Introduction to the special issue: Building capacity to improve student outcomes through collaboration: Current issues and innovative approaches

Many students experience significant academic and social behavioral problems and drop out or leave school unprepared for adulthood, resulting in significant costs to these individuals and to society (Patterson, Reid, & Dishion, 1992; Walker, 2004). It is vital that schools build capacity to support all learners, including those at risk for failure, and to support this effort, schools need to use evidence-based practices (Hoagwood et al., 2007; Walker, 2004). In addition to using evidencebased practices for academic instruction, it is also important that students receive evidence-based interventions for social, emotional, and behavioral problems (Hoagwood et al., 2007; Ringeisen, Henderson, & Hoagwood, 2003). Teachers, however, have reported they do not feel prepared to provide support for social, emotional, and behavioral problems (Reinke, Stormont, Herman, Puri, & Goel, 2011). In addition, teachers are also confronted with challenges related to adopting new practices to support academic learning for which many report they do not feel adequately prepared. As an example, preventionbased tiered systems are increasingly being implemented in schools across the country, and teachers are essential interventionists at the universal and Tier-2 levels (Horner et al., 2009; Stormont, Reinke, Herman, & Lembke, 2012). Within the context of such tiered models, in theory, schools utilize the most effective available practices, and student academic achievement and/or behavior are closely monitored (Stormont et al., 2012). However, within these models, teachers are often required to make major changes to current practices with varying levels of training and support, and are often presented with multiple, sometimes competing, demands on their time. When schools are adopting new practices, it is critical that there are continued efforts to explore ways to use all available resources wisely and build capacity for change. Collaboration is one way to increase capacity to meet more students’ needs and is often cited as an avenue for instilling changes in practices through ongoing support for school personnel (Reinke, Herman, & Sprick, 2011; Turnbull, Turnbull, Erwin, Soodak, & Shogren, 2011). However, for collaborative efforts to be successful and lead to changes in professionals’ practices and subsequent student improvements, several factors need to be considered. One issue is the implementation gap that exists for schools trying to adopt evidence-based practices (Fixsen, Naoom, Blase, Friedman, Wallace, 2005; McIntosh, Reinke, Herman, 2010). That is, school professionals struggle to implement interventions as they were intended to be utilized when tested in more controlled settings. Subsequently, without high fidelity of implementation, student outcomes are often not as positive as they could be (McIntosh et al., 2010). There are many factors that make implementing specific interventions very challenging, especially for teachers (e.g., lack of confidence, knowledge, or skills; perceptions of use; buy-in; Stormont, Reinke, Herman, 2011; Stormont et al., 2012). When teachers are asked to use new interventions without individualization, ongoing support, and systems change, they are likely to fail in their efforts (Fixsen et al., 2005; Noell et al., 2005).