A Comparison of Teacher and Student Ratings in a Self-Monitoring Intervention

Self-monitoring interventions for students with challenging behavior are often teacher-managed rather than self-managed. Teachers direct these interventions by completing parallel monitoring procedures, providing feedback, and delivering contingent reinforcement to students when they monitor accurately. However, within self-monitoring interventions, the degree to which teachers and students agree in their assessment of students' behavior is unknown. In this study, a self-monitoring intervention in which both teachers and students rated the students' behavior, we analyzed 249 fixed interval ratings of behavior from 19 student/teacher pairs to determine the relationship between ratings within and across teacher/student pairs. We found a strong correlation overall (r=.91), although variability existed within individual pairs and student ratings tended to be higher than teacher ratings. We discuss implications for practice, limitations, and future directions.