Fidelity of Problem Solving in Everyday Practice: Typical Training May Miss the Mark

With national attention on scaling up the implementation of Response to Intervention, problem solving teams remain one of the central components for development, implementation, and monitoring of school-based interventions. Studies have shown that problem solving teams evidence a sound theoretical base and demonstrated efficacy; however, limited evidence supports effectiveness and consistent implementation on a wide-scale basis. Few studies have examined the quality and level of fidelity in school-based teams with typically available problem solving training models. We present 2 studies that used typical models to support the development of elementary teams and evaluated the impact of the training for the treatment groups compared with control groups using a Problem Solving Team (PST) Rubric adapted by Upah and Tilly (2002) . Although some effects were determined for problem solving training, overall adherence to a problem solving model and quality of intervention plan development were significantly below the level considered adequate to ensure intervention effectiveness. We did not find significant effects of training for student outcome measures. We highlight the need for a change in the ways problem solving teams operate and are supported in schools.