Effects of Class-Wide Function-Related Intervention Teams on Classroom Disruptive Behavior

This presentation will describe components of the Class-wide Function-related Intervention Teams (CW-FIT) Program designed for serving elementary students at risk for Emotional and Behavioral Disorders in general education classrooms. Results include improved student on-task behavior, decreased disruptive behaviors, and improved teacher ratings of students' social skills and academic competence. The need to improve school-based treatment for youth with or at-risk for emotional and behavioral problems has been widely noted. Although between 10-20% of school-age children experience emotional and behavioral problems, most never receive interventions. Students formally identified with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders (EBD) constitute less than 1% of the school-age population, though it is clear that many more are in need of services. Such students are often not identified until they have exhibited serious problems over multiple school years. Early, evidence-based interventions are needed to prevent students at-risk for EBD from experiencing the social skill deficits, problem behaviors, and academic difficulties typical of students with EBD. Class-wide Function-related Intervention Teams (CW-FIT; Wills et al., 2010) is a multi-tiered classroom management program that incorporates social skill instruction, interdependent group contingencies, praise, and self-management to improve classroom management and student behavior during typical academic instruction. In Tier 1, teachers choose three specific social skills to directly teach to the students during 10 min lessons via repetition, discussions, and role plays. Each skill includes specific steps with visual cues posted in a visible location in the classroom. Teachers can choose additional social skills to teach as needed. After social skills are taught, teachers and students briefly review them each day before beginning the academic lesson in which CW-FIT is used. The teacher divides the class into teams of two to six students each, based on classroom conditions and convenience. Student teams work together by encouraging each other to display appropriate behavior. At the conclusion of the CW-FIT session, teams that met the predetermined point goal receive an immediate reward. Two Randomized Trials have been completed providing evidence of the CW-FIT as an effective classroom management intervention across multiple states and diverse classrooms. Statistically, significant improvements have been shown for CW-FIT compared to the "business as usual group". Teacher frequency of praise statements increased during intervention. For targeted students nominated as being at risk for EBD (n= 350+ across two trials), on-task behavior increased during the CW-FIT intervention, and disruptive behaviors decreased during CW-FIT (Kamps et al., 2011).