While it is tempting just to turn to the table of contents of Natalie Rathvon’s Effective School Interventions and find the applicable intervention to implement, in so limiting an approach to this book, the reader would miss invaluable theories, facts and concepts applicable to the school environment. Part of this book’s appeal lies in its first two chapters, which highlight the history behind evidence-based school interventions. She explains the evolution of concepts such as “response to intervention” (page 6) and “intervention assistance teams” (page 7) in relation to changes within the educational system in the United States. Not every reader will fully understand the nuances of the various Educational Acts, however, every professional reader will relate to the ideas behind the Educational Acts and program developments.
Rathvon underlines her seven inclusion criteria used to select seventy interventions described. One inspiring criteria ensures the intervention is “[c]onsistent with an ecological perspective” (page 13), in which the interaction between the student and the environment are both considered. Too commonly, only student deficits are noticed and monitored. Rathvon emphasizes this ecological perspective throughout her book. In fact, she stresses that initial interventions should be anticipatory ones, followed by academic, then behavioural interventions. Poor classroom management and unsuccessful academic performance, separately and combined, have an impact on classroom behaviours. Rathvon elegantly explains however, how the three areas of anticipatory, academic, and behavioural interventions, influence each other simultaneously.
Rathvon completes the first part of this book by offering nine best practice guidelines, with accompanying checklists and charts when applicable. She highlights evidence-based steps to school consultation. Rathvon underscores legal considerations, with United States law and policies as guides. She evidences the theories and research behind the use of behavioural reinforcers. Finally, and refreshingly, Rathvon discusses the intervention evaluation process. Unfortunately, the evaluation of school interventions is often either performed subjectively or missing altogether. Rathvon clearly and simply outlines how to use empirical data in an improved evaluation process.
The second and larger part of Rathvon’s book highlights seventy school-based interventions, subsumed within four categories of anticipatory interventions, academic interventions, behavioural and social competence interventions and pre-school interventions. These subsections are further divided in smaller sections, well outlined in the table of contents. Again, while it is tempting to skip ahead to the intervention lesson plan, the reader would miss invaluable theory, evidence and further description of the intervention. Rathvon does an excellent job outlining each step in the intervention plan. She completes each chapter in this section with helpful websites, print resources and a table summarizing the interventions described.
Two critiques materialize during the reading of this book. Rathvon succinctly summarizes the evidence behind each intervention, without elaborating on associated limitations. While the reader trained in critical literature appraisal understands the implications of a small sample size for the credibility of an intervention, other readers may not have that objectivity. Rathvon deserves full credit for her extensive research, summaries and amalgamation of the evidence. Her only flaw is not acknowledging the limitations of the evidence provided.
The only other poignant critique of the textbook is an aesthetic one. The layout of the book is not conducive the limited photocopy license granted by Guilford Press. The interventions are not presented on one page to facilitate photocopying for classroom use. When checklists or tables were provided, they were often combined with text, and do not lend to uncluttered one-time photocopying. However, changing the format would increase the size of an already lengthy textbook (407 pages of text plus 51 pages of references and index). Guilford Press partially solves this dilemma by selling an e-book for the same price as the printed book. However, the reader who has purchased the printed book does not have access to the online printable forms.
Natalie Rathvon subtly highlights two goals of her book in her Preface: “to bridge the gap between research and the practical realities of [school consultation]” and to serve as a “resource guide to the …field of evidence-based school interventions” (preface page x). She has surpassed these goals with her thorough, descriptive and well-written text. I have already recommended this book to the clinicians on our school consultation team and to the Education students I teach, and it is already well used.