Responsible Use of Motivational Interviewing in Schools (RUMIS)
The purpose of the Responsible Use of Motivational Interviewing in Schools (RUMIS) project is to provide technical support for practitioners, researchers, and higher education personnel using motivational interviewing (MI) in school-based applications. Below, we provide a brief description of what MI involves and how it is being used by school-based providers. Next, we describe the Motivational Interviewing Training and Assessment System (MITAS), which provides the foundation of our technical support. We have also included tools for assessing MI competency of school-based practitioners. Lastly, we have included information on our various MI-focused projects and relevant publications.
Motivational Interviewing in the Schools
Motivational Interviewing is a clinical counseling approach based on empirical evidence documenting the relationship between how people talk about change and their actions. MI helps to facilitate the change process by developing a supportive environment and relationship that evokes change talk, or the person’s own words about their personal motivation to change. Research suggests proficient use of MI is associated with higher levels of engagement, longer time in treatment, and better outcomes than interventions without MI. MI is increasingly being leveraged by researchers and school-based mental health providers, as well as behavioral and instructional coaches and consultants, to improve child social and academic functioning. It is a foundational skill for several evidence-based practices and can also be used as a coaching model or to facilitate everyday conversations about change.
Our research team has created variations of the MITAS training for use with early childhood family service workers and resource teachers, school social workers, school-based mental health professionals, and behavior consultants. Thanks to an ongoing project, funded by the US Department of Education, Institute for Education Sciences, we have recently revised and improved training for Instructional Coaches. We hope you find the resources useful.
Tools to develop, evaluate, and monitor MI skills of school mental health professionals
A recent scoping review documents the need to attend to MI training and fidelity in the context of school-based research. Importantly, research has shown that self-assessment of the use of MI skill is very often inaccurate and more thorough forms of assessment are cumbersome for none research purposes, as well as costly. In addition to MI assessments that are reliable and valid irrespective of service setting, we have developed two measures for MI skill acquisition, the WASE and VASE, and three measures to evaluate talk about change that are specific to school-based applications. The manuals for each are provided below. We also have some web-assisted tools for the administration and scoring of these assessments available upon request.
- Training resources available upon request
- The Written Assessment of Simulated Encounters for School Based Applications (WASE-SBA) measures a person’s ability to generate reflective responses on paper, providing a kind of minimum assurance, but no guarantee that this person may actually use the same skill during conversations about change. Thus, the WASE–SBA may be best suited as a formative measure of reflective listening during the teaching and learning of MI and simulated coaching situations.
Written Assessment of Simulated Encounters — School-based Applications
- The Video Assessment of Simulated Encounters- School-based Applications (VASE-SBA) was modified from Rosengren, Baer, Hartzler, Dunn, and Wells (2005) Video Assessment of Simulated Encounters-Revised to adapt the video prompts to simulate the communications from clients within a context specific helping relationship. Ideally, the VASE-SBA is used in conjunction with the Motivational Interviewing Training and Assessment System (MITAS), which has been contextualized for three diverse applications in educational situations: (1) school-based, (2) home visitation, and (3) higher education.
Video Assessment of Simulated Encounters — School-based Applications
Projects
- Motivational Interviewing Skills for Coaches (R324A190173, Scott/Frey; 2018–2024)
- Enhanced First Step Next (R324A080137, Frey/Walker, 2009–2013)
- First Step Next & Homebase (R324A150179, Frey/Seeley, 2015–2020)
MI-Related Publications
- Frey, A.J., Kim, A.M, Easter, D., & Howard-Mack, S. (in press). Motivational Interviewing in Health Promotion. Encyclopedia of Social Work.
- Reinke, W.M., Herman, K.C., & Frey, A.J. (in press) An investigation of MI use among natural implementers of the Classroom Check-up. Journal of Education and Psychological Consultation.
- Frey, A. J., Herman, K. C., & Reinke, W. M. (in press). Motivational interviewing applications in educational consultation: introduction to the special issue. Journal of Educational and Psychological Consultation, 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1080/10474412.2025.2596784
- Frey, A.J. & Small, J.W., Crosby, S., Lee, J & Walker, H.M. (in press). Motivational Interviewing Skills for Coaching: A Feasibility Study Examining Training Fidelity, Satisfaction, and Impact. Journal of Educational and Psychological Consultation. https://doi.org/10.1080/10474412.2025.2502332
- Reinke, W.M., Herman, K.C., Frey, A.J., & Aguayo, D. (2026). In S. A. Garbacz, D. S. Newman, W. P. Erchul, & S. M. Sheridan (Eds.). Handbook of research in school consultation: Empirical foundations for educational and human sciences (3rd ed., 705–735). Routledge.
- Small, J.W., Frey, A.J. Lee, J., & Walker, H.M. (2025). Motivational Interviewing Training and Fidelity Monitoring in School-Based Research: A Scoping Review. School Mental Health. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12310-025–09754‑1
- Frey, A.J., Herman, K., Pas, E., & Small, J.W. (2023). Optimizing Implementation of School-based Programming by Leveraging Motivational Interviewing. In S.W. Evans. J.S. Owens, C.P. Bradshaw, & M.W. Weist (Eds., 3rd, pp. 451–466). Handbook of School Mental Health: Innovations in Science and Practice (3rd Ed). Springer. http://doi.org/10.1007/978–3‑031–20006‑9
- Kuklinski, M., Small, J.W., Frey, A.J., Bills, K., & Forness, S.R. (2022). Comprehensive Cost Effectiveness of a school- and home-based interventions for Elementary School students with Disruptive Behavior Disorders. Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders. doi.org/10.1177/10634266221120521
- Frey, A.J., Small, J.W., Seeley, J.R., Walker, H.M., Feil, E.G., H.M, Lee, J. Cohen Lissman, D., Crosby, S., & Forness, S.R. (2022). First Step Next and homeBase: A comparative efficacy study of children with disruptive behavior. Exceptional Children. doi.org/10.1177/00144029211062588
- Small, J., Frey, A., Lee, J. Seeley, J.R., Scott, T.M, & Sibley, M.H. (2021). Fidelity of motivational interviewing in school-based intervention and research. Prevention Science, 22, 712–712. doi/10.1007/s11121-020–01167‑7
- Frey, A.J, Lee, J., Small, J.W., *Skidmore, B. Johnson, L., Sibley, M., Owens, J.S., & Bradshaw, C. (2021). Mechanisms of Motivational Interviewing: A conceptual framework to guide practice and research. Prevention Science, 22, 689–700. doi.org/10.1007/s11121-020–01139‑x
- Herman, K. Reinke, W., & Frey, A.J. (2021). Motivational Interviewing in Schools: Strategies to Engage Parents, Teacher, and Students (2nd edition). New York: Springer Publishing Company.
- Frey, A.J, Lee, J., Small, J.W., Skidmore, B. Johnson, L., Sibley, M., Owens, J., & Bradshaw, C. (2021). Mechanisms of Motivational Interviewing. Prevention Science, 22, 689–700. doi.org/10.1007/s11121-020–01139‑x
- Frey, A.J, Small, J.W., Lee, J., Crosby, S., Seeley, J.R, Forness, S., & Walker, H.M. (2019). homeBase: Participation, engagement, alliance, and social validity of a motivational parenting intervention. Children & Schools, p. doi: 10.1093/cs/cdz016.
- Lee, J., Frey, A.J., Warner, Z, Kelley, A. (2019). Coaching to Improve Motivation in Early Childhood Practitioners and Parents. In O. N. Saracho (Ed.) Contemporary perspectives on research on motivation in early childhood education. Charlotte, North Carolina: Information Age Publishing.
- Iachini, A.L., Lee, J., DiNovo, R., Lutz, & Frey, A.J. (2018). Integrating Motivational Interviewing into Social Work Education: A Practical Example. Journal of Social Work Education, 54, S103-S112.
- Frey, A.J, Lee, J., & Small, J.W, Walker, H.M., & Seeley, J.R. (2017). Motivational Interviewing Training and Assessment System for School-Based Applications.Emotional & Behavioral Disorders in Youth, 17, 86–92.
- Frey, A.J., Small, J.W., Lee, J., Walker, H.M., Seeley, J.R., Feil, E.G. & Golly, A. (2015). Expanding the range of the First Step to Success intervention: Tertiary-level support for teachers and families.Early Childhood Research Quarterly. 30, 1–11.
- Small, J.W., Lee, J., Frey, A.J, Seeley, J.R, & Walker, H.M. (2014). The development of instruments to measure motivational interviewing skill acquisition for school-based personnel. Advances inSchool Mental Health Promotion, 7, 240–254.
- Lee, J., Frey, A., Reinke, W.M., & Herman, K.C. (2014). Motivational interviewing as a framework to guide school-based coaching.Advances in School Mental Health Promotion, 7, 225–239.
- Frey, A.J., Lee, J., Small, J.W., Seeley, J.R., Walker, H.M. & Feil, E.G.(2013). The Motivational Interviewing Navigation Guide: a process for enhancing teachers’ motivation to adopt and implement school-based interventions. Advances in School Mental Health Promotion, 6, 158–173.
- Frey, A. J., Lee, J., Small, J.W., Seeley, J.R., Walker, H. M., & Feil, E. G. (2013). Transporting motivational interviewing to school settings to improve engagement and fidelity of Tier 2 interventions. Journal of Applied School Psychology, 29, 183–202.
- Frey, A.J., Alverez, M.E., Sabatino, C.A.(2013). Consultation to improve treatment integrity. Children & Schools, 35, 3–8.
- Frey, A.J., Sims, K. & Alverez, M.E. (2013). The promise of Motivational Interviewing for securing a niche in Response to Intervention. Children & Schools, 35, 67–70.
- Frey, A.J., Cloud, R.N., Lee, J., Small, J.W. Seeley, J.R., Feil, E., … & Golly, A. (2011). The promise of motivational interviewing in school mental health. School Mental Health, 3, 1–12.