ABSTRACT
In today’s educational arena, practitioners are often challenged to provide evidence that their efforts contribute to the realization of a gamut of desired educational or social outcomes in schools and classrooms. Inquiries pertaining to pedagogical issues of instructional effectiveness, interventions, and general best practice have become increasingly common. In addition, the call to respond to social issues (e.g., affective development of students and school safety) has administrators, counselors, teachers, school psychologists, and policy makers asking howwe are to deal with what some are calling an epidemic of needs in our schools. As a profession, we are struggling with both the pragmatic and the moral decisions as to what can and ought to be done to increase the quality, consistency, and long-term effects of educational services. If practitioners are to identify and respond to complex instructional and social issues in a proactive fashion, then we as educators must determine what interventions are effective, pragmatic, and ethically sound.
