Implementing the Color Wheel System in an Inclusive Middle School Setting

The Color Wheel System (CWS), a class-wide, rule-based behavioral management strategy, is a successful intervention to reduce off-task behaviors for elementary school students. However, this intervention has rarely been investigated in the middle school setting. The current study implemented the CWS within three sixth-grade general education inclusionary classrooms in a middle school in the United States. A multiple-baseline across classrooms design evaluated the effects of the CWS on class-wide inappropriate vocalizations. Partial-interval time-sampling recorded intervals when any student in the class displayed inappropriate vocalizations. Visual analysis of time-series graphs and effect size measures indicated that the CWS created large, immediate, and sustained decreases in inappropriate vocalizations across all classrooms. Implications for using the CWS as a class-wide behavioral management strategy within the middle school setting and directions for future research are discussed.