Middle school

Our group recently completed an Institute of Education Sciences (IES)-funded randomized controlled trial including more than 250 middle school students assigned to receive the Homework, Organization, and Planning Skills (HOPS) intervention or the Completing Homework by Improving Efficiency and Focus (CHIEF) intervention. Both of these interventions are delivered during the school day by school counselors or school psychologists. Students are pulled from elective classes two times per week for 20 minutes each time to receive the interventions. The entire family, including parents/guardians, also attends two meetings during the intervention period. You can read about the findings under the “Efficacy of the HOPS and CHIEF interventions” heading. You can also read about the HOPS development and pilot work. If you would like to try implementing the HOPS intervention in your school or with your family, the manuals have been published. More information on how to order the manuals can be found in the HOPS Intervention section of this site.

Development of the HOPS intervention:

Langberg, J. M., Vaughn, A. J., Williamson, P., Epstein, J. N., Girio-Herrera, E., & Becker, S. P. (2011). Refinement of an organizational skills intervention for adolescents with ADHD for implementation by school mental health providers. [PDF] School Mental Health, 3(3). 143-155.

HOPS and CHIEF were developed based upon what we learned from the Challenging Horizons Program (CHP) intervention.  If you are interested in learning about this study, you can read the manuscript that reports on the study outcomes [PDF] and/or the manuscript on the factors that predicted which students did best with the intervention [PDF].

HOPS pilot study:

Langberg, J. M., Epstein, J. N., Becker, S. P., Girio-Herrera, E., & Vaughn, A. J. (2012). Evaluation of the Homework, Organization, and Planning Skills intervention. [PDF] School Psychology Review, 41(3), 342–364. 

Langberg, J. M., Becker, S. P., Epstein, J. N., Vaughn, A. J., Girio-Herrera, E. (2013). Predictors of response and mechanisms of change in an organizational skills intervention for students with ADHD [PDF]. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 22(7), 1000-1012.

Efficacy of the HOPS and CHIEF interventions:

Langberg, J. M., Dvorsky, M. R., Molitor, S. J., Bourchtein, E., Eddy, L. E., Smith, Z. R., Oddo, L. E., & Eadeh, H. M. (2017). Overcoming the research-to-practice gap: A randomized trial with two brief homework and organization interventions for students with ADHD as implemented by school mental health providers. [PDF] Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 86(1), 39-55. 

Breaux, R. P., Langberg, J. M., McLeod, B. D., Molitor, S. J., Smith, Z. R., Bourchtein, E., & Green, C. D. (2018). The importance of therapeutic processes in school-based psychosocial treatment o. [PDF] Journal of Consulting and Clinical psychology, 86(5), 427-438.

Breaux, R. P., Langberg, J. M., Molitor, S., Dvorsky, M. R., Bourchtein, E., Smith, Z., & Green, C. D. (2018). Predictors and Trajectories of Response to the Homework, Organization, and Planning Skills (HOPS) Intervention for Adolescents with ADHD. Behavior Therapy. Advanced Online Publication.