Doing More With Less: Innovative Program Building ... - SAGE Journals

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research-article2017

RSQXXX10.1177/8756870517703395Rural Special Education QuarterlyBethune and Kiser

Article

Doing More With Less: Innovative Program Building in ABA and Special Education in a Rural Setting

Rural Special Education Quarterly 2017, Vol. 36(1) 25­–30 © Hammill Institute on Disabilities 2017 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav https://doi.org/10.1177/8756870517703395 DOI: 10.1177/8756870517703395 journals.sagepub.com/home/rsq

Keri S. Bethune, PhD, BCBA-D, LBA1, and Ansley Kiser, MAT, BCBA, LBA1

Abstract There is a need for both special education teachers and Board Certified Behavior Analysts (BCBAs) who are trained to work in rural school settings with students with disabilities and problem behaviors. The specific challenges presented by rural communities, such as diminished access to resources and fewer community partners, can make it difficult to create sustainable university programs to fulfill these needs. The purpose of this article is to describe one innovative approach to building a master’s degree program leading to certification in special education and completion of the requirements to sit for the BCBA exam. Collaboration within the university and local community is discussed. Finally, program outcomes and future directions are discussed. Keywords ABA, special education, teacher preparation The use of practices derived from the field of applied behavior analysis (ABA) in special education is critical to the success of students with disabilities. These practices have been established as effective in teaching academics, increasing adaptive behaviors, and reducing problem behaviors. For example, systematic instruction, which is rooted in the principles of ABA, is a key component in teaching academic and social behaviors to students with moderate to severe disabilities (Collins, 2012). In addition, the Individuals With Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 (IDEA) requires that functional behavior assessment (FBA), a behavior analytic set of procedures for identifying the purpose a problem behavior serves for an individual, is used when students with disabilities exhibit challenging behavior that impedes their learning or the learning of others. ABA procedures are not only commonly used by special education personnel but also may be implemented by a Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA). A BCBA is a master’s degree–level practitioner with specialized training in behavior analysis. BCBAs receive their certification from the Behavior Analyst Certification Board (BACB); must complete a BACB-approved course sequence; and have at least a graduate degree in behavior analysis, education, or psychology from a qualifying accredited institution (BACB, 2016a). In addition, they must successfully complete a supervised practicum experience and achieve a passing score on the BCBA certification exam. Despite the importance of ABA in educational settings, there is a national shortage of personnel trained to implement behavioral interventions (U.S. Department of Education,

2016). This deficit can be felt acutely in rural settings where there may be limited access to teacher and BCBA preparation programs (Dell, Hobbs, & Miller, 2008). Unfortunately, universities in rural settings may be disinclined to build programs as low enrollments create financial hardship. These low enrollments reflect the population density within surrounding rural areas and pose as a barrier to the recruitment of qualified and interested applicants. Preparation programs also face obstacles in the identification of appropriate and supervised field placements. This is especially challenging for BCBA programs in which students are required to complete between 750 (i.e., BACBapproved intensive practicum) to 1,500 hr of supervised fieldwork (BACB, 2016a). Faculty in rural regions may have difficulty finding high-quality placements when populations of potential clients are not within close proximity. In addition, universities may not have sufficient faculty members to provide the required supervision hours for their candidates. As a result, candidates will be required to identify and contract with a BCBA outside of the university. Unfortunately, BCBAs often are clustered around major metropolitan areas. In Virginia, for example, the majority of licensed BCBAs practice in areas within and adjacent to 1

James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA, USA

Corresponding Author: Keri S. Bethune, Education Programs, James Madison University, MSC 6908, 395 South High Street, Harrisonburg, VA 22807, USA. Email: [email protected]

26 Richmond and Washington, DC (Virginia Applied Behavior Analysis [VABA], 2016). The shortage of personnel trained to implement behavioral interventions is exacerbated by higher rates of teacher attrition in rural schools. Researchers have suggested that the difficulty in hiring and retaining rural special educators can be contributed to earning lower wages, having less preparation and experience, and being younger than nonrural counterparts. Furthermore, rural special educators often may find that their schools have less economic resources and less access to community resources with which to support students (Stern, 1994). In an attempt to address these challenges, several researchers have reviewed the literature and provided recommendations on methods to prepare teachers to provide highquality services to students in rural settings. Initial work in this area examined general education teacher preparation programs. For example, Wideen, Mayer-Smith, and Moon (1998) identified four common features that resulted in students’ conceptual changes: (a) use of a pedagogy that encourages students to examine their beliefs, (b) shared program vision that supports program unity, (c) small program size with high student–faculty collaboration, and (d) field experiences that are carefully created to foster collaboration between university faculty and local school personnel (e.g., teachers). Brownell, Ross, Colon, and McCallum (2011) examined special education teacher preparation programs and recommended the following features as critical elements in successful teacher preparation programs: (a) ample field experiences, (b) collaboration, (c) frequent evaluation of the impact of the program, (d) program that emphasizes inclusion and diversity, and (e) continuing demonstration of a positive orientation toward teacher expertise and knowledge. In addition to specific regulations governing teacher preparation programs nationally and in Virginia, the Council for Exceptional Children also provides guidelines regarding teacher preparation. These include the five standards approved by the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP): (a) content and pedagogical knowledge; (b) clinical partnerships and practice; (c) candidate quality, recruitment, and selectivity; (d) program impact; and (e) provider quality assurance and continuous improvement (CAEP, 2013). Regarding behavior analysis preparation programs, the BACB provides guidelines regarding the specific topics coursework should entail (see Table 1), which are largely based on the Fourth Edition Task List (BACB, 2012). In addition, the BACB requires 1,500 supervised hours that are to occur under the supervision of a behavior analyst, which may or may not be completed as part of the university-approved program. There is no available research examining the effectiveness of various BCBAapproved course sequence programs that identifies or

Rural Special Education Quarterly 36(1) Table 1.  Content and Number of Hours Required by BACB for Behavior Analysis Preparation Programs.

BACB required content Ethics and professional conduct Concepts and principles of behavior analysis Measurement Experimental design Identification of the problem and assessment Fundamental elements of behavior change and specific behavior change procedures Intervention and behavior change considerations Behavior change systems Implementation, management, and supervision Discretionary

No. of required hours 45 45 25 20 30 45 10 10 10 30

Note. BACB = Board Analyst Certification Board.

makes recommendations toward what might be the most effective practice. The Fourth Edition Task List and requirements for program approval provided by the BACB must serve as the guiding documents and inferences made from other related fields, such as education. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to describe an innovative approach to creating a dual program in which students are able to gain their teaching license(s) and complete the requirements to sit for the BCBA exam simultaneously within the parameters of a rural setting.

Building a Viable Rural Special Education and ABA Program James Madison University (JMU; 2016) is located on 785 acres in Harrisonburg, Virginia. As of 2015, JMU’s total enrollment was 21,227 students, with 19,396 undergraduates and 1,831 graduate students (State Council of Higher Education for Virginia, 2015). JMU offers a number of different programs leading to a special education license in Virginia. These include 5-year options (in which students complete bachelor of arts and master of arts degrees in teaching), postbaccalaureate master’s degree options, and postlicensure specialist degrees in the areas of early childhood special education and K through 12 special education (general or adapted curriculum). Harrisonburg, a small city in the Shenandoah Valley in central Virginia, is surrounded by Rockingham County. The city has a population of 52,538 and is 17.42 square miles, while Rockingham County has a population of 78,593 and is 849.09 square miles (U.S. Census Bureau, 2015). Rockingham County contains 1,902 farms totaling 222,049 acres (U.S. Department of Agriculture, 2012) and has the largest number of poultry farms in Virginia, which creates many local jobs, including poultry processing in the city of

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Bethune and Kiser Harrisonburg (Rodgers, 2012). According to the BACB’s registry of certificants, there are currently 15 BCBAs living in Rockingham or Harrisonburg, with an additional seven BCBAs living within 25 miles (BACB, 2016b). Of those 22 BCBAs, 16 hold a license to practice behavior analysis in the state of Virginia according to the Virginia Department of Health Professions (2016).

Collaboration to Build Sustainability The ability of JMU’s College of Education (CoE) to develop a behavior specialist and master’s in special education degree program (i.e., the courses that are a BACBapproved course sequence) has hinged upon collaboration to ensure its sustainability. Collaboration occurs across the CoE, across the university, and within the community. First, collaboration between the Department of Graduate Psychology (hereafter referred to as Graduate Psychology) and the CoE’s Department of Educational Foundations and Exceptionalities (EFEX), which houses the special education program, has been the foundation of the entire behavior specialist program. Faculty from graduate psychology and EFEX created a joint course sequence that met the BACB requirements for an approved course sequence. Students are required to take one 3-hr course each semester in the following order: (a) PSYC 610 (Applied Behavior Analysis), (b) PSYC 805 (Single-Case Experimentation), (c) EXED 510 (Systematic Behavioral Intervention), (d) PSYC 690 (Experimental Analysis of Behavior), and (e) EXED 620 (Behavioral Assessment). In addition, students take one credit of ethics each semester that is taught by their faculty supervisor. This allows for shared faculty across programs, which reduces the course load on either department to sustain the program alone. Logistically, this means that Graduate Psychology and EFEX both admit their own cohort of students each year. The graduate students in psychology complete general requirements for their master’s degree in psychology, while the EFEX students complete their course requirements for their particular special education degree program. The EFEX behavior specialist students and graduate psychology students then form a smaller cohort of students (eight: four per year per program) who complete the BACB-approved course sequence to prepare them for the BCBA exam. This increases the number of students who enroll in each of the behavior specialist courses from four to eight, which makes the program more sustainable from a university perspective. Furthermore, the courses in the sequence are listed and taught in either the Graduate Psychology or EFEX department (see Figure 1). For example, the first course in the sequence is listed as a graduate psychology course and is taught by a faculty member in psychology, while the second course is a special education course and is taught by special education faculty member, and so on for the remainder of

Figure 1.  The various master’s degree options in JMU’s EFEX Department with which students may “add-on” the behavior specialist course sequence. Note. Upon completion of the program coursework and supervised experience hours, students are eligible to sit for the BCBA exam. JMU = James Madison University; EFEX = Department of Educational Foundations and Exceptionalities; CoE = College of Education.

the sequence. The only course that the behavior specialist students as a cohort take with other students is the course shared by the entirety of the special education program. In addition, the Graduate Psychology faculty and EFEX faculty work together to manage course enrollments, resolve scheduling conflicts, and otherwise ensure a smoothly functioning shared program. Without the collaboration between Graduate Psychology and EFEX, the behavior specialist program would not be sustainable nor would it provide a sufficient foundation for students to be prepared for the BCBA exam and have knowledge of how the fields of both psychology and special education use ABA. Next, within the CoE, students can be housed within multiple special education master’s degree programs (see Figure 2). Students are able to add the behavior specialist concentration to the two 5-year bachelor of arts plus master of arts in teaching degree programs, the three postbaccalaureate 2-year master of arts in teaching degree programs, or the nonlicense master of special education program. This has required support from the faculty in the CoE in multiple ways. First, the special education program faculty allowed the preservice teacher’s ABA course to be used for students in the behavior specialist program as one of the BACB’s approved courses. This requires that BACB-approved faculty teach K–12 special education students along with behavior specialist students in the same section of that course. From the university’s standpoint, this represents a

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Rural Special Education Quarterly 36(1)

Figure 2.  The overlap between the Graduate Psychology and EFEX programs.

Note. EFEX = Department of Educational Foundations; ABA = applied behavior analysis; BCBA = Board Certified Behavior Analyst.

good use of faculty resources, whereas from the perspective of a future BCBA, it allows the students to learn collaboration skills when working with future special education teachers. Second, EFEX has allowed the primary BCBA faculty member to incorporate courses to support the behavior specialist program into her teaching load (i.e., practicum supervision hours for supervision of behavior specialist students for their BCBA experience hours into her load and teaching behavior specialist–specific courses). Finally, faculty members also offer support in solving logistical problems that occur. For example, the special education faculty members have, on multiple occasions, rescheduled a course required for all special education students to accommodate a behavior specialist student attending both that course and a graduate psychology course that is required for the BCBAapproved course sequence. Finally, the support of the community has been crucial to ensuring that behavior specialist students have both funding in the way of internship positions and access to special education students with which to complete their supervised experience hours. First, with regard to funding internship positions, the Graduate Psychology faculty has an arrangement under which the local school districts’ Regional Autism Program funds a number of interns to work underneath their contracted BCBAs to support local students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in the public schools. Graduate Psychology has used this internship program to also fund CoE students in the behavior specialist program as space allows. In addition, a local private school for children with severe problem behaviors also funded an intern position for a student in the CoE’s program. The agreement is that BCBA supervision is provided by the JMU faculty. This allows for additional support for the schools in the way of behavior specialist students but also provides the students with an

opportunity to complete their supervised experience hours. The BCBA faculty solicited these opportunities by working with local education providers to design the internship program in a way that is beneficial to all parties involved. Local school districts also have been extremely supportive when placing special education students in classrooms where they can gain teaching experience that is appropriate to their corresponding license program and supervised experience toward their BCBA hours. This has meant frequent and proactive communication among local education administrators, the behavior specialist coordinator, and CoE’s coordinator of field experiences to ensure placements that allow students to meet all program requirements. Local school districts also have been supportive, allowing behavior specialist students to complete their thesis research projects with students with disabilities. This allows behavior specialist students to gain experience with single-subject research design, learn about the application of ABA in a research capacity, and teach local students with disabilities new skills using ABA methods. Without the support of the local school districts, the CoE, and the Department of Graduate Psychology, implementing a BACB-approved course sequence in this rural setting would not be feasible.

Limitations and Areas of Concern Programs that require a high degree of collaboration may present an increased risk of ethical dilemmas to arise. First, the faculty involved in the program and the behavior specialist students must be careful to avoid conflicts of interest. The BACB provides behavior analysts with guidance regarding conflicts of interest, specifically stating that behavior analysts should be sensitive to, and avoid,

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Bethune and Kiser multiple relationships whenever possible (BACB, 2016c). Students with disabilities often attend multiple programs (e.g., school, after-school programs, vocational training programs, peer mentorship programs), and preservice teachers in rural communities often encounter the same students with disabilities in multiple capacities and settings. In one scenario, a behavior specialist student may know a student with a disability from a summer camp setting and then be placed as an intern in another setting with that student for the following year. This may present a conflict of interest if behavior specialist students are placed with the student in multiple capacities at the same time. For example, if a parent were to approach the behavior specialist student at camp about his or her opinions of the services being provided by the school, this could put the student at risk of disclosing inappropriate information. To address the potential conflict, the faculty work to avoid placing behavior specialist students in placements where they have previously worked with a student with disabilities. In another scenario, a conflict of interest could arise if a research project was occurring in the same location and with the same students with disabilities as the behavior specialists’ teaching placement for educational licensing requirements. For example, a cooperating teacher may ask a behavior specialist student to complete an activity with students with disabilities that is not founded in ABA, thus conflicting with the goals of the research that behavior specialist student is trying to accomplish. Again, programmatically, faculty work to ensure that thesis research does not occur while or in placements where behavior specialist students also are completing their educational licensing requirements. A second concern arises when placing students in settings that enable them to complete both their educational license requirements and their BCBA supervised experience. As program faculty, we want to ensure that our behavior specialist students access the best placements possible and are able to maximize their practicum experiences to produce the most well-prepared and well-rounded future BCBAs. Conflicts can arise when teaching placements do not provide examples of evidence-based practice for students with disabilities and when teachers do not use teaching methods compatible with ABA principles. This can lead to a placement experience that does adequately prepare the behavior specialist student with a strong foundation of ABA experiences. This issue primarily has been managed through personal communication between the behavior specialist program coordinator and the CoE’s coordinator of field experiences, and direct contact with either a strong local educator or the director of the Regional Autism Program. Reaching out to teachers directly or getting recommendations from the director of the Regional Autism Program for teachers who are “ABA friendly” has allowed for much more suitable placements to be arranged for the behavior specialist students.

One final area of concern involves maintaining collaborative working relationships with the local ABA and special education communities. Because the behavior specialist program is dependent on connections within the rural community, maintaining a positive relationship with community partners is essential. Behavior specialist students and coordinators are expected to be good stewards of these relationships. In a rural community, if these networks break down, there are limited options for other community partners. The behavior specialist program would not continue without successful community partnerships.

Program Outcomes and Future Direction The behavior specialist program at JMU is a new program and, therefore, has limited program outcome data to report. The first cohort of program completers only recently graduated. Two completed the MEd option and two completed the MAT option for teacher licensure in addition to the BCBA course sequence. Each student in this cohort completed the program requirements for his or her particular focus in special education, the approved BACB course sequence, and all the 1,500 supervised experience hours. Of these initial four students, three have secured jobs in special education settings, two of which require BCBA certification, and the fourth graduate is providing in-home behavior services. Two of the four graduates took positions locally and are serving the rural community, while the other two graduates are moving away. A second cohort of special education students has completed their first year and is moving into the second year of their program. This cohort has three MEd students and one MAT student. They are all on track with their coursework and experience hours. A third cohort has just been admitted and will start their courses of study this fall. As the program moves forward, it is important to focus our future efforts in a few key areas. First, we will begin tracking outcome data in the form of pass rates on the BCBA exam, success in finding a job in special education and/or behavior analysis, and other relevant variables. Second, continuing to foster collaborative relationships within both the university and with the local special education and behavior analytic community is vital to the ongoing success of the program. This will enable us to seek student funding in the form of internship positions from local providers and have access to the best placements for completion of teaching license and BCBA supervised experience hours. In addition, the sustainability of the program within JMU relies on continued collaboration within the faculty and colleges. The behavior specialist program within special education at JMU uses collaborative resources to address the critical features identified by Brownell et al. (2011). There is a shared pedagogy through the use of ABA that encourages students to examine their beliefs. The BCBA faculty

30 members within the EFEX and graduate psychology departments have a shared vision of the program and support each other in achieving the shared program goals. There is a small cohort with extensive access to the BCBA faculty, specifically, the faculty person who serves as the student’s BCBA supervisor. Finally, field experiences are carefully planned to move through a curriculum that progresses students’ skills in both their specific field of special education and the BCBA Fourth Edition Task List. Declaration of Conflicting Interests The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

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