Behavior Analysis and Equity in Public Education: An Abolitionist Approach

The Individuals With Disabilities Education Act grants children the right to a free, appropriate public education. Early, intensive behavioral intervention (often referred to as ABA) is demonstrably effective, yet many educators oppose such services, and parents of children With autism have had to pursue them through legal means. Whereas most of the legal decisions have revolved around procedural issues, much of the opposition to behavior-analytic instruction has to do With philosophical issues. Behavior analysis is a scientific discipline, and its appeal to educational decision-makers depends on Whether their fundamental philosophical assumptions support a scientific approach to education. Such assumptions influence the adoption of assessment, curriculum, and instructional technology that can significantly affect outcomes for children With autism. It therefore behooves parents and educators Who employ (or are considering) behavior analysis to recognize the philosophical dimension of the controversy and to gain an appreciation for the conceptual underpinnings of behavior analysis. Behavior analysis exists on three interrelated levels: technology, science, and philosophy. Behavioral philosophy, in turn, is supported by three pillars: empiricism, pragmatism, and selectionism. The convergence of these vieWs led to Skinner's description of the three-term contingency as the “atom” of behavior, from Which effective instructional technology and cohesive theories of autism intervention have been built.

Public education has long been the subject of public discontent. Historical events such as the Soviet launch of Sputnik in 1957, the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s, and repeated media reports that U.S. students were outscored by students in many other countries on international tests each prompted federal and state legislation aimed to reform public education. Following a presentation of the relative standing of the United States on three international tests, the history of public schooling in six states, Texas, North Carolina, Kentucky, Maryland, Florida, and Louisiana, is discussed. The central focus of the study is student outcomes in Louisiana since the passage of Act 478 in 1997, which provided for the state’s present accountability system. Among a number of programs intended to improve public education, Act 478, consistent with the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2002, supported the creating of the high stakes test, LEAP. The purpose of the present study was to use trend analysis to examine changes in three student outcomes: (a) student achievement, (b) student matriculation, and (c) student disciplinary actions, particularly suspension and expulsion rates and juvenile arrests. The study was bounded by the years 1997, when Act 478 was passed, to 2005, prior to the landfall of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Because Black and White students composed approximately 98% of the public school student population during those years, trends are reported in aggregate and disaggregated by race, except for juvenile arrests for which disaggregated data were not available. The analysis resulted in 30 trends, which revealed that statewide, student achievement had improved for both Black and White students, but not substantially. Contrary to national trends, dropout percentages improved, but the in-grade retention of students increased, especially after LEAP became high stakes in 2000. Suspensions and expulsions trended upwards, but juvenile arrests decreased. The achievement gap between Black and White students persisted though it narrowed slightly in some instances. Finally, more Black than White students were retained, suspended and expelled, and dropped out of school.

This paper deals with the links between collective bargaining and the overall governance process in a school system. Through a detailed case study the dynamics of the relationships among superintendent, school board, and union are described, with a focus on conflict and how it cuts across bargaining and governance structures. Anthony M. Cresswell is Associate Professor of Education and Man agement and Director of the Labor Relations in Education Project at Northwestern University. Daniel Simpson is a student in the Educa tion Administration program at Northwestern University and a resi dent of the district described. 1. Part of this research was conducted through the Labor Relations in Education Project which is supported by the Ford Foundation and the Spencer Foundation. 2. See, for example, C. R. Perry and W. A. Wildman, The Impact o f Collec tive Negotiations in Public Education (Worthington, Ohio: C. A. Jones, 1967); D. Gerwin, ed., The Employment of Teachers (Berkeley: McCutchan, 1975). 3. M. W. Kirst, "After School Finance Reform: What Will Low Wealth School Districts Do With Unrestricted State Aid?" Stanford: School of Education, Stanford University, 1975 (mimeographed); J. G. Chambers, "The Impact of Collective Bargaining for Teachers on Resource Alloca tion in Public School Districts: The California Experience," paper pre sented at the Southern Economic Association Meeting, November 1975; D. B. Lipsky and J. B. Drotning, "The Influence of Collective Bargain ing on Teachers' Salaries in New York State," Industrial and Labor Relations Review 27, 1 (October 1973). 4. Some of these studies are: D. Hellriegel, W. French, and R. B. Peterson, "Collective Negotiations and Teachers: A Behavioral Analysis," In dustrial and Labor Relations Review 23, 3 (April 1970); M. J. Murphy and D. Hoover, "Negotiations at the Crossroads: Increased Profes sionalization or Reinforced Bureaucracy?" IAR Research Bulletin 14, 2 (February 1974); A. M. Glasman and J. A. Belasco, "The Chapter Chairman and School Grievances," Industrial Relations 14, 2 (May 1975). 5. R. E. Walton and R. W. McKersie, A Behavioral Theory of Labor Negotiations (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1965). 6. J. Dunlop, The Industrial Relations System (New York: Henry Holt, 1958), pp. 13-16. 7. N. W. Chamberlain and D. E. Cullen, The Labor Sector (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1971), pp. 226-29. 8. See T. A. Kochan, "City Government Bargaining: A Path Analysis," Industrial Relations 14, 1 (February 1975), and, also, Perry and Wild man, The Impact of Collective Negotiations. 9. The importance of coalition formation in bargaining is reviewed by J. Z. Rubin and B. R. Brown in The Social Psychology of Bargaining and Negotiations (New York: Academic Press, 1975), pp. 64-80. 10. See D. Rogers, 110 Livingston Street (New York: Random House, 1968), and M. R. Berube and M. Gittell, Confrontation at Ocean Hill- Brownsville (New York: Praeger, 1969). 11. A. Rosenthal, Pedagogues and Power (Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse Univer sity Press, 1969); R. G. Corwin, Militant Professionalism (New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1970). 12. W. R. Hazard, "Collective Bargaining and School Governance," South- western University Law Review 5 (1973): 83-117; and L. G. Simon, "The School Finance Decisions: Collective Bargaining and Future Finance Systems," Yale Law Review 83, 3 (January 1973): 409-60. 13. L. H. Ziegler and M. K. Jennings, Governing American Schools (North Scituate, Mass.: Duxbury, 1974); and L. lannaconne and F. W. Lutz, Politics, Power and Policy: The Governing of Local School Districts (Columbus, Ohio: Charles E. Merrill, 1970). 14. Iannaccone and Lutz, Politics, p. 175.

Does the Mode of Entry into Teaching Matter in Teacher Retention? A Discrete-Time Survival Analysis Modeling of New York City Public School Teachers Charles Olufemi Ogundimu This dissertation examines whether the mode of entry into K-12 public school teaching has any implications on teacher retention. Teacher retention is important because it is an important precursor to teacher quality, which has been shown to positively impact student performance. However, teacher turnover can seriously threaten teacher retention. Additionally, teacher turnover is associated with serious economic and non-economic costs. To this end, it may benefit schools and school districts to pay particular attention to hiring and retaining their teachers, especially the quality ones, for the long haul. Current teacher labor markets literature is deficient in serious analytical frameworks for understanding longitudinal cohort retention comparisons of traditional and nontraditional teachers, as well as analysis of quit behaviors that focus on when a teacher is at the greatest risk of quitting. My research endeavors to bridge this gap. Using a large-scale administrative data set comprising cohorts of traditional and nontraditional teachers from the New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE), I used discrete-time survival analysis modeling, specifically, the Cox Proportional Hazards (PH) model, to analyze the quit and retention patterns of cohorts of teachers from traditional and nontraditional sources over a six-year period. I found similar retention patterns between the two groups with notable peculiar patterns for the nontraditional group. The data suggests that entry routes into K-12 public school teaching, the year of entry into teaching, individual age, sex, ethnicity, subject taught, and school level can be important predictors of retention.

In this study, bibliometric analysis using VOSviewer and Publish or Perish was employed to identify dominant trends in the analysis of community behaviors related to food waste. The analysis results indicate an increasing interest among researchers in understanding and addressing the social, cultural, and psychological factors influencing food waste behaviors within communities. There has been a paradigm shift in research emphasis from individual factors towards a more comprehensive understanding of the social and cultural contexts that affect food waste behaviors. This research focuses more on developing effective and sustainable food waste reduction strategies at the community level through promoting supportive policies, public education, social campaigns, and participatory approaches. In conclusion, this study contributes significantly to understanding the dominant trends in community behavior analysis related to food waste. The findings provide valuable insights for researchers and practitioners in further research development and assist in formulating policies and strategies for more effective community-level interventions against food waste, with a focus on the social and cultural factors influencing food waste behaviors.

ABA has been described as a precise psychological approach to the study of behavior (Bailey & Burch, 2002), involving well-defined principles that can be used in the analysis and modification of individual behavior (Miltenberger, 1997). Special education, on the contrary, has been characterized as “a customized instructional program designed to meet the unique needs of the individual learner” (Gargiulo, 2009, p. 9). Certainly the two disciplines have much in common; indeed, ABA specifically addresses issues at the focal point of IDEA. For instance, ABA's stance on the right to effective behavioral treatment (Van Houten et al., 1988) is similar to special education regulations regarding the right to an appropriate public education and the right to be educated in the least restrictive environment.

ABSTRACTApplied behavior analysis (ABA) is a fairly young and growing discipline in Israel. Similar to countries in Europe and in the United States, ABA is yet to be formally recognized as a profession in Israel. Infusion of behavior analysis (BA) specialists into the public education system has been occurring gradually over the past two decades, yet there is no literature that documents these processes and the quality of ABA services provided in Israeli schools. This article brings forward one leading example of municipal efforts in a city in central Israel to integrate BA specialists and ABA services into school settings, given the unregulated status of the discipline. Three models of integration are presented. As part of a growing service in this municipal city, this article focuses on examining the FBA processes conducted by the BA specialists. Preliminary data on these processes are presented. Challenges of FBA in Israeli public schools are reviewed and discussed. This article concludes with thoughts and lessons in global context that may be relevant to other countries sharing comparable ABA status and experiencing similar challenges assimilating BA specialists into public organizations.

The prevalence of autism has been steadily rising over the previous decades. The diverse ways in which the disorder manifests in students and the free and appropriate public education (FAPE) mandate of the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) requires that a student’s individualized education program (IEP) team tailor interventions to meet the unique educational needs of that student. Deciding on the most appropriate evidence-based intervention programs for students with autism can be complex. In fact, a frequent source of litigation is when families and school personnel disagree on the particular programming to be provided to students with autism. Often this litigation involves disagreement over the extent to which services should be based on the principles of applied behavior analysis (ABA). The purpose of this article is to review select case law to analyze how courts have ruled on whether schools must provide ABA services to meet FAPE requirement when families request those services, and to extrapolate implications for practice, including guidance to families and school personnel on how to work collaboratively to resolve conflicts surrounding ABA services.

With funding from the National Cancer Institute, a public health education program was developed with the primary objective of increasing the proportion of black women in Forsyth County, North Carolina, who receive Pap smears on a regular basis. This paper reports on the development and implementation of the direct education component of the program. The content of the workshop was based on community analysis of current knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors in the target population, and a review of relevant literature on cervical cancer and the Pap smear. Methods for presentation of the content were refined through three pilot tests. Audiovisual materials were also developed to illustrate key points. The direct education component of the program was designed to function as a short workshop and includes an overview of healthy lifestyles, coverage of the importance of early detection of cancer, a description and discussion of the pelvic exam and the Pap smear, and a discussion of common barriers to obtaining Pap smears on a regular basis. Evaluation of the workshop emphasizes process measures, including a questionnaire to collect demographic information and impressions of the presentation. Interim results of the evaluation are discussed.

The collection of tax revenues is essential for a government to ensure its funding. From the structure of national budget 2011, it can be seem that tax revenues represent 79% of all government revenue. Now tax can play important role in all aspect government like political and economic perspective. Tax revenue from Aceh in 2011 contribute .....% (Rp....) for national tax revenue. It seems too small number of contributing for national tax revenues. Aceh Province was the site of the December 2004 tsunami, which killed an estimated 167,000 people. It was also the site of a 30-year civil war between the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM in Indonesian) and the Indonesian government, which ended with the signing of a peace agreement in August 2005. After the Aceh Recovery Framework (ARF) was announced by the Governor of Aceh in 2007 as a turning point in strategic planning and coordination around the broader spectrum of transitional issues that must be more fully understood and managed as a whole, Aceh became a province that be growth normally and would be a sustainable place for improvement land. Those situations affect to the economic growth in Aceh from 2008 until 2011. The ARF is at once the Governor’s mission and vision translated into a transitional roadmap from 2008 to 2011; a transparent and shared planning and monitoring mechanism; and a coordination structure for partners and stakeholders that enriches government policy and planning with the acquired wisdom, lessons learned and targeted assistance of those helping Aceh to fully recover and flourish. All situation change can not effect more significant in tax revenue. Event the tax compliance in Aceh. We knew that Indonesia adopts the self-assessment method for individuals to calculate, settle, and report income tax. So in Aceh this could be treating like another province that applied tax regulation exchange since 2008. In this case, it’s not easy to measure tax compliance in Aceh, because the applied of taxation still a new thing that applied after Tsunami and civil war Free Aceh Movement. As we know that noneconomic factors are a dominant factors affected in tax compliance in Aceh. The question is how Directorate General Tax to measure tax compliance and find out the solution to increase tax revenue and to reduce tax evasion.Tax compliance had involved many economic factors such as: the level of actual income, tax rate,tax benefits,tax audit, audit probabilities, fines and penalties and there are many noneconomic factors to affect the level of tax compliance. Many researches have been done to include these noneconomic factors to explain tax compliance behavior under the framework of economic analysis ( for example; Alm, Jackson, and McKee (1993), Alm, Sanchez, and DeJuan (1995), Park and Hyun (2003)). These noneconomic factors include the willingness to pay for public provision, pubic education, tax morale, tax information, and etc. As there are some limitations to include all noneconomic factors for the analysis of tax compliance behavior, most studies pay attention to just one or several factors for rigorous analysis. Even though we understand that noneconomic factors are the important determinants for the level of tax compliance, it is hard to compare these noneconomic factors between Korea and Japan, due to limited information. We just focus on one noneconomic factor to partly explain the difference of the levels of tax compliance between them, which is the policy of tax information disclosure. Directorate General Tax still just had examined any factor that affected to the tax compliance in all over the the province in Indonesia. But in Aceh, there are differences aspect that became factors dominant which found in many cases tax audit and tax report. This research had the aim to analyze the factors that affected to the individual tax compliance in Aceh province from 2005 until 2011.

Introduction In 1957, Skinner expanded the contention that individuals act on the environment and included the notion that individuals act in two distinct ways: namely on the environment and upon others. It is the action of individuals on others he considered under the umbrella of verbal behavior (1). In his 1957 analysis, Skinner provided a framework for understanding verbal behavior. According to Skinner, one understands verbal behavior when we predict the occurrence of specific instances and produce or control such behavior by altering the conditions under which it occurs (pg. 3). It is this prediction and control of verbal behavior that will allow us to not only understand communication disorders but also inform the way in which treatments are developed and implemented to overcome such deficits. Speech and language disorders (i.e., disorder related to verbal behavior) refer to problems in communication and related areas and are among the most common disabilities in the United States (US) (Van Dyke & Holte, 2003). Speech disorders are characterized as an impairment of the articulation of fluency, speech sounds, and/or voice; whereas language disorders are characterized as an impairment in comprehension and/or use of spoken, written, or other symbol systems involving either the form, content, or function (American Speech and Hearing Association, 1993). According to the U. S. Department of Education (2004) of the six million plus students served in the public schools' special education programs in 2002, over a million (21.6%) received services for speech and language disorders. However, this is likely to represent an underestimation of actual prevalence of speech and language disorders given that it does not include children who have speech and language delays secondary to other conditions or children who have not started formal education. Moreover, according to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), one of the most concerning disorders faced by parents of children in America is Autism Spectrum Disorder, which is characterized by a significant impairment in social interactions and communication (Strock, 2004). These delays not only represent an important area of human development (i.e., ability to communicate), but research has also documented that children with speech and language delays demonstrate persistent impairments in developmental and functional skills in school not limited to language (Fox, Dodd, & Howard, 2002). In addition, children with speech and language delays have also been shown to experience long-term problems affecting learning, school achievement, and behavior (Laing et al., 2002; Chaimay, Thinkhamrop, & Thinkhamrop, 2006). In fact, problem behaviors are more prevalent among children with language delays than typically developing children (Willinger et al., 2003). Given the prevalence of speech and language delays as well as the comorbid issues related to academic and behavioral achievement, it is not surprising that communication (i.e., verbal behavior) in and of itself is a pressing area in need of evaluation. More specially, a comprehensive analysis of how we can predict and control verbal behavior related to speech and language delays is warranted. Skinner (1957) provided a theoretical analysis of verbal behavior wherein a number of different functional relations were described in terms of their controlling antecedent and consequent events (e.g., tacts, mands, intraverbals, autolitics, echoic, and textual) in an attempt to provide a framework for the predication and control of said behavior. Much research has been subsequently conducted to elucidate these relations. Thus, the intent of this article is to expand upon Skinner's analysis by synthesizing the current research and to provide a detailed analysis regarding the functional relations related to one specific form of verbal behavior, the mand. More specifically, to elucidate the variables related to teaching individuals to mand. …

The academic quality of public school teachers: an analysis of entry and exit behavior

IntroductionSelf-medication was remarkably popular during the COVID-19 pandemic. In older populations, the risk of self-medication is higher. Pharmacists are well positioned to provide public health education and disease prevention. This study aims to explore the self-medication patterns and intention to seek pharmacist guidance among older adults in Macao.MethodsA face-to-face cross-sectional survey was subsequently performed in March-April 2023 among older adults in Macao. The questionnaire was designed based on the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) framework. Multiple logistic regression was used to analyze predictors of self-medication behavior and multiple linear regression analysis to determine whether the TPB construct was the predictor of older adults’ intention to seek guidance from pharmacists.ResultsA total of 412 participants completed the questionnaire. The self-medication rate among older adults in Macao was 64.2%. The most commonly used types of medications were over-the-counter and traditional Chinese medicine, mainly from government anti-pandemic packages. The majority of individuals engaged in self-medication to treat COVID-19 symptoms or prevent COVID-19 infection. The prevalent reasons for self-medication were the perceived non-seriousness of the illness. 85 years old or older and university degree were significantly associated with self-medication behavior. Older adults had moderate intention to seek pharmacist guidance on medication use. The average scores (standard deviation) were 3.43 (1.10) for Attitude, 2.69 (0.99) for Subjective Norm, 3.56 (1.04) for Perceived Behavioral Control, and 3.07 (1.43) for Intention. Attitude, Subjective Norm, and Perceived Behavioral Control were all strong predictors of intention, which explained 53% of the variance in intention. In demographic factors, age was identified as a significant predictor of intentions.ConclusionsSelf-medication was widely practiced in Macao during the COVID-19 pandemic. To better control the risks associated with self-medication, the role of pharmacists is paramount. Enhancing the recognition and trust of pharmacists within society, modifying pharmacy management models, and strengthening pharmacists’ self-perception of their profession are all pivotal directions areas to further enhance their role.

Today as many as 1.5 million American children, most of them school-aged, are believed to have some form of autism, with this number swelling daily. There is no known cure for autism. Innovative nontraditional curricular approaches like Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) have been identified as the most effective evidence-based interventions for students with autism. Despite the rising number of children with ASD, there is a lack of effective ABA-based ASD programs in public education.

Level of education is understood as one of the relevant factors that indicate the development of a society. In Brazil, recent results have pointed out the success of the public education system of the city of Sobral in the state of Ceara, which, in 2017, had the best performance in the country. Given that, it seems relevant to investigate such educational strategies. I analyzed the public education system of Sobral using metacontingency and cultural design as units of analysis. I consulted the city’s educational legislation that was created between January 2001 and May 2020, totaling 12 laws. As a result, I found two metacontingencies, one related to the reformulation of the educational reality of the city and the other regarding the current public education system. In this respect, the actions of several individuals and entities (interlocking contingencies) resulted in the functioning of the public network and the consequent performance of the students (aggregate products), as shown by periodical teaching evaluations (cultural consequence). Additionally, I identified the rearrangement of environmental conditions (both antecedent and subsequent) for the promotion of the cultural practices responsible for the city’s public education system and the consequent long-term results obtained in the educational field. Such deliberate interventions consisted of adequate cultural design. I hope that the conducted analysis and discussions may encourage professionals in public policy to investigate and design effective educational strategies, which in turn may impact the quality of life and the development of society.