Effect of Continuous Improvement Training on Student Interaction and Engagement

This article describes a preliminary study investigating whether a specific awareness and training for six teach-er–paraprofessional teams would have an effect on the inclusion of six students with mild to severe disabilities in elementary general education environments. An experi-mental design employing a pretest–posttest control group with matched subjects was used to evaluate the effective-ness of training that emphasized the continuous im-provement components of teamwork, goal setting, and data collection. Data focusing on student interaction and engagement were collected using MS-CISSAR. Results indicated an increase in teacher interaction and a de-crease in paraprofessional interaction with special edu-cation students after the training component. Engaged behavior was not found to change noticeably for this group of students. Individual student strategies and ben-efits are also reported. The article includes a discussion of training format, key elements, and their relationship to long-term systems change. DESCRIPTORS: paraprofessionals, paraprofes-sional proximity, teacher interaction, student engage-ment, team training Over the past 30 years, students with a wide range of strengths and needs have gained access to the general curriculum through increased inclusive opportunities in general education settings. In the United States, a para-professional support model remains a fundamental mechanism to operationalize inclusive school practices for students with more significant disabilities (Down