A Meta-analysis of Prereferral Intervention Teams: Student and Systemic Outcomes Matthew K. Burns and Todd Symington Michigan Center for Assessment and Educational Data, Central Michigan University, USA Although prereferral intervention teams (PIT) are common in public schools, there is little and conflicting research to support them. The current article conducted an empirical meta-analysis of research on PITs by reviewing 72 articles. Nine of the articles matched the inclusion criteria for the study and 57 effect size (ES) coefficients were computed, which resulted in a mean ES of 1.10. The studies were further broken down by category of dependent variable (DV), and resulted in a mean ES of 1.15 for student outcomes and 0.90 for systemic outcomes. PITs that were implemented by university faculty resulted in a mean ES of 1.32, but field- based PITs resulted in a mean ES of only .54. Studies that used random assignment resulted in higher ES coefficients than those that used nonrandom assignment. Implications for research and cautious suggestions for practice are discussed. D 2002 Society for the Study of School Psychology. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd Keywords: Meta-analysis, Prereferral Intervention, Outcomes. During the 1980s, there was a movement that involved supporting general education as an alternative to special education (Rosenfield & Gravois, 1996). As a result, several prereferral intervention team (PIT) models were developed to better serve children without disabilities but who were difficult to teach. Various models were presented including Mainstream Assistance Teams (Fuchs, Fuchs, & Bahr, 1990a,b), Instructional Consultation Teams (Rosenfield & Gravois, 1996), Prereferral Intervention Teams (Graden, Casey, & Bonstrom, 1985) and Instructional Support Teams (Kovaleski, Tucker, & Duffy, 1995). Additional names suggested for teams from a PIT model include Teacher Assistance Teams, Teacher Support Teams, Student Assistance Teams (House & McInerney, 1996), Intervention Assistance Teams (Graden, 1989), and Child Study Teams (Moore, Fifield, Spira, & Scarlato, 1989). The current article includes in its definition of a PIT any multidisciplinary problem solving team (Fuchs & Fuchs, 1989; Graden et al., PII S0022-4405(02)00106-1 437 Received 13 February 2002; received in revised form 2 April 2002; accepted 15 May 2002. Address correspondence and reprint requests to Matthew K. Burns, Michigan Center for Assessment and Educational Data, Central Michigan University, 208 Rowe Hall, 48859 Mount Pleasant, MI, USA. Phone: (517) 774-3205; E-mail: burns1mk@cmich.edu Journal of School Psychology, Vol. 40, No. 5, pp. 437– 447, 2002 Copyright D 2002 Society for the Study of School Psychology Printed in the USA 0022-4405/02 $ – see front matter