Expanding the impact of behavioral staff management: a large-scale, long-term application in schools serving severely handicapped students.
A one-hour training plus weekly principal notes kept students with severe ID engaged for two years across 21 classrooms.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team gave 21 classrooms a light-touch package. First came a one-hour in-service. Then principals handed aides quick prompts and feedback notes.
Students had severe intellectual disabilities. The goal was more time doing useful tasks like sorting or signing.
What they found
Student engagement rose in every room. Gains stayed for two full school years.
No extra money or experts were needed—just the boss handing out notes.
How this fits with other research
Slane et al. (2021) later pooled 20 similar studies. They show the same pattern: brief BST plus feedback keeps fidelity high.
Johnson et al. (1994) moved the idea to adult homes. A weekly checklist still worked, proving the package travels.
Goings et al. (2019) swapped the target. Instead of student engagement they aimed for tidy rooms. Supervisory feedback again won, so the method is flexible, not tied to one goal.
Why it matters
You can copy this tomorrow. Pick one staff skill. Give a short demo. Then drop simple feedback in the mail or in person. Do it weekly. Student engagement—or any other target—should climb and stay there for years. No extra budget needed.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Experimental evaluations of behavioral staff management procedures usually have been limited to relatively small-scale demonstration studies. We evaluated a large-scale, long-term application of a staff management program designed to improve the functional utility of educational services for severely handicapped persons. The intervention, involving a brief in-service program followed by supervisory prompts and feedback, was implemented by three principals in four schools involving 21 classrooms. Implementation of the management procedures was consistently accompanied by increases in student involvement in functional educational tasks in each classroom. Further, the improved services continued throughout a 2-year follow-up period. Staff responses to a questionnaire indicated a high degree of staff acceptance of the management program. Results are discussed in terms of expanding the use of behavioral supervisory procedures from experimental demonstrations to actual adoption by existing human service agencies.
Journal of applied behavior analysis, 1987 · doi:10.1901/jaba.1987.20-139