Assessment Prior to CTAG Application

Prior to the publication of this web site the authors conducted research at their school regarding the outcome of teaching social skills as part of the language arts program.

Research has identified that teaching social skills improves academic performance, student self-esteem and classroom management.  R.V. Burke, Ph.D. at Ohio State University in February of 2002, for example, published his study that took data sampling from more than 1000 observations in a public middle school.  Roughly 25% of the classrooms had between 10% and 25% of the students off-task due to inappropriate peer interactions. 

Following the introduction of a program that included social skills training, a significant reduction occurred in classroom and school-wide behavior problems, student time spent off-task and office referrals for disruptive students.  Frank Gresham, Ph.D. of the University of California-Riverside concluded from his research in 1997 that “social skills represent a class of behavior that is perhaps the most important and functional for children and youth.  Social skills interventions (Furst & Criste, 1997) seem especially important for special needs students.