04 · What fits a classroom
Small routines and Tier 1
Small routines, repeated, change classrooms. The strongest classroom evidence is for brief, classwide practices — not long programs.
Some of the most durable classroom evidence is for small, classwide routines rather than long programs — procedures simple enough to repeat every day, which is the Tier 1 layer PBIS and MTSS are built on.
The studies
What was tested, and what it found
Embry & Biglan 2008
Review proposing brief, repeatable behavioral procedures (“kernels”) as the active ingredients of larger programs.
- Who
- Narrative review — no single sample.
- Found
- Simple, repeatable procedures can change behavior on their own, and are the working parts many larger prevention and treatment programs are built from.
Embry, D. D., & Biglan, A. (2008). Evidence-based kernels: Fundamental units of behavioral influence. Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review, 11(3), 75–113. doi.org/10.1007/s10567-008-0036-x
Simonsen et al. 2008
Review of classroom-management research.
- Who
- Literature review — no single sample.
- Found
- Predictable routines, clear prompts and active engagement are consistently identified as core, evidence-based classroom-management practices.
Simonsen, B., Fairbanks, S., Briesch, A., Myers, D., & Sugai, G. (2008). Evidence-based practices in classroom management: Considerations for research to practice. Education and Treatment of Children, 31(3), 351–380. doi.org/10.1353/etc.0.0007
Kellam et al. 2008
Randomized trial of a classwide behavior-management routine (the Good Behavior Game) in first and second grade, followed into young adulthood.
- Who
- Students across 19 Baltimore City elementary schools, followed to ages 19–21.
- Found
- Students who played the Good Behavior Game in first and second grade showed less substance-use and antisocial-behavior disorder years later, especially boys who started out more aggressive.
Kellam, S. G., Brown, C. H., Poduska, J. M., Ialongo, N. S., Wang, W., Toyinbo, P., Petras, H., Ford, C., Windham, A., & Wilcox, H. C. (2008). Effects of a universal classroom behavior management program in first and second grades on young adult behavioral, psychiatric, and social outcomes. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 95(Suppl. 1), S5–S28. doi.org/10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2008.01.004
Where it stops
How each source applies — and where it stops
Embry & Biglan 2008
How it appliesBrief, repeatable procedures can be the working parts of bigger programs.Researchers call these small, evidence-based procedures “kernels” — simple routines that change behavior on their own. A Micro-Reset™ is built the same way: one short, repeatable routine rather than a curriculum.
Simonsen et al. 2008
How it appliesPredictable routines, prompts and active engagement are core Tier 1 classroom practices.A widely cited review of classroom management names structure, routines and prompting as evidence-based practices — the same building blocks a reset routine uses.
Kellam et al. 2008
How it appliesA simple classwide routine in first and second grade showed benefits years later.Students who had the Good Behavior Game in early grades were followed into young adulthood — evidence that small Tier 1 routines can carry real weight.
Our next study
Whether a Micro-Reset™ works as a Tier 1 kernel the way the Good Behavior Game did — measured over a school year.
How we'll measure itHow Mind Circuit uses this
A Micro-Reset™ is designed as one of these: a short, repeatable routine rather than a curriculum. Embry & Biglan give the frame, Simonsen et al. the classroom-management fit, and Kellam et al. show what a different Tier 1 routine (the Good Behavior Game) carried over years. Micro-Resets™ themselves are what our next phase tests.