Precision-Based Approach to Matching Evidence-Based Interventions to Students With Externalizing Behaviors

"The Student Intervention Matching System (SIMS) is a pre-intervention matching assessment following the behavioral consultation model. The SIMS entails three steps to sequentially assess and then match students' individual characteristics to precise acquisition- or performance-based interventions. The 1st step corresponds to the problem identification stage in behavioral consultation. The 2nd step corresponds to the problem analysis stage of behavioral consultation.The 3rd step of SIMS corresponds to the implementation planning and evaluation stages of behavioral consultation."

In the control condition, students received an unconditionally mismatched acquisition-based intervention (group-based social skills training). We selected group-based social skills training for four reasons: (a) participating schools had already been delivering it as their treatment-as-usual, (b) it is a common intervention in US schools, (c) it is only effective for students with acquisition needs, and (d) it represents a counterfactual contrast to the treatment condition because externalizing behaviors driven by performance needs will be reduced more by performance-based interventions than acquisition-based ones.