UC Riverside

Student problem behavior impacts instruction, learning, and teacher stress; furthermore, teachers are often underprepared to manage student behavior effectively (Clunies-Ross et al., 2008; Flower et al., 2017). However, behavior interventions in schools are often not based on the function of behavior (Blood & Neel, 2007; Cook et al., 2017). The Technical Adequacy Tool for Evaluation (TATE; Iovannone & Romer, 2017) is one rating tool designed to help assess the quality of Behavior Intervention Plans (BIPs), which may help school practitioners measure and improve the quality of behavior interventions for students. The present study evaluated the relationship between BIP quality measured by the TATE and individual behavior outcomes as well as parent ratings of adaptive and problem behaviors. A strong positive correlation coefficient was observed between BIP scores on the TATE and BIP-QE II (Browning-Wright et al., 2013) rating tool. A Poisson regression was used to evaluate whether TATE items 12 through 15 were predictive of frequency of problem behavior after intervention; the TATE item rating presence of a strategy to provide functionally equivalent reinforcement to a replacement behavior was predictive of change in frequency of problem behavior. None of the TATE items 12 through 15 were a significant predictor of change in adaptive behavior (i.e., ABAS3 scores) or behavior problems (i.e., PDDBI scores). Implications for future research as well as importance of functionally-equivalent reinforcers for appropriate behaviors are discussed.