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Multitiered systems of support (MTSS) is widely advocated as an approach to improving education for all students, including students with disabilities. A hope for MTSS is that it can solve or mitigate many problems associated with providing special education to students with disabilities. While MTSS shows some promise for better addressing these problems, enthusiasm for MTSS and unsound thinking about what MTSS can do, cannot do, and has not done can veil lack of progress toward improving special education, as well as obscure what improving special education requires. We suggest that for both MTSS and special education to make more progress toward achieving their promises, several reality checks are urgently needed.

Special education in the USA is, in most respects, a 20th century phenomenon and is now governed primarily by federal legislation first enacted in 1975. The federal law in its most recent reauthorization (2004) continues to require a free appropriate public education (FAPE) for all students with disabilities, a full continuum of alternative placements (CAP) ranging from residential or hospital care to inclusion in general education, an individual education plan or program (IEP) for each student identified as needing special education, and placement in the least restrictive environment (LRE) that is thought best for implementing the IEP. Parents must be involved in the special education process. Approximately 14 percent of public school students were identified for special education in 2004–2005, but the number and percentage of students identified in most high-incidence categories as needing special education have declined in recent years (the total for all categories was about 8.5 percent of public school students in 2010). A variety of evidence-based interventions can be used to address the wide range of instructional and behavioral needs of students with disabilities and their families, including transition to further education or work, family services, and teacher education. Special education in the USA may find new sources of support and thrive or may become less common or be abandoned entirely due to criticism and withdrawal of support for social welfare programs of government.

The goal of this paper is to develop a model which may be used to demonstrate costs and benefits of risk management investments in the context of value-based management.

This paper answers the question of how to quantify changes in company value caused by risk management measures on a theoretical basis. First, a review of empirical studies allowing assertions about the cost and utility of risk management investments is presented. The results of these studies point to a nonlinear shape of the curve and form a basis for the development of a seemingly plausible cost/utility correlation.

In this paper, a model will be developed which can be used to demonstrate costs and benefits of risk management investments in the context of value-based management. It is assumed that at first, risk management expenditures without measurable monetary utility will have to be made. Furthermore, it is assumed to increase more than proportionally, then less than proportionally, until further investments in risk management activities yield only minimal increases in utility and cannot improve company value any further.

By inserting the yet-to-be-determined actual cost/benefit relationship for a company or industry sector into the EVA equation, it is possible to display the effects of risk management measures on the company value. This procedure is principally combinable with the analysis of other value-based control parameters, that is, the Discounted Cash Flow concept or the Cash Value Added methodology.

Risk management is increasingly gaining scientific and public interest, especially since the global financial crisis. Scientists and practical users espouse the benefits of risk management systems in this context. However, the extent to which investments in risk management systems can improve the value of a company remains still unclear.

We could determine that at first risk management expenditures will not result in a monetarily measurable benefit. The remaining slope of the curve is derived as increasing more than proportionally at first, then less than proportionally, until further investments into risk management activities yield almost no additional increase in benefits. In this paper, three different functions are offered to describe the shape of the curve identified. They differ in regard to their free parameters and hence in their flexibility of application. The higher flexibility of functions #2 and #3 is balanced by the disadvantage of increasing formal complexity, possibly leading to an increased effort for implementation and application.

To harness the relationships developed in this paper for practical use, further research should target the identification and empirical verification of dependencies between the parameters and principal company index values.

In addressing positive general education teaching practices for use with students with or at risk for emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD), the chapter emphasizes teacher behavior change research that has been informed by applied behavior analytic (ABA) principles. Its central theme is that general education teachers can access research informed by ABA in developing prosocial instructional and management practices. Highlighted teaching practices include fostering correct academic responses from students, increasing active student response, and using contingent praise with regularity. The chapter also discusses functional behavioral assessment, positive behavioral interventions and supports, and controversial behavior change issues surrounding seclusion and restraints and medication, topics related to teaching students with or at risk for EBD in general education settings.

Although childhood abuse is internationally recognized as a major problem, there is a dearth of data concerning potentially protective resources, including religiosity. While studies document religiosity’s positive association with general health outcomes, little is known about its relevance to abuse in childhood. A unique opportunity to explore the relationship is provided by a community-based study of religiously diverse, adult women within a single religious denomination, Judaism. A distinctive aspect of this research, which places women’s voices and experiences center stage, is the context within which it was conducted. Israel is a deeply gendered society dominated by two patriarchal institutions, the military and religious establishments.

Detailed telephone interviews with a large, demographically diverse sample assess a broad range of women’s health issues including childhood sexual, physical, and emotional abuse. Prevalence rates are compared for observance groups at opposite ends of the religiosity spectrum, rigorously devout ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) (n = 261) and nonreligious Secular Jews (n = 181).

Unexpectedly, no significant differences between observance groups are found for any childhood abuse (45%), physical abuse (24%), or emotional abuse (40%). Childhood sexual abuse has the lowest frequency (4.8%) of all abuse categories with more reported by Secular than Haredi respondents (7.7% vs. 3.1% p = .05).

This study addresses a critical research gap with empirical evidence from adult women within a single religious denomination. To enhance generalizability, replication with other denominations and the inclusion of males is warranted.

More religious involvement apparently does not mitigate the most prevalent forms of childhood maltreatment. These preliminary, yet persuasive findings warrant more policy and prevention efforts focused on childhood abuse in all families, religious as well as nonreligious.

The present study approaches multinational corporations as internal networks that are constantly newly organized on the basis of relationships, operations, activities, and tasks at hand. It combines MNCs-as-networks view with the research on supplier–customer relationship development to conceptualize the relational dynamics in the MNCs. The dynamics are seen created as the interplay of organizing within internal networks and managing of the global customer relationships. Through an empirical study on a project business MNC and analysis of the events in its global customer relationship the study defines strategies of political compromising in MNC internal networks.

Value-based management and the balanced scorecard are two of the most distinguished management concepts of the past decades. The main criticism levelled at value-based management is that it is rarely applied in business practice. By contrast, the balanced scorecard is mainly criticized for its insufficient integration into corporate strategy. The two concepts are occasionally described as competing business philosophies in management theory. This chapter offers an integrative view of value-based management and the balanced scorecard. The resulting ‘value-based scorecard’ incorporates the value-based business philosophy while creating a link between the scorecard and the ‘value–added’ corporate strategy. This minimizes a multitude of other critical aspects of both concepts. In light of this, it is recommended that both management theory and business practice further interpret or use the value-based scorecard presented in this study as a tool for value-based management.

Although a large body of research has focused on young children with learning disabilities (LD) and behavioral disorders (BD) in preschool and elementary school settings, there is considerably less information about this population during adolescence. Recent work suggests that youth with these disabilities experience challenges in areas such as social skills, increased depressive symptoms, and involvement in the juvenile justice system. In addition, for a small percentage of the population, negative outcomes experienced during early childhood appear to persist in adolescence and early adulthood suggesting the need for additional interventions. Two primary aims guide the current chapter. First, we review key domains of adolescent development (social, emotional, and behavioral) and highlight ways in which development differs for students with LD and BD. Second, we introduce the field of social and emotional learning (SEL) and the accumulating body of research that suggests that this approach could have numerous benefits for this population. We describe the results of recent meta-analytic reviews of SEL programs to indicate the current state of the field, highlight a few evidence-based universal and indicated SEL programs for secondary school settings, and describe important areas for future research.

The issue of school violence and antisocial behavior in public schools is, in fact, one of the most pressing concerns in education today. Schools have responded by designing, implementing, and evaluating multi-level models with progressively more intensive levels of support. The foundation of these models is the primary, or universal, prevention program. To date, most investigations have occurred in elementary schools thereby providing limited insight into intervening in secondary schools. This chapter reviews the literature base of school-wide interventions with primary level efforts conducted in secondary schools with an emphasis on methodological considerations. Content includes the findings of a systematic literature review, a discussion of quality indicators in relationship to primary prevention efforts, and recommendations for future inquiry.

How should foreigners manage a partnership or an acquisition in Russia? We know a lot about Russian culture per se, but research on foreign companies having to deal with Russia remains scarce. To answer our question, we used the concept of nationally bound administrative heritage to identify how foreign practices are efficiently implemented in Russia in the context of partnerships and acquisitions. We interviewed 16 Russian managers working in the car industry about their perception of foreign practices and how things ought to be done. Our investigations show the maintenance of a strong national culture that generates a need to cope with uncertainty for foreign firms. For local people, Russia is a particular country, not comparable to others. When transferring practices, foreign managers need to organize hybridization processes in order to successfully import these practices. Hybridization means transferring but adapting in order to impregnate them with the Russian specificity. Such hybridization requires foreign managers to work and network locally for the implantation of practices.