Addressing the feasibility of the teacher performance rate and accuracy scale as a treatment integrity tool
A single 30-minute BST package reliably gets brand-new preschool aides to deliver accurate and fluent three-term contingency trials.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Three brand-new teaching assistants in a kindergarten readiness program got a short BST package.
The package had instructions, a model video, practice with feedback, and a quick quiz.
Researchers used the TPRA scale to score how fast and correct each TA ran three-term contingency trials.
What they found
After BST, all three TAs hit 100 % accuracy and doubled their trial rate.
Skills stayed high two weeks later with no extra coaching.
The TPRA scale proved easy for supervisors to use in real classrooms.
How this fits with other research
Slane et al. (2021) reviewed 20 studies and found BST always boosts teacher fidelity.
Hranchuk et al. (2021) adds one more clear win to that pile, this time with preschool TAs.
Shawler et al. (2021) used the same BST steps but delivered them over Zoom to high-school teachers.
Both studies hit 100 % fidelity, showing the method works in person or online.
Neely et al. (2022) pushed it further by training BCBAs themselves with BST.
Again, four short sessions got 100 % fidelity, proving the package scales up the ladder.
Eid et al. (2017) trained mothers at home with BST to run DTT.
Same pattern: brief package, perfect fidelity, kids made gains.
The 2021 preschool study lines up with all of these, forming a tight line of replications across ages, roles, and settings.
Why it matters
If you supervise classroom staff, you can copy this exact package.
One 30-minute session with a short video, role-play, and feedback sheet is enough.
Use the TPRA scale to score live or from video; it takes seconds per trial.
Expect new aides to reach mastery fast and keep the skill without booster sessions.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
AbstractWe implemented a delayed multiple probe across participants design to analyze the effects of behavioral skills training (BST) on teaching assistants' effective delivery of instruction as measured through their performance on the Teacher Performance Rate and Accuracy (TPRA) scale. Effective instruction is defined as instruction that is both accurate and fluent. Three adult teaching assistants, newly hired at a kindergarten readiness program that employed the principles of applied behavior analysis, were selected to participate. The participants had no previous experience implementing three‐term contingency trials. Dependent variables included two components of the TPRA scale measured pre‐ and post‐intervention: (1) percent of correctly delivered trials and (2) rate of trial delivery. The results indicated that BST increased the accurate delivery of correct three‐term contingency trials by teaching assistants as measured through TPRA scale observations. The intervention also successfully increased the teaching assistants' rate of trials delivered per minute.
Behavioral Interventions, 2021 · doi:10.1002/bin.1774