Teacher-Identified Students with and without Academic and Behavioral Concerns: Characteristics and Responsiveness.

Schools are expected to serve a wide range of students who enter the schoolhouse doors with vastly differing academic, social, and behavioral skills. Students who are competent in these different domains are likely to experience positive outcomes with teachers and peers (Walker, Irvin, Noell, & Singer, 1992). In contrast, students whose performances differ substantially from those with typical skill levels may be at risk for academic and social difficulties (Lane & Menzies, 2003). For example, students who lack social skills due either to acquisition deficits (skills absent from their behavioral repertoires) or performance deficits (skills that are a part of students' repertoires, but are not manifested due to issues of motivation or opportunity; Gresham, 2002) or who have interfering problem behaviors (Elliott & Gresham, 1991) such as antisocial behavior patterns may struggle to negotiate relationships with peers and adults (Walker, Ramsey, & Gresham, 2004). If students do not navigate these relationships successfully, they may experience poor academic outcomes, teacher rejection, social rejection from peers, and low levels of social engagement. Further, students with antisocial behaviors may also be at risk for a host of negative outcomes beyond the school setting such as developing conduct and antisocial personality disorders that necessitate mental health services (Gresham, Lane, & Lambros, 2000).Similarly, students with poor academic competencies may also experience challenges that broaden both over time and beyond the school setting. For example, consider a student's reading competence. If an eightyear-old student is struggling to decode, it may be difficult for the student to develop more complex skills such as fluency and comprehending text. Further, if reading is laborious, it is unlikely that the student will spend recreational time engaged in reading. Thus, reading problems are likely to broaden over time, making poor readers increasingly different from strong readers (O'Shaughnessy, Lane, Gresham, & Beebe-Frankenberger, 2003; Stanovich, 1986). This phenomenon of "rich" readers getting "richer" and "poor" reader getting "poorer" is referred to as the Matthew Effect (Stanovich, 1986, 1988).Because aggressive behavior and reading difficulties tend to become increasingly stable and resistant to intervention efforts over time, it is essential that schools identify proactive methods for identifying and serving students with learning and behavior concerns as early as possible (Good, Simmons, & Smith, 1998; Kazdin, 1993). Although screening procedures have been designed to identify students who might need additional supports to succeed in schools (e.g., Early Screening Project [ESP], Walker, Severson, & Feil, 1995; Systematic Screening for Behavior Disorders [SSBD], Walker & Severson, 1992; and Student Risk Screening Scale [SRSS], Drummond, 1994), the first step in most screenings or referral processes (e.g., prereferral intervention process) is teacher nomination. Namely, for a nomination or referral to occur, the teacher must recognize the presence or absence of given behaviors (Lane, 2003). If the teacher does not notice a concern, additional supports seldom follow.Fortunately, research suggests that teachers are highly accurate "tests," meaning they are able to differentiate students into specific, operationally defined groups using research criteria of low achievement, low intelligence, learning disabled, and at risk statuses (Gresham et al., 2000). In addition, teachers appear to accurately identify which referred youngsters will need special education support services (Algozzine, Christenson, & Ysseldyke, 1981; Gresham, MacMillan, & Bocian, 1997). More recently, an investigation examining the accuracy and sensitivity of teacher nominations prior to a student being referred for either prereferral intervention support or special education eligibility consideration also confirmed the accuracy of teachers as tests even earlier in the educational process. …