In this episode, we talk with Dr. Michael Gottfried, applied economist at the University of Pennsylvania, and Dr. Kent McIntosh, professor at the University of Oregon and co-director of the US Department of Education’s Office of Special Education Programs’ National Technical Assistance Center on Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS). Dr. Gottfried and Dr. McIntosh are experts on the use of transactional attendance and discipline/behavior data, respectively, in educational research and practice. We hear about their recent research findings and how these findings can be used by school and district staff to reduce inequitable outcomes among students by race/ethnicity. We also discuss the range of implications that pandemic-related school closures have had on research in these areas, and ideas for future research on student engagement and behavior beyond attendance and discipline records.

Episode resources:

Michael Gottfried: https://www.gse.upenn.edu/academics/faculty-directory/gottfried 

https://www.gse.upenn.edu/news/california-district-study-finds-latinx-students-latinx-teachers-attend-more-school

Gottfried, M., Kirksey, J. J., & Fletcher, T. L. (2021). Do high school students with a same-race teacher attend class more often? Educational Evaluation & Policy Analysis. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.3102/01623737211032241 

Kent McIntosh: https://education.uoregon.edu/directory/faculty/all/kentm

"A school-wide intervention that increases racial equity in exclusionary school discipline." https://www.apa.org/pubs/highlights/spotlight/issue-228#

McIntosh, K., et al. (2021). Equity-focused PBIS approach reduces racial inequities in school discipline: A randomized controlled trial. School Psychology, 36(6), 433-444. https://doi.org/10.1037/spq0000466 

Schoolwide Information System (SWIS) and Positive Behavior Intervention Support Apps (PBISapps.org):