A Tale of Two Special Series: Assessment for Effective Intervention From 2011 to 2014

Assessment for Effective Intervention ( AEI) has been published for more than 36 years encompassing 90 issues and 615 articles. The topics and trends of these articles have varied by decade. Notably, the period of 2000 to 2010 was a very productive time for the journal. This article introduces the new editorial team, summarizes the trend of topics and formats, and provides a brief history of AEI before presenting the format and goals of the near future for AEI.

By tradition, editors of Assessment for Effective Intervention (AEI) typically serve 3-year terms. As of January 1, 2024, AEI officially transitioned from outgoing editor Dr. Leanne Ketterlin Geller to incoming co-editors Drs. Aarti Bellara and Nathan Stevenson. The following article describes recent history and current state of AEI as a peer-reviewed scientific journal. The new editorial team describes some of the challenges ahead and their vision for the future of AEI.

In Issue 37.2 of the Learning Disability Quarterly (LDQ), Dr. Margaret (Peggy) King-Sears introduced the first articles in her special series on Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and learning disabilities (LD). Peggy’s special series concludes in this issue with the remaining two articles. In the first article, Hall, Cohen, Vue, and Ganley explore the ability of The Strategic Reader, a technology-based system that blends UDL with curriculum-based measurement, to improve students’ reading comprehension skills. The second article, by King-Sears, Johnson, Berkeley, Weiss, Peters-Burton, Evmenova, Menditto, and Hursh, examines the effectiveness of UDL when applied to chemistry instruction. This special series provides a unique concentrated effort to empirically examine the effectiveness of UDL with students who have disabilities, including those with LD. We are pleased that Dr. King-Sears and her colleagues chose the LDQ as an outlet for their scholarship. Also, in this issue are two articles that discuss findings from studies on other topics. In the first of these two articles, Doabler, Clarke, Fien, Baker, Kosty, and Cary describe an initial investigation of a recently developed supplemental mathematics curriculum designed to improve the mathematics performance of first-grade students who are at risk for mathematics difficulties. The curriculum integrates foundational concepts of whole number and validated-design principles of explicit and systematic instruction. In the next article, Al-Yagon compares the emotional and coping resources of two groups of parents who have children 8 to 12 years of age. One group has children with LD; the other group is composed of parents who have typically developing children. The study examines how mothers’ and fathers’ emotional resources may help explain their coping differences. As always, we appreciate the authors’ contributions to the LD literature.

The inclusion of students with disabilities in large-scale assessments, typically by using testing accommodations, for statewide accountability systems became a legal reality with the reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act in 1997, and the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act in 2002. These legal mandates and best assessment practices are imperatives for special educators to develop a greater understanding of key issues surrounding testing accommodations to facilitate the meaningful participation of all students in assessments. This article briefly describes the legal and educational context of testing accommodations, current issues in testing accommodations, and the rationale for this special issue. It then introduces readers to the special series in Assessment for Effective Intervention on Testing Accommodations: Research to Guide Practice.

The current article reviews research published in Assessment for Effective Intervention during the past 3 years. A total of 57 research articles were published during that period, with a current rejection rate of approximately 78%. A close examination of the pool of articles revealed seven overarching themes: behavioral assessment tools, group differences, interventions to improve student outcomes, legal and professional issues, conceptual models for practice, predictive validity, and psychometric properties of assessment tools. Although the category with the most articles ( n = 19, 33%) was interventions to improve student outcomes, only 2 studies provided assessment data that evaluated the effectiveness of interventions. There were considerable data regarding the potential instructional implications of spelling assessment during this 3-year period, as well as an increase in studies that examined the diagnostic accuracy of various measures. The review of research and the proposed conceptual models for practice suggest that assessment data as gathered in schools should be used within a problem-solving framework to improve student outcomes.

Call for Nominations: Editor, Assessment for Effective Intervention, January 2011 to December 2014

Calhoon, M. B., & Masterson, J. J. (2011). Lexical analysis of words on commonly used standardized spelling assessments. Assessment for Effective Intervention, 32(2), 80-93. (Original DOI: 10.1177/1534508410380136) In the above article, Figure 4 on page 88 was a duplicate of Figure 3 in its original printing. The correct graphic for Figure 4 is included below.

The purpose of the current article is to reintroduce Shapiro and Clemens for the series honoring the anniversary of the journal. Shapiro and Clemens suggests five measurable indicators from three domains that schools could use to evaluate response to intervention frameworks. The article also highlights some accomplishments of our editorial team.

Israel suffers from a growing problem of socio-economic gaps between those who live in the center of the country and residents of outlying areas. As a result, there is a low level of accessibility to higher education among the peripheral population. The goal of the Sidney Warren Science Education Center for Youth at Tel-Hai College is to strengthen the potential of middle and high school students and encourage them to pursue higher education, with an emphasis on majoring in science and technology. This study investigated the implementation and evaluation of the enrichment science academic program, as an example of informal learning environment, with an emphasis on physics studies. About 500 students conducted feedback survey after participating in science activities in four domains: biology, chemistry, physics, and computer science. Results indicated high level of satisfaction among the students. No differences were found with respect to gender excluding in physics with a positive attitudes advantage among boys. In order to get a deeper understanding of this finding, about 70 additional students conducted special questionnaires, both 1 week before the physics enrichment day and at the end of that day. Questionnaires were intended to assess both their attitudes toward physics and their knowledge and conceptions of the physical concept “pressure.” We found that the activity moderately improved boys’ attitudes toward physics, but that girls displayed decreased interest in and lower self-efficacy toward physics. Research results were used to the improvement of the instructional design of the physics activity demonstrating internal evaluation process for effective intervention.

Mental health of displaced and refugee children resettled in low-income and middle-income countries: risk and protective factors.

Call for Nominations: Editor(s), <i>Assessment for Effective Intervention</i>

BackgroundHIV remains a significant health issue in the United States and disproportionately affects African Americans. African American women living with HIV (AAWH) experience a particularly high number of barriers when attempting to manage their HIV care, including antiretroviral therapy (ART) adherence. To enable the development and assessment of effective interventions that address these barriers to support ART adherence, there is a critical need to understand more fully the use of objective measures of ART adherence among AAWH, including electronic medication dispensers for real-time surveillance.ObjectiveThis study aimed to evaluate the use of the Wisepill medication event–monitoring system (MEMS) and compare the objective and subjective measures of ART adherence.MethodsWe conducted a 30-day exploratory pilot study of the MEMS among a convenience sample of community-dwelling AAWH (N=14) in rural Florida. AAWH were trained on the use of the MEMS to determine the feasibility of collecting, capturing, and manipulating the MEMS data for an objective measure of ART adherence. Self-reported sociodemographic information, including a self-reported measure of ART adherence, was also collected from AAWH.ResultsWe found that the majority of participants were successful at using the electronic MEMS. Daily use of the MEMS tended to be outside of the usual time participants took their medication. Three 30-day medication event patterns were found that characterized ART adherence, specifically uniform and nonuniform medication adherence and nonuniform medication nonadherence. There were relatively few MEMS disruptions among study participants. Overall, adjusted daily ART adherence was 81.08% and subjective ART adherence was 77.78%.ConclusionsThis pilot study on the use and evaluation of the Wisepill MEMS among AAWH in rural Florida is the first such study in the United States. The findings of this study are encouraging because 10 out of 12 participants consistently used the MEMS, there were relatively few failures, and objective adjusted daily and overall subjective ART adherence were very similar. On the basis of these findings, we think researchers should consider using the Wisepill MEMS in future studies of AAWH and people living with HIV in the United States after taking into account our practical suggestions. The following practical considerations are suggested when measuring objective medication adherence: (1) before using an MEMS, be familiar with the targeted populations’ characteristics; (2) choose an MEMS that aligns with the participants’ day-to-day activities; (3) ensure the MEMS’ features and resulting data support the research goals; (4) assess the match among the user’s ability, wireless features of the MEMS, and the geographic location of the participants; and (5) consider the cost of MEMS and the research budget.

Individuals with Smith-Magenis syndrome (SMS) are reported to have a disrupted circadian rhythm. Our aim was to examine problematic sleeping in those attending our sleep clinic for the first time. At intake, caregivers of 50 children and nine adults with SMS were surveyed about the sleep pattern and potential melatonin administration. Sampling of salivary melatonin levels was performed. At intake, exogenous melatonin was used by 16 children (27.1% of sample; 56.3% male) with mean age 6.8 ± 2.8 years, whereas 34 children (57.6%; 7.5 ± 4.8 years old; 64.7% male) and nine adults (15.3%; 36.8 ± 15.3 years old; 44.4% male) were not taking melatonin at intake. Participants were reported to have problems with night waking and early awakenings regardless of melatonin administration. Overall, moderate to high levels of salivary melatonin at noon were found in individuals with SMS. In particular, children with SMS showed a disrupted melatonin pattern. Furthermore, the endogenous melatonin level, age, and gender may potentially interact, yielding the severity range of sleep disturbances reported in SMS. Treatment of sleep problems in SMS is complex, and our findings may support person-centered sleep and medication management. Future clinical trials including larger groups may shed light on such approaches.

The current study aimed to isolate bacteria that harbour various animal food products like meat, chicken and seafoods collected from the abattoir, butcher shops and local seafood market and to determine the antimicrobial resistance pattern of isolated pathogens which are responsible for various foodborne illnesses in human beings. A total of forty raw animal product samples were collected from the abattoir, butcher shops and local seafood market of Visakhapatnam. The samples selected for the study include raw chicken, meat, crab, prawns and different varieties of fish. A classic random sampling technique was employed to collect the study samples. All the samples were processed immediately using standard microbiological protocols. The bacteria isolation and characterization were done by studying morphological characteristics with staining methods, cultural characteristics by isolating and growing the pathogenic microorganisms in various selective and differential culture media. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing was performed by the Kirby -Bauer method by following Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) guidelines. EDTA-Disc Potentiation Test and Imipenem-EDTA Double disc synergy test are used to detect the metallo beta-lactamase production of isolated pathogens. The highest number of isolates belong to Salmonella species (18), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (18) followed by Vibrio species (14) and few isolates belong to Enterobacter species (4). Majority of the microbial isolates obtained in the current study were multidrug resistant. The isolates from the abattoir environments, slaughterhouses, fish markets were found to exhibit variable resistance pattern to aminoglycosides, macrolides, β-lactams, cephalosporins, quinolone antibiotics used in the present study and at the same time most of them were sensitive to carbapenem antibiotic imipenem. Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) prevents the designing and assessment of effective interventions. If such a link can be established, then the tracking of antibiotic use and consumption data could be furthermore used as a surrogate indicator for the risk of potential antibiotic resistance (ABR) emergence.

When schools implement a response-to-intervention (RTI) model, it is critically important that multiple perspectives of outcomes of the model need to be considered. Using the Shapiro and Clemens (Assessment for Effective Intervention 35:3–16, 2009) framework for evaluating an RTI model, the outcomes of implementation in 29 elementary schools in Pennsylvania are discussed. Overall, the results of the risk-level analysis for reading based on outcomes of oral reading fluency (ORF) and 4Sight Benchmark Assessment showed that the strongest outcomes occurred in kindergarten and grade 1, with less strong outcomes in the middle elementary grades (grades 2, 3, and 4). Data examining movement across tiers indicated that the largest amount of movement occurred in the earliest grades and from the beginning to middle of the year. Across grades, an increasing trend of percentage of students meeting their targeted and benchmark rate of improvement (ROI) for grade was evident across grade level. Although the number of schools with data regarding specific learning disability (SLD) determination was limited, analysis showed that between < 1 and 2.5 % of students across these schools were evaluated for special education as potential students with SLD. In general, this chapter provides a strong model for examining the key outcome measures in evaluating an RTI implementation process.