Effect of Training a School-Based Problem-Solving Team to Analyze Academic Problems with a Skill-By-Treatment Interaction Framework

In the current study a school-based problem-solving team (SB PST) was trained to use the skill-by-treatment interaction (STI) framework to analyze academic difficulties of students. The effects were evaluated with three students in a multiple baseline across participants experimental design. The three participants were in second and third grade and received a small-group intervention that focused on phonics. One student did not generalize what was learned during intervention and was provided more practice reading the newly learned graphemes in connected text, one was not initially learning the skills and needed more instruction in phonemic awareness, and one needed additional modeling when learning the letter and letter-combination sounds. All three modifications increased intervention dosage in minutes per intervention session. There was a clear and strong effect after modifying the intervention with the STI analyses and all three students made progress at a level that matched criteria for growth. The STI framework seemed to be a viable approach to analyze problems within SB PSTs.