Students in Rural Settings with High-Risk Classroom Behavior Problems and Teacher-Subscribed Intervention Strategies

Abstract

Research on the behavior problems of rural students is limited even though the numbers of such students are increasing rapidly. The Devereux Elementary School Behavior Rating Scale II (DESB-II) was administered by teachers to 1801 randomly selected students in their classrooms in grades K-6. These students were enrolled in 17 rural school districts in a large mid-western state. Mean scores and percent of cases with scores two standard deviations or more from the mean were calculated by gender for each grade. Those categories with more than five percent of subjects scoring two standard deviations or more from the mean were identified as representing a particular problem. The researchers identified those teachers who reported the lowest mean incident rates of these behaviors in their classrooms. These teachers were then asked to recommend classroom interventions that were effective for them in dealing with each problem