The status and impact of prereferral intervention: “We need a better way to determine success”
✍ Scribed by Michael W. Bahr
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1994
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 691 KB
- Volume
- 31
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0033-3085
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
This study assessed the current status of preferral practices in the state of Michigan. Directors of special education for intermediate school districts (N= 49) responded to a survey addressing issues such as whether prereferral intervention was required, the suspected handicaps for which it is used, the nature of the interventions, and who designs, implements, and evaluates interventions. Respondents also commented on the success of prereferral practices. Results indicated that (a) most districts either require or recommend prereferral practices, (b) interventions are used predominantly with students suspected of mild handicaps, and (c) academic and behavior management strategies are equally prevalent intervention strategies. The respondents' judgment of intermittent success for prereferral interventions and the prominence of school psychologists as evaluators of interventions prompt discussion of how psychologists can assist in improving prereferral practices.
Interest in prereferral intervention has increased dramatically in recent years. Although school-based interventions, particularly within a consultation framework, are hardly considered new educational phenomena (Graden, 1989), the systematic development of prereferral intervention, which is designed to reduce referrals for special education and to increase the accuracy of placement rates for children who are referred, is novel (Ysseldyke, Pianta, Christenson, Wang, & Algozzine, 1983). More important, prereferral intervention exemplifies an educational practice that addresses the needs of at-risk learners in general education, enhances the skills of school professionals through collaborative problem solving, and embodies the spirit of least restrictive environment.
From a research perspective, the relative infancy of prereferral intervention (Graden, Casey. & Christenson, 1985) has precluded the establishment of an extensive knowledge base. To date, only a few empirical studies (Bahr,