Can You Please Tell Me Who is in Charge Here????

There has been a lot of discussion in the educational community about creating a merit pay scale directly influenced by the outcomes of performance based standards. Who should be the one to determine how educators would be rated and compensated based on student performance outcomes? Should it be an educational administrator, a teacher, or someone outside the education sector, such as the Commissioner of Education who may come into office with limited public school experience?

Some states have established performance standards for learning that are designed to guide the instructional process.

1. How do you feel about states having different performance standards when the outcomes can directly influence pay and how much funding a school district receives?
   
2. How can federal funding such as "Race to the Top" be fairly distributed among states that have different performance standards?
   
3. Why shouldn't all states have the same performance standards for learning?

Why shouldn't this profession be treated like any other job where performance dictates continued employment, promotions, and incremental salary increases? What will happen to those in tenured positions if a merit pay scale is established and supported by the community? If they are grandfathered in, would that be enough to provide sustained motivation to improve the delivery of service to students?

This Blog was created by: Jennifer Fandino and Linda Bowles.

Are You Ready????

In the Jacob and Hartshorne text it states: "Maintaining up-to-date knowledge of school policies and practices that have an impact of onthe welfare of children and sharing that expertise in consultation with school principals and other decision makers, may enable school psychologists to to effect organizational change that can have a positive impact on large numbers of children."

This poses an important set of questions:

1. Do you feel that you are ready to take on this role? We are only given one class that has to do with school law. How are you going tokeep yourself updated and with the current times?

2. Do you think in the beginning you will feel comfortable telling others including administrators what to do or how to do something?

3. What do you do if you come across a principal who disagrees withyour opinion or decision even though you truly feel that it is theright way to go? Do you fight for the child's right or do you quiet down in fear of losing your job or developing an uneasy relationship within your school?

This blog was created by Denise Torres and Stefanie Tych.

Working with the Culturally Diverse

With immigration to the United States rapidly on the rise, growing awareness of the importance of integrating cultural values and norms into professional practice has been under evaluation to examine its effectiveness. As a practitioner, one is ethically obligated to provide therapy that is culturally sensitive, respectful, and beneficial based on a client’s background characteristics (Jacob & Hartshorne, 2007).

In an effort to provide culturally competent practice; a school psychologist must attempt to utilize the following “best practices” strategies (Sue & Sue, 2008):

• develop awareness of their own cultural heritage, gender, class, ethnic-racial identity, sexual orientation, and age and its implications on personal and social development
  
• learn about a client’s background, values, and experiences and how they may have influenced individual development and behavior
  
• demonstrate understanding and respect for cultural and experiential differences between practitioner and client
  
• utilize knowledge of best practices when selecting, designing, and implementing treatment plans for diverse students/clients
  
• consider an individual’s cultural/ethnic identity to prevent “over-pathology” or “under-pathology”
  
• become conscious of communication style and try to anticipate their impact on culturally diverse clients
  
• dispel biases through immersion of culture which requires additional education
  seek professional advice from colleagues

By adhering to the aforementioned strategies, school psychologists will provide, to the best of their ability, a therapeutic climate where progress is likely to occur.

To what extent do personal biases, lack of requisite knowledge, and poor adaptive therapeutic skills influence professional practice when working with a diverse clientele?

This blog was created by: Prattima Kaulessar & Danielle Muhammad

NSPLB: No School Psychologist Left Behind

According to Ervin, Gimpel, and Merrell (2006, p 140), it has been “expected” that school psychologists perform refer-test-place tasks and do traditional diagnostic roles. Teachers and parents have seen the psychologist's primary function as one of assessing children to determine if they are in need of receiving special education services. A problem occurs between the actual and preferred roles of the school psychologist and also the current and recommended practices that they use. In addition, there is a huge increase in children who are in need of special education services due to awareness, teachers wanting a disruptive child out of their class, increased stress on testing due to NCLB, and many parents wanting their children to receive aid on testing.

With this influx of children who are in need and requesting tested and financial problems within the state do you think there is any time for a school psychologist to do anything but test the children that require testing?

How much can be expected of the school psychologist and where should our focus be?

This blog was created by Rebecca Guenther and Danielle Allegra.

Paradigm Shift

We believe that much of the existing struggle in moving forward and expanding our practice roles from “what is” in our current practice to “what should be” is a result of the difficulties we face as we try to step away from traditional roles that have now become institutionalized. In essence, what has traditionally or historically dominated our practice roles (i.e., traditional diagnostic and refer-test-place tasks) has become our expected. Others (teachers, administrators, parents, etc.) have come to know the school psychologist as one whose primary and most visible function has been the psychoeducational assessment and diagnosis of children to determine their eligibility for special education and/or related services (Fagan, 1995; Lentz & Shapiro, 1985).


However, eligibility is not determined by the school psychologist alone. The implementation of the IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act) brought about the need for an IEP team to conjunctively evaluate whether a child meets the criteria to be placed in a special education program (Jacob & Hartshorne, 2007).
How can we as school psychologists work more effectively with other members of the IEP team in order to ensure that students’ needs are being met? As future school psychologists, how do you see your role in relation to other members of the IEP team?

For many of us preparing to enter the field or have been in the field are inundated with “what is” our role as a school psychologist. How do we shift roles to “what should be” our function as a school psychologist? According to Merrell et al., 2006), we believe it is essential that school psychologists: (1) critically examine current practice and recognize the need to move beyond our traditional roles; (2) gain a thorough understanding of the shortcomings of the traditional roles (understand why we need to try alternative approaches); (3) establish a clear vision of our role as a data-driven problem solver and implement this role in practice; and (4) carefully evaluate the utility of any alternative practice that we implement.

The current practice to use a problem-solving approach has been effective and gives the school psychologist a more proactive stance in the school. However, despite advocacy for this approach and advances in problem-solving methodologies, and evidenced-based practices, schools do not readily adopt evidenced-based practices (Abbott, Walton, Tapia, & Greenwood, 1999; Carnine 1997, 1999; Fornes, 2003a; Friedma, 2003, Hunter, 2003).

How do we make effective practices an accepted and necessary approach in the school?

Would this approach help us to identify issues earlier, and offer more
opportunities for early intervention?

This blog was created by Mark Newman and Anel DeJesus.

Before the Damge is Done...

IDEA does not really focus on preventive measures. Many schools are only interested in tertiery care yet these small percentage of students take up almost the whole time of a school psychologist's job.

Is prevention also a feasible tool in reducing the number of children at risk? What can we do as school psychologists, in terms of prevention strategies, to reduce the number of kids with intensive emotional or behavioral problems?

This blog was created by Alaafia Ajibade and Mike Drozdick.

Taken from The Black Briefcase – The Blog of The Life of a School Psychologist…

“Today we met with teachers to discuss the accommodations page in each child's IEP. This meeting usually isn't a big deal because the teacher has only known the child for a couple of days at this point. We met with the specials teachers (art, music, gym and media) to discuss all of the children who have IEPs. We had to discuss the new child who has a history of sexual abuse. We had to make certain arrangements so that the child would have an escort for whenever she left the room. We had to inform the teachers about this plan, without explaining why. It was hard to emphasize the need for constant supervision without giving any details. I adhere to confidentiality, almost to the point where I don't even share information with team members. I don't participate in hearsay, if someone wants information I tell him or her to consult the file, if he or she has permission to do so.I am sensitive to this child's needs, but I'm also sensitive to the safety and well-being of the other children. I also don't want to single-out this child, but I'm not sure how to ensure safety without doing so. This will be tough.”

Confidentiality is a huge issue in many practices, especially in that of school psychology. The code of ethics state that it’s important that we keep students’ information safe and that we respect their privacy and that of their families. But to what degree do you think this is actually put into practice in schools? Do you believe that school personnel abide by confidentiality rules such as the School Psychologist in this article or do you think that they do participate in hearsay with their colleagues? What is it like at your school?

http://theblackbriefcase.blogspot.com/2008/09/confidentiality.html

This Blog was created by Denise Torres and Stefanie Tych.

From our Schools to our Prison Pipeline

Failure to provide appropriate behavioral interventions may be contributing to delinquency among students with disabilities. Students of color, students with disabilities, and especially poor black males, are at greatest risk for being suspended repeatedly in a single school year, raising serious questions about the adequacy of behavioral supports that are being provided.

Effective interventions and programs that reduce risk and enhance protective factors for youths at risk for delinquency exist. These have the potential to reduce the human costs of victimization and save tax dollars in both the short and long terms. The school-to-prison pipeline is preventable, but harnessing the political will to do so is difficult. This challenge may well prove to be more formidable than accumulating the knowledge base required to reverse the flow from the school-to-prison pipeline toward the school-to-graduation-to-postsecondary-education path. Placing pressure on leaders to move beyond the simplistic rhetoric of zero tolerance and getting the “disruptive kids out of class” to address these complex problems and glaring racial disparities with compassion, care, knowledge, and determination will not be easy.

Adult prisons and juvenile halls are riddled with children who have traveled through the school-to-prison pipeline. Approximately 68 percent of state prison inmates in 1997 had not completed high school. Seventy-five percent of youths under age eighteen who have been sentenced to adult prisons have not passed tenth grade. An estimated 70 percent of the juvenile justice population suffers from learning disabilities, and 33 percent read below the fourth grade level. The single largest predictor of later arrest among adolescent females is having been suspended, expelled, or retained during the middle school years.

Yet despite the strong relationships that exist between troubled educational histories and subsequent arrest and incarceration, the specific ways in which schools may either contribute to or prevent the flow of students into the criminal justice system remains largely unexplored. Given the growing overall numbers of the prison population—now at a record 2.1 million—in the United States, along with the glaring racial disproportionality within this population, achieving a more accurate and complete understanding of these relationships is urgent.

As school psychologists how can we help to replace the school-to- prison pipeline with a school- to- post -secondary training path? Are there interventions that we know about that address the lack of skill development in some children? What kinds of behaviors are children exhibiting that require such restrictive placements? Are these placements in settings like those used for the "educably mentally retarded" or "emotionally disturbed"? Are these settings providing the kind of opportunities for educational and social growth that children and adolescents need?

Posted by Tammarrah Jones.

Culturally-Competent Assessments

Culturally competent practice in assessment is essential to improving outcomes for all students. It can reduce the achievement gaps and the disproportionate placement of minority students in special education. Nonverbal cognitive and alternate assessment strategies are strongly recommended by NASP. Alternate assessment strategies such as curriculum-based assessment, test-teach-test and performance monitoring over time should also be conducted.

Despite these recommendations, the field has been unable to develop culture-free intelligence tests. This is due to a myriad of factors, but an underlying explanation is that different cultures value different views of intelligence. As school psychologists, we will be responsible for assessing children from a variety of different cultural and linguistic backgrounds. How do we mitigate the limitations of the test in order to get a more accurate picture of the child's capability? What types of assessment do you plan to use for children from different cultures, socioeconomic statuses, linguistic backgrounds, etc.? How do you plan to address the assessment's limitations in your report?

Posted by Roxane Nassirpour.

Mirror, mirror on the wall...who's the fairest of them all?

A Projective test is a method of personality assessment in which an individual is presented with a standardized set of ambiguous, abstract stimuli and asked to interpret their meanings, wherein the individual's responses are assumed to reveal inner feelings, motives, and conflicts.
Although clinicians frequently use projectives, the subjective interpretation of responses to projective stimuli is problematic with regard to reliability and validity ( Beutler, 1995; Dawes, 1994). Recent refinements in scoring have focused on quantifying responses and comparing them to established norms ( Exner, 1993), with resulting improvement in reliability and validity.
It seems imperative that users score responses to projective tests objectively if adequate reliability and validity are to result. Without such objective scoring, the door is left open to biased interpretation. For example, if one believes the respondent is aggressive, one may tend to note responses that support such an impression and pay less attention to responses that do not fit as well.

History has shown that the scientific method is the most useful method for gaining reliable knowledge about the world. Will clinical practice improve with the adoption of empirically based rules?

Is there a place for subjective interpretation in psychological assessments and treatments or should clinical practice be guided by the scientific method?

Posted by Courtney Lynch.

There's no I in TEAM...or is there?!?!?!

As School Psychologists we are going to be a part of the Child StudyTeam in whatever kind of school that we choose. As in any "team,"there are always going to be conflicting personalities and people thatare difficult to get along with. No matter what type of people we haveon our team, we're going to have to learn to work together. How do youfeel about team dynamics and how will they affect our jobs? Ifeveryone got along and had similar systems of working, that would bean ideal situation. But, that will not always happen.

There are many factors that contribute to the team dynamic--age, howlong they've been there, methods, opinions, and much more. Do youthink there are different strategies we can use to solidify themembers in order to work better together? What role, if any, does theSupervisor have in this?

Posted by Susan Bartolozzi.

Unlocking the Mystery: MISINTERPRETATIONS OF COGNITIVE TESTS...

We can all agree that the interpretation of cognitive test scores mostly leads to decisions concerning the diagnosis, educational placement, and types of interventions used for children. Knowing this fact, it is absolutely necessary for us, as future school psychologists, to administer and score cognitive tests without any errors.

A recent study published in Psychology in the Schools (Graduate students’ administration and scoring errors on the Woodcock-Johnston III Tests of Cognitive Abilities, vol.46, issue 7, pgs. 650-657, July 2009) looked at the frequency and the types of errors that occurred during administration and scoring of Woodcock Johnston III Tests of Cognitive Abilities (WJ III COG). Data from 36 graduate students across 108 test records revealed a total of 500 errors across all records!!!! Three frequently occurring errors included the use of incorrect ceilings, failure to record errors, and failure to encircle the correct row for the total number correct.

Can we avoid making scoring errors on cognitive tests and if so how? Are these errors more likely to occur on WJ III or they happen regardless of the test used? Are we properly trained to administer cognitive tests? Do you think that wrong scores may result in some children being placed in the wrong settings?

And finally…What can our graduate programs do to ensure that we are all properly trained to administer cognitive tests?

Posted by Tjasa Korda.

I'm Sending Out an S.O.S.

The following article was written by a school psychologist as his message to teachers in his school:

http://www.newsday.com/opinion/opinion-teachers-it-all-comes-down-to-you-1.1417759

As future school psychologists, what do you feel your obligations are when dealing with situations

of difficult students? Do you feel that giving information and guidance to teachers on how to treat children or adolescents and handle these situations is enough? Sometimes teachers are very quick to refer students for evaluation, but how much are they doing in their classrooms before resorting to this? As school personnel as a whole, we should be treating each and every student with the idea that he or she needs that extra care to succeed. The article said:
"This type of caring extends beyond a call home to parents when homework or papers aren't completed. It's the quality of caring that challenges us to look beyond the traditional markers of educational excellence. It invites us to try and connect with the humanity in even the most difficult of students."

How do we, then, deal with teachers that do not put forth as much effort as we would like? How can we make up for this in another way?

Posted by Susan Bartolozzi.

Will the Real School Psychologist Please Stand Up?!?

Some people don't know the role of a school psychologist, and when they hear the term they automatically think of them as a typical "psychologist." It has been proposed by the APA to change the title of school psychologists in order to eliminate that confusion. As future school psychologists, what is your opinion on this topic? Do you feel that there should be a new title or term given for us or that it should be left alone? How do you feel this will impact our future careers?

The proposed changes would allow any licensed doctoral level psychologist to use the title “school psychologist” and work in public schools, even though they have no training in school psychology and are less qualified than we will be to perform school psychological services. How will this impact students? Will students receive competent care from unqualified doctoral level psychologists with no training in psycho educational evaluation and assessment? At a time when there is a shortage of school psychologists and an increased need for school psychological services, does it make sense for the APA to advocate these changes and limit current school psychologists from engaging in work they are qualified and trained to do?

Check out these links to find out more about the APA Model Act Revisions
http://njasp.org/notes/APA%20MODEL%20LICENSURE%20ACT%20UPDATE.pdf

http://www.nasponline.org/standards/apamla_previous.aspx

This blog was created by Laura Martino and Susan Bartolozzi

I CAN"T TAKE IT ANYMORE....

Suicide is one of the three leading causes of death among adolescents. It is estimated that in 2001 there were approximately 9.9 completed suicides per 100,000 adolescents in the 15-to24-year age group and 1.3 suicides per 100,000 children in the 10-to14-year age group (National Institute of Mental Health, 2004).

Suppose you had a 17 year old female student come to your office. She is terribly distraught that her boyfriend that she has been with for the past year has cheated on her and wants nothing to do with her. She can hardly keep her composure and keeps saying that she wants to die and she is going to kill herself. She tells you exactly how she will go about taking her own life. She states that she is going to take a bottle of aspirin and down it with a pint of vodka. How would you assess this situation? What do you think is the degree of lethality of this suicidal ideation? What would be your course of action?

This blog was created by Desiree Antas.

HELP...is anyone out there...

While teachers, parents and administrators commonly refer students to the school psychologist, many times, especially in high school some of these referrals are self-referrals. If a student is having issues and they decide to seek help, should we be held responsible to tell their parents? Currently there do not seem to be any case law decisions that address this specific question. In some states minors are given the right to access certain types of treatments without parental notice but usually only for conditions considered medical in nature like drug abuse or venereal disease.

Becky is a 16-year-old student at the local high school where you work. She asks to speak with you, the school psychologist, about some issues. You decide to sit down with Becky and have a pre-counseling screening session. In the session she tells you that she is having some issues at home and she wants to learn some methods on how to deal with them. She is not in any kind of harm but she needs someone to talk to about these issues. She asks that her parents not be notified because it might put extra strain on their relationship. You determine that Becky could probably benefit from spending some time talking with you, but you know contacting her parents will compromise that. You work in a district with unclear rules for this sort of issue. What are your ethical responsibilities to Becky? to her parents?

This blog was created by Jessica Sosnowski.

Breaking away from Traditional Assessments...

As school psychologists, one of our primary roles will be assessing children to determine eligibility for special education services. The question of what constitutes an appropriate evaluation is a controversial topic that school psychologists often disagree on. Traditional assessment focused on standardized test scores of intellectual ability to determine eligibility of services. Standardized norm-referenced measures are a necessary and important part of assessment, but do scores alone give you enough information to define a problem behavior, implement an intervention, and see if there is a positive outcome? Alternative assessment methods such as FBA’s have become more popular in creating successful interventions. As future school psychologists’ shouldn’t our goal be to develop recommendations that will have positive outcomes for the child? How do we break away from traditional practices and incorporate new methods of assessment that will guide us in the evaluation process?

This blog was created by Melissa Picariello

Understanding Section 504

Section 504 of the rehabilitation Act of 1973 protects students with handicaps from discrimination, requires schools to take reasonable action to prevent harassment and requires schools to make accommodations to ensure that students with handicaps have equal opportunity to programs and activities. Section 504’s definition of handicapped is any mental, physical or emotional impairment that limits one or more life activity, such as learning. This article provides more information on ADHD and Section 504:

http://www.helpforadd.com/educational-rights/

Children with ADHD who do not need special education are eligible for special accommodations under 504. Schools must provide students with handicaps equal opportunity in the most integrated setting appropriate and those students must remain in the regular educational environment.

How do you feel this might affect other children in the class? Also, some parents might object to this because they feel that the children who need special accommodations might be receiving more attention than their children. How can the teacher balance everything while still giving each student what he or she needs?

This blog was created by Susan Bartolozzi and Laura Martino

Why has Testing and Assessment Gotten Such a Bad Rep?

The common job description of a school psychologist looks something like this: "Administer diagnostic assessments and evaluate student performance. Develop, implement and monitor goals and objectives of the school and program. Work with parents in the development of each student."

As most of us know, not only will we be testing, assessing and working with parents and teachers to help school children, but at times we will be called on for crisis interventions, therapeutic counseling, etc. There is no question that working as a school psychologist can be both rewarding and challenging. But our jobs shouldn't just stop there.

When discussing the primary role and function of a school psychologist, all agree that testing and assessment has A LOT to do with it. And if done correctly, assessment can help the client benefit from the many special services he/she may need. So if the tests are designed to get the child the help they need, why does the help only occur if assessment is done correctly? Why are so many kids, failed by misdiagnosis? In my opinion, assessment is a collaborative process and can only be done correctly if there is parent, teacher, and of course student cooperation. We can't assess on testing alone. In addition to using tests in the decision making process, we need to examine:

Day-to-Day Observation

Essays

Interviews

Performance tasks

Exhibitions and Demonstrations

Portfolios

Journals

Teacher-created tests

Rubrics

Self- and peer-evaluations

By using all of this in addition to having the involvement of parents and teachers, we as school psychologists can truly make an accurate assessment. One question remains however, is this too much to ask from the teacher and parent? And is going "beyond the test" asking too much of the school psychologist?

This blog was created by Tahina Reyes.

IDEA: Falling Short of New Ideas

Within the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, it is required that students with special needs be placed within least restrictive environments (mainstreaming) to ensure that both disabled and non-disabled children receive an appropriate and non-biased education. This principle applies only when children of special needs are capable of functioning and benefiting from these environments.

Let's suppose Billy is a very low functioning SLD student whose IEP states that he should be receiving in-class support within an inclusion based setting. Do you feel that this setting would be beneficial for Billy? Or would a resource setting be more appropriate? Being a low-functioning SLD student, what would be some of the issues or problems he would face within these settings? As the school psychologist, what would you do if Billy's parents refused to comply with the IEP? How would you as the psychologist ensure the necessity for special education?

This Blog was created by Tamara Filangieri and Angelica Cunha