Applied Behavior Analysis (M.S.) Concentration in Public Schools

We are offering three classes this summer and adding two more in Fall.

Summer 2024:
ABA527: ABA in Public School Special Education
ABA540: Best Practices in ABA in Public Schools
ABA539: Collaboration in Public Schools

Fall 2024:
ABA542: Childhood Development
ABA543: Special Topics in ABA in Public Schools

Descriptions:

ABA527: ABA in Public School Special Education

This is a Master’s level course that captures both the theoretical basis and applied nature of behavior analytic consultation to school systems. The course will cover schools as consultation site, theoretical models of school consultation, evidence-based practices in schools, functional analysis and behavioral programming in schools, treatment selection and evaluation, understanding stakeholders, staff training, social validity, and maintenance and generalization. Applied issues related to school-based consultation are integrated throughout the course.

Learning Outcomes

1. Identify relevant components of the roles of BCBAs in school systems.
2. Identify the components of evidence-based interventions for school-wide and individual students.
3. Evaluate evidence-based practices as methods of treatment within public schools to address various needs including trauma-sensitive behaviors and social-emotional deficits.
4. Design methods of staff training public school staff.
5. Create social validity tools to assess treatments for students in schools.
6. Understand how to foster ethical decision-making in public schools.
7. Identify how special education law applies to the role of BCBAs in schools.

ABA540: Best Practices in ABA in Public Schools

In this course, students will explore the fundamental systems and practices required to effectively apply applied behavior analysis (ABA) in a school environment. Students will gain insights into evaluating, creating, and executing tiered behavioral support protocols tailored for schools. Additionally, the course will cover leadership methodologies pertinent to school-based contexts and effective coaching techniques. Through a blend of lectures, readings, and practical assignments, students will be introduced to the foundational principles and best practices of implementing ABA principles within a school setting.

Learning Outcomes

1. Explain the evaluation and intervention methodologies and protocols linked with the three-tier support system.
2. Formulate intervention strategies for each tier within the behavioral support framework.
3. Describe optimal strategies for Board Certified Behavior Analysts (BCBAs) functioning in leadership capacities within educational environments.
4. Outline and design coaching methodologies aimed at facilitating the implementation of behavioral interventions in a school setting.

ABA539: Collaboration in Public Schools

This is a Master's level course that encompasses the applied nature of behavior analysis and collaboration in public schools. This course will focus on understanding the roles of administration, teachers, paraprofessionals, families and different related service providers and how to effectively collaborate within public school contexts. Students will learn how to gain buy-in from other professions, work together with teams of stakeholders, and learn to proactively problem-solve various disagreements or concerns that might arise using evidence-based and ethical practices.

Learning Outcomes

1. Identify key stakeholders in schools from a collaboration standpoint.
2. Identify the different related disciplines in public school and their respective roles.
3. List and describe different ways to problem-solve disagreements related to student interventions, conceptualization of issues and goal setting.
4. Identify methods to build buy-in from various stakeholders.
5. Demonstrate how to implement collaboration strategies within public school settings.

ABA542: Child Development- A Behavioral Systems Approach

An initial course in child development within a behavioral systems approach, which combines views of dynamical systems concepts with a behavioral analysis of development. This approach incorporates both person and environment influences and views developmental outcomes as a constant process of reciprocal interactions (or transactions) between nature and nurture. This course will examine a behavior-analytic approach to developmental psychology, with emphasis on process, interaction, environmental influences, and the individual, with an emphasis on a Behavioral Systems Theory view of the process of human development.

Learning Outcomes

1. Describe the criteria to evaluate theory in the study of human development.
2. Summarize the influence of nature and nurture on development.
3. Describe prenatal, birth, and postnatal development in areas of:
   1. Sensory abilities (vision, auditory sensory integration
   2. Perceptual abilities
   3. Reflexes
   4. Influences of teratogens
4. Explain and differentiate the role of operant learning, habituation, and respondent conditioning in development.
5. Compare and contrast theories of cognitive development (including):
   1. Piaget’s Theory
   2. Vygotsky's Theory
   3. Behavioral Systems Theory
   4. Equivalence and Relational Framing
6. Explain the development of language and verbal behavior.
7. Describe the effects of cultural systems, tools, and other cultural experiences on the child’s development.
8. Compare biological and behavioral theories of the development of the personality and the self.
9. Describe social, emotional, and moral development.
10. Explain the role of family systems on development.
11. Identify behaviors associated with relevant childhood behavior disorders, and be able to discuss how they impact the children’s daily school, home, and community functioning.

ABA543: Special Topics in ABA in Public Schools

This masters level course presents the theoretical basis and applied work of behavior analytic consultation in public schools. This course takes a deeper dive into programming considerations and numerous challenges that a BCBA may encounter working in public schools. This includes a review and deeper dive into IDEA, legal requirements when conducting FBAs/writing BIPs, addressing DEIB in public schools, PBIS applications, fine tuning staff training skills, effectively navigating through broken or damaged systemes, and holding difficult conversations.

Learning Outcomes

1. Discuss the role of behavior analysts in providing a free and appropriate public education to students with disabilities, and their legal obligations when conducting FBAs/BIPs in public schools.
2. Identify and discuss DEIB issues in public schools and relevant skill repertoires behavior analysts must develop to address these.
3. Develop criteria and evaluative measures for meaningful mainstream opportunities for students with disabilities in public school settings.
4. Design individualized interventions that facilitate social skills, participation, and engagement within their least restrictive learning environment(s) while addressing behavioral challenges.
5. Discuss the role of ABA-based interventions in addressing bullying behaviors and restorative justice procedures.
6. Collaboratively develop comprehensive and collaborative classroom management plans.
7. Develop high-quality training materials to be used in training public school staff to implement behavior interventions with students.
8. Identify practice challenges faced by public school staff and discuss practical, collaborative ways to address these challenges.
9. Identify challenges and barriers faced by teachers and school staff, how these may impede treatment fidelity, and discuss how behavior analysts may help to ameliorate these.
10. Discuss why some groups oppose ABA, how to respond to criticism in a professional and collaborative manner, and how this may manifest itself in public school settings.