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While systematic documentation of the content of school psychologists' job descriptions is just beginning, a critical question is how this information might be useful in attempting to improve job recruitment efforts. It is important to understand that job descriptions reflect the formal/written expectations that school districts have for their school psychologists. This study found that specific aspects of a job (i.e., type of work) were particularly important in increasing the likelihood that an applicant would pursue or accept a position. As a single predictor, type of work was more important than pay, compensation, or advancement. Given this finding, it would be reasonable to expect that the types of work that school psychologists will be expected to engage in might be important to school psychologists looking for employment. Thus, school districts looking to attract applicants to a vacant position might do well to ensure that job descriptions detailing the work to be conducted include responsibilities that are consistent with national practice and training standards, and are desirable to applicants.

The need to investigate strategies promoting the generalization of reading skills is well documented. The current study builds upon previous literature by examining the impact of a common stimulus procedure on accuracy of reading generalization words in isolation. The common stimulus procedure used in this study intended to enhance the salience of the orthographic and phonemic features between taught and generalization words by highlighting the common rime structure in each word with a specific color. Taught and generalization words representing four word families were used (e.g., end, et, ell, & en). Using a multiple-baseline design across three participants with a replication of procedures for a fourth student, the impact of the common stimulus on accuracy of reading generalization words was examined. Results demonstrated increased accuracy and stability of responding when common stimulus procedures were implemented.

Response to intervention (RTI) has been discussed as a new model of assessment. Although the basic process by which RTI works has received frequent attention in the literature, the available research leaves several important questions unanswered (Kavale et al. in Learn Disabil Q 28(1): 2-16, 2005). One concept within RTI that has received little empirical consideration is intervention intensity. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of the application of increased intervention frequency on the mathematics performance of students and to evaluate this increased frequency as a systematic means of increasing and quantifying intervention strength. Results indicate that although all students were responsive to the intervention, some participants were sensitive only to more frequent application of the treatment or at more intense levels of treatment. Through this methodology a means of quantifying treatment intensity was also identified and implications for future research are discussed.

As a result of the new revision of IDEA (2004), models of early intervention and response-to-intervention (RTI) have received a great deal of attention in the literature. Although various tiered models have been described in detail, one aspect of RTI that has received little empirical attention is the need to ensure integrity of intervention as part of a team decision making process. One method that has good support for improving treatment integrity is performance feedback (PFB); however, the utilization of PFB within a team context has received very little attention in the literature. Experiment 1 evaluated the effect of PFB delivered within the context of an RTI team on treatment integrity after fidelity had fallen to unacceptable levels. Experiment 2 evaluated the effects of PFB on the maintenance of treatment integrity prior to integrity fall off. Results indicate that PFB can be used as an efficient means of improving or maintaining treatment integrity when applied within a team model. (Contains 2 tables and 2 figures.)

Since the reauthorization of the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (2004), the use of Response to Intervention (RTI) in the identification of students suspected of having learning disabilities has been legitimized. Several professional organizations, including the International Reading Association (IRA), have recognized the importance of RTI. Reading teachers need to understand RTI because it has implications for their work with struggling readers. The purpose of this article is to provide readers with an overview of the RTI process, including the background and rationale, the law, and one process for implementing RTI. A case study illustrates this procedure and both the strengths of and unanswered questions about RTI are discussed. (Contains 3 tables and 4 figures.)

Programming common stimuli is a strategy for generalizing behavior across settings (Stokes & Baer, 1977). The present study programmed common stimuli (i.e., goal statement and use of a pictorial icon) to generalize the effects of a reinforcement-based intervention for students identified as either developmentally delayed or emotionally disturbed. Results supported the effectiveness of the strategy in producing generalized responding from training to the generalization setting. The importance of methodological rigor in future research exploring generalization and the need to compare generalization strategies are discussed. (Contains 1 figure.)