John Begeny

North Carolina State University | NCSU · Department of Psychology

Mixed methods (MM) designs have gained more recognition in psychology in recent years due to the complementary strengths of integrating both quantitative and qualitative approaches. The central elements of a MM design can be particularly useful in the field of school psychology, where both generalizations of group characteristics and exploration of...

Intervention fidelity is crucial in ensuring efficient and quality support for students in need. Some coaching strategies have evidenced positive impacts on intervention fidelity and virtual coaching has been emerging in recent years, especially during the COVID‐19 pandemic. However, current literature is still limited in examining the effects of v...

Implementation support through coaching-such as with embedded fidelity assessment, performance feedback, modeling, and alliance building-has been empirically supported as a way to increase and sustain interventionists' fidelity levels. However, education research consistently shows that practitioners struggle to monitor and improve interventionists...

Introduction Across multiples languages, research demonstrates the important relationship between reading fluency and comprehension. Put simply, a fluent reader has greater attention and memory resources to use higher-order functions in reading, resulting in better comprehension of text. Some reading fluency interventions have shown positive result...

Text reading fluency is an important reading goal for all students. Students with a known reading disability often need systematic and evidence-based instructional supports to reach grade-level benchmarks in fluency. A recent focus on high-impact tutoring practices has given attention to the virtual or remote implementation of programs. This articl...

Background Research during 2020 has been rapidly attending to the impact of COVID-19 on various dimensions of wellbeing (e.g., physical, psychological, lifestyle and routines) on adults and children around the world. However, less attention has focused on the psychoeducational impact on children and their families. To our knowledge, no currently av...

Research exploring behavioral ratings of executive functioning (EF) for children and adolescents with dyslexia is scarce, which limits researchers, clinicians, educators, and parents from understanding and best supporting these students at home and/or school. Using the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function, Second Edition (BRIEF-2) rating...

More than half of students in the USA perform below a proficient level in math. Although evidence suggests that intervention in elementary school is critical to supporting struggling learners, and there are several research‐supported instructional practices to support students with math difficulties, the existing research is limited with regard to...

There are many reasons to consider behavior analysis an international field. For example, the primary membership organization for the field has affiliated chapters in 33 countries, and individuals from 100 countries around the world are certified by the Behavior Analyst Certification Board. However, some have questioned the extent to which scholars...

Overall mathematics proficiency of fourth graders in the U.S. continues to be poor and students falling at or below the 25th percentile display declining performance (NCES, 2017), which suggests the need for schools to provide supplemental intervention supports as soon as skill gaps are observed. Unfortunately, there is a paucity of small group int...

One proposed way to support internationalization is to enhance internationally representative and culturally informed scholarship within a respective discipline, and academic journals are a primary source of scholarship for most disciplines. Therefore, to build upon efforts to assess and promote internationally representative scholarship, it is nec...

Writing is a critical skill to develop, but many students are not proficient writers. Limited research exists about writing interventions, particularly interventions that are resource-efficient (e.g., provided by non-educators and in a small-group format) and can be used during early elementary school. This study evaluated an evidence-based writing...

To assess and promote internationally representative scholarship, several past studies have examined the geographic affiliation of journals’ editorial board members and authors. The present study is the first known to examine this with journals devoted to school and educational psychology. After systematically identifying all peer-reviewed scholarl...

Although research suggests that certain cognitive functions predict the likelihood of intervention response for students who receive Tier 2 instruction through a response to intervention framework, researchers know less about cognitive predictors of response to Tier 3 instruction. This study measured 2nd and 3rd graders’ performance on 7 cognitive...

Response to intervention (RTI) is an evidence-based approach to educational service delivery that is being increasingly adopted by schools across the country. To effectively implement RTI models, teachers require specialized training. Little is currently known, however, about the extent to which this training is being provided at the preservice lev...

Traditional professional development for teachers seldom results in program implementation with high fidelity or improved student outcomes. In this study, we evaluated the effects of performance feedback on the implementation of a class-wide, behavioral level system in four self-contained, secondary classrooms for students identified with emotional...

Although the discipline of school and educational psychology is arguably international (e.g., relevant research and practice is evident in more than 80 countries), there has been limited research examining the international scholarship published in school and educational psychology journals. Such an assessment is important because it provides one i...

Scholarship in school psychology has continued to document the need and importance of contextually relevant intervention and prevention research, but this type of research remains relatively scarce. Also problematic, this type of research is even more limited in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) compared to high-income countries. This situati...

Internationalization has been described as a moral, intellectual, and professional imperative for psychology and its subdisciplines. Numerous scholars within and outside of psychology have been discussing the meaning and importance of internationalization, but the descriptions, definitions, and goals described within the existing literature vary. F...

This paper serves as the introductory article for the special issue titled, Internationalization in School and Educational Psychology. The paper begins with a summary of the existing literature about internationalization and describes how there are both similarities and differences in the many proposed descriptions and definitions of internationali...

Although a few prior studies have explored the publication outlets of school and educational psychology scholars employed within the United States, past research has not yet examined the publication outlets of such scholars working outside of the United States. With the aim of addressing this gap in the literature and increasing empirical data rela...

As the final paper within this special issue on Internationalization in School and Educational Psychology, this paper documents broad perspectives about internationalization from multiple school and educational psychologists who have worked in various contexts (e.g., in different professional roles and geographic locations). Based upon three core q...

This randomized study evaluated two evidence-based reading interventions with 121 middle school students who presented with reading fluency deficits. One intervention was teacher-directed and utilized numerous evidence-based strategies; the other intervention, the Helping Early Literacy with Practice Strategies for Small Groups Program, provided a...

In the USA, students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) are among the most vulnerable to have reading difficulties, experience general academic failure, and drop out of school. Students with EBD who receive schooling in residential treatment centers are at even greater risk for academic difficulties. To date, very little research has exa...

Recently, researchers have argued that using quantitative effect sizes in single-case design (SCD) research may facilitate the identification evidence-based practices. Indices to quantify nonoverlap are among the most common methods for quantifying treatment effects in SCD research. Tau-U represents a family of effect size indices that were develop...

Past studies have examined the contents of journal articles in school psychology, and more recently there has been increased interest in examining the frequency and characteristics of experimental studies appearing in school psychology journals. However, no prior studies have examined the international representation of experimental and interventio...

Reading fluency is necessary for reading comprehension, but approximately 40% of U.S. fourth-grade students have inadequate reading fluency skills. Because small-group (SG) instruction is often used as a first line of intervention for struggling readers, SG instruction targeting deficiencies in text reading fluency ought to be part of every school'...

Effective intervention delivery requires ongoing assessment to determine whether students are learning at the desired rate. Intervention programs with embedded assessment procedures (i.e., assessment that occurs naturally during the process of delivering intervention) can potentially enhance instructional decisions. However, there is almost no psyc...

Growing from demands for accountability and research-based practice in the field of education, there is recent focus on developing standards for the implementation and analysis of single-case designs. Effect size methods for single-case designs provide a useful way to discuss treatment magnitude in the context of individual intervention. Although a...

The purpose of this study was to evaluate parents and teachers behavior rating measures of executive functions (EFs) in everyday activities in ADHD children, predominantly inattentive (ADHD-PI) and combined type (ADHD-CT), relative to their typically developing peers. Sixteen children with ADHD combined type and fourteen with ADHD predominantly ina...

Within the realm of school-based interventions, implementation integrity is important for practical, legal, and ethical purposes. Unfortunately, evidence suggests that proper monitoring of implementation integrity is often absent from both research and practice. School psychology practitioners and researchers have reported that a major barrier to m...

With an increasing percentage of schools moving toward approaches to data-based instructional problem-solving and early remediation of learning difficulties, the development and execution of intervention plans often warrants the pragmatic question: How intensive should an intervention be so that it is effective, while also feasible and time efficie...

Parent tutoring offers potential as a means for assisting the large percentage of students who need to improve their reading skills. The primary purpose of this study was to examine the impact of a reading fluency intervention program when used by parents in the home during the summer months. Specifically, this study evaluated the effects of the He...

A grade level of reading material is commonly estimated using one or more readability formulas, which purport to measure text difficulty based on specified text characteristics. However, there is limited direction for teachers and publishers regarding which readability formulas (if any) are appropriate indicators of actual text difficulty. Because...

Observing for, documenting, and improving implementation integrity are critical components of effective intervention services in schools. Without them, students may not receive effective intervention, and systems-level models of intervention service-delivery may never be properly evaluated or realize its potential. The purpose of this study was to...

The Helping Early Literacy with Practice Strategies (HELPS) Program was developed by integrating 8 evidence-based fluency-building instructional strategies into a structured program that can be feasibly implemented by educators. The HELPS Program has been shown in previous research to significantly improve elementary-aged students’ reading abilitie...

With limited educational resources and numerous other variables that complicate effective teaching, educators need to think prudently about how to allocate resources. In essence, teachers must allocate resources in ways that will best maximize student learning. However, minimal research has systematically evaluated whether increased instructional i...

The Helping Early Literacy with Practice Strategies (HELPS) Program was developed by integrating eight evidence-based fluency-building instructional strategies into a systematic program that can be feasibly implemented and accessed for free by all educators. This study examined the effects of HELPS when implemented by teachers with low-performing s...

This research was conducted to evaluate the technical properties of a set of early numeracy CBM tests that were designed to operationalize early numeric concepts. Data were collected over the course of a school year from 113 kindergarten and first-grade children using nine separate tests with three alternative forms. In addition, test–retest reliab...

Reading fluency is a critical yet commonly neglected component of early reading instruction. For the large percentage of English language learners (ELLs) who are struggling with or at risk for reading difficulties, there is insufficient research available to help educators implement time-efficient interventions with these students. Using an experim...

This study compared children’s Spanish reading performance across 2 reading intervention conditions: small group versus individual (teacher–student). Six second-grade Costa Rican students with low Spanish reading ability participated in the study. An alternating-treatments design was used to compare the relative effectiveness of the 2 interventions...

Teacher judgments about students' academic abilities are important for instructional decision making and potential special education entitlement decisions. However, the small number of studies evaluating teachers' judgments are limited methodologically (e.g., sample size, procedural sophistication) and have yet to answer important questions related...

Approximately 40% of U.S. fourth-grade students are nonfluent readers. In response to the need for fluency-based instructional programs for elementaryaged students, the Helping Early Literacy with Practice Strategies (HELPS) Program was developed by integrating eight evidence-based fluency-building instructional strategies into a systematic program...

Teacher judgments about students' academic abilities are important for several reasons, including their day-to-day instructional decision making. Not surprisingly, previous studies have investigated the accuracy of teachers' judgments about their students' reading abilities. Previous research, however, has not investigated teachers' judgments about...

School psychology exists in many countries around the world; however, it is far from ubiquitous. The extant literature offers limited empirical information addressing why school psychology may be present in some countries but not in others. The purpose of this study was to conduct a comparative investigation examining four sociocultural and sociopo...

Reading fluency is a critical component of effective reading instruction for students of early elementary age. However, national data suggest that 40% of U.S. fourth-grade students are nonfluent readers. Implementing evidence-based, time-efficient, and procedurally standardized instructional strategies may help address this problem. This study eval...

Although reading fluency is one of the five essential early-reading skills students must develop, many elementary-aged students in the United States do not read age-appropriate material fluently. As such, small-group interventions are practical and often more time efficient than individualized interventions aimed to address this problem. However, f...

Teacher perceptions about students' academic abilities are important for several reasons (e.g., instructional decision making, special education entitlement decisions). Not surprisingly, researchers have investigated the accuracy of teachers' decisions. Although some data reveal that teachers are relatively good judges of academic performance, othe...

Although the importance of providing positive early childhood learning experiences has been well-documented, recent findings suggest that many typically developing children do not successfully transition to kindergarten. A number of school transition initiatives have been recommended to address the potential difficulties these children may experien...

Since the 1970s, Italy has had a national policy of integrating nearly all students with disabilities into the general education classroom. As a result, many advocates of inclusion in the United States have identified Italy as an excellent example of how wide-range inclusion can be accomplished. However, some U.S. and Italian educators have express...

This study evaluated the effects of a fluency-based reading program with 15second and third grade students and 15 matched controls. Gains in oral reading fluency on untrained CBM probes were evaluated using a matched-pairs group-comparison design, whereas immediate and two-day retention gains in oral reading fluency on trained passages were evaluat...

The purpose of this study was to compare two oral reading fluency treatments (repeated readings and phrase drill error correction) which differ in the way they prompt student responding. Repeated readings (RR) and phrase drill (PD) error correction were alternated with a baseline and a reward condition within an alternating treatments design with a...

The effects of tutor- or computer-assisted word recognition were assessed in a sample of third grade children. At pre-test, students' reading accuracy and fluency were evaluated on a training word list, generalization word list, and reading passages. Students were then randomly assigned to one of three group conditions—control (students practiced w...

Although many behaviorally-based instructional practices have been shown empirically to promote student achievement, it is unknown to what extent teachers receive adequate training in these methods. This study surveyed master's-level elementary, secondary, and special education students about their coursework and applied training in 25 behavioral i...

The purpose of this work was to examine pediatricians' responses to behavioral health concerns raised in the context of rural primary care visits with particular focus on time spent. Research assistants directly observed 302 patient visits in 2 rural pediatric primary care offices. The length of the visit, concerns raised, and physicians' responses...

Teacher judgments have been identified as a primary source of information regarding student academic achievement. Research examining the accuracy of teachers' judgments in assessing students' academic abilities has shown relatively high accuracy. However, previous studies have relied primarily on norm-referenced measures to obtain estimates of stud...

Nearly 40% of America's fourth-grade students are below the basic level in reading. Creating opportunities for practice to build reading accuracy and speed (i.e., fluency) is an important link between word decoding and passage comprehension. The purpose of this study was to combine several empirically validated reading interventions into an instruc...

Reading fluency has been described as one of the essential ingredients for ensuring that students become successful readers. Unfortunately, a large number of elementary-aged students in this country do not fluently read age-appropriate material. Because of this, small-group interventions are practical and more time efficient than individualized int...

Learning to read is a critical factor for success in our society. Unfortunately, approximately one third of America's students cannot read at a basic level by the fourth grade. Although there are several important components involved in learning to read (e.g., learning the alphabetic principle and comprehension strategies), creating opportunities f...

In recent years, much has been written about the topics of functional assessment and functional analysis in applied settings. In their book, Functional Analysis of Problem Behavior: From Effective Assessment to Effective Support , Repp and Horner (1999) have compiled a series of essays from experts on the topic. In this article, we review their wor...

In recent years, much has been written about the topics of functional assessment and functional analysis in applied settings. In their book, Functional Analysis of Problem Behavior: From Effective Assessment to Effective Support, Repp and Horner (1999) have compiled a series of essays from experts on the topic. In this article, we review their work...