Comparison of Discipline Referrals for Students With Emotional/Behavioral Disorders Under Differing Instructional Arrangements

Academic assessment for students with challenging behavior is often overlooked. Confronted with a curriculum that is above or below their instructional needs, students may engage in a range of inappropriate behaviors (e.g., acting-out, withdrawal, social avoidance). In that behavioral and learning problems are reciprocal, academically related problems such as lack of concentration, failing memory, bad study habits, family interference along with inappropriate classroom behavior are not examined from an instructional perspective but immediately explained as the symptoms of a possibly more serious condition (Tucker, 1985). In this study, we attempt to show how the use of curriculum-based assessment (CBA) can have a positive effect by lowering the number of inappropriate behavior occurrences within the classroom.