents as Partners team will collaboratively address behavior problem solving objectives. Specific CBC objectives include: identifying strengths and specific behaviors of concern, specifying alternative prosocial behaviors, creating measurable behavior goals, co-constructing behavior intervention/support plans to address the target concerns, creating sustainable conditions to support plan implementation at home and school, and evaluating the plan to assess progress toward goals. Treatment integrity in multiple dimensions (e.g., engagement, dosage, adherence) will be assessed at the two tiers of implementation (i.e., Teachers and Parents as Partners procedural integrity and behavior support plan implementation) to determine the extent to which procedures are implemented as designed. During each structured meeting, Teachers and Parents as Partners consultants will inquire with parents, teachers, other school personnel, and students about barriers and facilitators to implementation.

A family-school partnership intervention to improve the home-school connection, parenting and teaching strategies, and child behavior outcomes.

Inclusion Criteria: Students will be eligible if they have scores in the "elevated" or "extremely elevated" risk categories on the parent and teacher version of the Behavior Assessment Scale for Children (BASC) 3 Behavioral and Emotional Screening System (BESS). Parents, and primary teachers and school staff associated with an eligible student will be included. Exclusion Criteria: Students who do not meet the inclusion criteria will be excluded from participation, which includes their parent(s), teachers, and other school personnel. Students also may not be eligible if they have mental health concerns that may not be appropriate for Teachers and Parents as Partners or a research project (e.g., some internalizing problems, students who pose an risk of harming themselves).