A functional analysis of the comprehensive application of behavior analysis to schooling.
A two-year, wall-to-wall ABA schooling package more than tripled student learning trials and mastered objectives, with gains lasting three years.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Dykens et al. (1991) rolled out a full-scale ABA school program for 38 students with multiple disabilities. The package had three parts: staff learned through PSI modules, supervisors used OBM tactics, and teachers logged every trial each day.
The team tracked kids for two full school years with a multiple-baseline design. They counted trials taught, correct answers, and objectives mastered each week.
What they found
Kids jumped from about 40 trials per day to over 200. Correct responses doubled and new skills mastered tripled. Gains held steady into a third year with no extra training.
Effect sizes were large enough to matter in real classrooms, not just on paper.
How this fits with other research
Falligant et al. (2025) and LaBrot et al. (2021) show the staff-training part still works today. Falligant added brief in-situ feedback to group BST for preschool staff. LaBrot used video models and tactile prompts with grad students. Both kept the core idea—train, watch, give feedback—but made it faster and cheaper.
Hugh-Pennie et al. (2022) updates the same whole-school model for cultural fairness. Where Dykens et al. (1991) simply deployed ABA tactics, Hugh-Pennie maps how to embed culture first. The 1991 package is the engine; the 2022 paper adds the equity tune-up.
Pilgrim et al. (2000) and Murphy et al. (2014) zoom in on single tactics—picture schedules and salient feedback—inside special-ed rooms. They mirror the 1991 trial-by-trial mindset but test one tool at a time. The 1991 study shows what happens when you stack all those tools into one coherent system.
Why it matters
If you run a classroom or supervise RBTs, this paper is a blueprint. Combine staff PSI, daily performance charts, and OBM supervision. Start small—maybe one subject or one period—and graph trials plus corrects every day. The data will tell you when to add more content or staff training. Your students get more learning opportunities and you get a system that sustains itself past the first year.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
This study tested the effects of a comprehensive application of behavior analysis to schooling on the total trials taught, correct student trials, and objectives achieved in a small school. The package was implemented in a school for children with multiple disabilities and included a staff training program based on a personalized system of instruction, organizational behavior management procedures for supervisors, regular assessment of teacher behaviors, and teacher assessment of all instructional trials received by the 38 children to a scripted curriculum. The design was a multiple baseline across four groups of teachers and included baseline, training, and full treatment phases over a 2-year period. The results showed educationally significant increases in trials taught, correct trials, and student objectives achieved as a function of the introduction of the package. A 3rd year of follow-up data and an analysis of the turnover of staff showed that the effects of the package were maintained and that the package had social validity.
Journal of applied behavior analysis, 1991 · doi:10.1901/jaba.1991.24-107