Can you edit it and focus on academic and grammar as well as APA style

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Introduction:

School psychology is considered one of the important profession in the school, and school psychologists are the people who qualified to enhance students’ abilities to learn and succeed. They work with students, teachers, administrators and family's members to create a safe environment that meets socially, emotionally, academically and healthy needs for all people in the school (National Association School Psychologists, n.d). School psychologists have knowledge about children' behaviors and learning as well as how to develop them emotionally and cognitively. They also support districts when they involve in planning and implementing programs to remedy the health and mental matters that affect schools such as violence and crimes. School psychologists are considered as excellent resources for schools, districts, and family because they offer services regard solving problems related to school like parents’ skills (Sheridan, S., and Gutkin, 2000).

In fact, school psychologists play a great role to improve education. They have a positive impact on learning process and students’ achievements, so they are considered as effective components in the school. Sheridan and Gutkin (2000) stated that:

School psychologists are the most highly trained mental health experts in schools. In addition to knowledge about prevention, intervention, and evaluation for a number of childhood problems, school psychologists have unique expertise regarding issues of learning and schools. (P.1).

This assignment gathered opinions and information from some research studies which concern with school psychology. The purpose of this assignment is to investigate the changes of school psychology in both roles and functions as well as the challenges and shortages that impede school psychologists.

School Psychology changes:

There were efforts to define school psychologists and their functions in the schools since 1930 to 1994 by Wise and Fagan researchers. In 1946, American Psychological Association (APA) made a department of school psychology to be as a national field. Most studies illustrate description and definition of school psychologists that mentioned how school psychologists’ work is very important (Rogers, P.13,14, 2010). According to Fagan &Wise (2000) the school psychologist defined as follows:

A school psychologist is a professional practitioner whose general purpose is to bring a psychological perspective to bear on the problem of educators and the clients educators serve. (p.4).

Since a hundred years, the most of school psychologists spend their times for assessment and counseling individually. However, in the recent 30 years, they have made counseling with parents and teachers very significant than before (Magi & Kikas, p.4, 2009).

School psychologists job is unlike other psychologists in many ways. For example, school counselors and school psychologists are similar in some way. They work with parents, teachers and students to give them supports and services, but they are different in some areas such as responsibilities and what focus on. School counselors concern with delivering the services to students by collaboration with teachers and parents regard classroom courses. However, school psychologists focus on intervention and assessment for students and work with educational administrators to improve school districts’ policy. Moreover, their roles extend to services students with special needs and provide behavioral and mental health counseling. School counselors’ responsibilities are limited to providing small groups or individuals by supports to improve academically and socially (Capella University, 2016). Assessment was the fundamental role for early school psychologists. In the first period of the 20th century, there were 23 functions for school psychologists. That time was called the hybrid years (1890-1969) and through years (1970-present). In the latter decades of the hybrid years, school psychologists were practitioners in many fields which are teacher education, guidance, and counseling (Fagan &Wise, P.24,2000). In 1900s psychologists’ functions were generally related to education, learning, and behaviors of children. Then, they expanded their roles to analyze and apply theories from their perspective regard teaching and learning (Rogers, P.39, 2010). Today, school psychologists are considered as a resource for schools, teachers, parents and students to provide aids and services regarding the improvement of programs and enhance students' achievements (Canadian Psychological Association, P.1, 2007).

School Psychology Roles:

Consultation

School psychologists work with parents, teachers and administrators to improve learning, change students’ behaviors and develop schools’ system policy. Also, they work to build a strong relationship with teachers, family members, parents and service providers in the community. Gilman and Gabriel found that 76% of school psychologists and 62% of teachers believed that school psychologists’ involvement in counseling students is very significant. Moreover, 50% of administrators emphasized the need for increasing counseling in the school. Some studies illustrated how school psychologists spend times in their practices primarily counseling. Bramlett, Murphy, Johnson, Wallingsford & Hall stated that school psychologists spend around 50% of the time on assessment, but 16% of the time is spent in counseling with different levels. Also, Agresta’s study indicated that the need to extend the time in consolation (as cited in Mosher,2015). 

As some studies clarified that consolation is a necessary service that is done by school psychologists, there is investigation regard this service in different perceptions. According to the study by Magi and Kikas (2009), based on the quantitative analysis with administrators’ opinions, there is a little support by principals about counseling.  Only 49% of principals agreed that school psychologists should advise teachers and administrators by providing conversations and lectures. 27% of them also, believed that school psychologists should work in consulting with faculty and administration to improve the planning and the learning process. However, in qualitative analysis that was by interview instrument, one principal stated that consultation is the main function in school psychology by the following:

A psychologist should be the kind of person to whom pupils can talk without fear. He/she should have the same function also for teachers so that they could talk about their worries and from whom they would get advice about how to behave with youngsters and their negativism. Counseling parents should also be his/her duty. I believe we should start from parents, as many problems start from broken families, from single parents, who work all day and have no time for their children.

Assessment and Evaluation

Evaluation and assessment in school psychology focus on learning skills and social-emotional development. The evaluation is concerned with achievements, developmental and personality status as well as cognitive abilities. School psychologists work with teachers and administrators to collect data analyze regard school development, students' accomplishments and protective factors in the school. This work can help the school to meet the demand of laws like the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (National Association of School Psychologists, 2010).

National Association of School Psychologists (2014), school psychologists obtain an advance graduate preparation that related heavily to education and psychology at the same time to develop their skills and knowledge in many aspects of assessment.  School psychologists conduct different procedures of assessment such as standardized tests and rating scales. Standardized tests. A standardized test is used to test students’ abilities and compare them with their peers. The second procedure is rating scales such as Behavior Assessment System for Children (BASC) and Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales. This method based on assessing the skills that students possess (Canter, 2003).

Interventions

School psychologists work with others in the school to implement services that strength cognitive and academic skills. They design interventions that aimed at improving students to participate and engage with others because engagement can help students to obtain information and understand the subjects very well. Also, some programs that school psychologist design concerned with developing strategies and methods for teaching and learning to help students to raise their achievements and teachers too. Those programs focus on meeting the needs of students and address their weakness. The intervention in school psychology also related to improving social and life skills. The purpose of intervention is supporting mental health as along side with academic goals for students. Another goal is to encourage students to obtain effective skills which are self-regulation, organization, empathy and social skills (National Association of School Psychology, n.d).  Stephen, Weist, Kataoka, Adelsheim, and Mills (2007), conducted a study that explains the importance of the intervention to improve the mental and social health. They shared their study with stakeholders who are: families, leaders, students, teachers, and community members. Moreover, the authors Foster, Rollefson, Doksum, Noonan, and-and Robinson (2005) found that 63,169 school psychologists were in the country who spend 48% of their times on providing mental health intervention.

Observation

Observationis a role in school psychology that is considered as a part of assessment procedure that refer to observe students’ behaviors. Naturalistic observation is a type of direct observation that is based on recording the behaviors of students in their natural setting. Wilson and Reschly (1996) stated the following:

Naturalistic observation is the most frequently used type of direct observation, used nearly twice as often as other more systematic approaches to observation. The reason for this practice most likely lies in its ease of use and minimal training requirements (as cited in Hintze and Shapiro,P.995, n.d).

School psychologists stated that classroom observation questions are around four questions which are: 1) What was the child doing? 2) What did the observation occur: playground or classroom? 3)What was the child supposed to be doing? 4) How long did you observe? Sattler (1992), illustrated that classroom observation supports the observers to mentor the students’ behaviors in a natural setting. School psychologists who make observation can collect data and compare with the children’ observation reports that were done by parents or teachers. Also, they can compare with another observation of children’ behaviors during less frequent standardized testing (as cited in Fagan & Wise, p.124,2000).

Shortages in School Psychology:

School psychology profession like other professions which have both opportunities and difficulties. The shortage appears in serving students and meeting their needs because there are limited of trained school psychologists. There is a lack of positions because there is no enough of qualified school psychologists who offer academic and school mental health services that address students' needs. National Association School Psychology required that the maximum numbers of students for each psychologist are 1,000, but the study stated that the average numbers are 1,653 students per psychologist. Moreover, there is a limited number of qualified professional who can work in certain schools such as rural school, a school with high crimes or poverty because of the risks (National Association of School Psychologists, 2006). Some challenges face school psychologists who work in districts that aim to shift from traditional psychometric approaches to RTI approach that concern with measuring individuals' performance changes over time. National Association of School Psychologists (2006) revealed the following:

Such challenges include the shift from a "within child" deficit paradigm to an eco-behavioral perspective; a greater emphasis on instructional intervention and progress monitoring prior to special education referral; an expansion of the school psychologist's assessment "tool kit" to include more instructionally relevant, ecologically based procedures; and possibly the need for additional training in all of the above.

There is a reason lead to shortages in school psychology which is the lack of funds to provide direct assistance to students and remedy the shortages. Also, training programs are limited to help new psychologists and meet their demands. School psychologists’ abilities are limited because there are restrictive roles like testing the special education eligibility which prevents school psychologists to use their experiences to remedy some problems. 

 

 

 

 

References:

Supporting Student Success: Remedying the Shortage of School Psychologists. (2006). National Association of School Psychologists. Retrieved from file:///Users/haya/Downloads/personnelshortages(0) (1).pdf.

 

NASP: The National Association of School Psychologists. (n.d.). Retrieved November 27, 2016, from https://www.nasponline.org/standards-and-certification/nasp-practice-model/nasp-practice-model-implementation-guide/section-i-nasp-practice-model-overview/nasp-practice-model-10-domains

 

Canter, A. (2003, November). Psychological Evaluations: What Every Principal Should Know. NASP Center, 4.

 

Mosher, M. J. (2015). Understanding The Role of The School psychologist From The perspective of School of Administrators (Doctoral dissertation, Fairleigh Dickinson University) (pp. 1-51). ProQuest

 

Magi, K., & Kikas, E. (2009). School Psychologists' Role in School: Expectations of School Principals on the Work of School Psychologists. School Psychology International, 30(4), 331-346. doi:10.1177/0143034309106943

 

Hintze, J., & Shapiro, R. (n.d.). Best Practice in The Systematic Direct Observation of Students Behaviors. Best Practice in School Psychology, 993-1006. Retrieved from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/fd97/433ea0cc0883be72b7b561cb30d8fc8af23e.Pdf

 

The Role of the School Psychologist in the RTI Process. (2006). Retrieved November 27, 2016, from www.nasponline.org

 

Rogers, B. A. (2010). Examining aspects of role and practice changes for school psychologists in Georgia: A mixed methods analysis (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Georgia Southern University. Retrieved from http://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1522&context=etd

 

Guidelines for Professional Practice for School Psychologists in Canada. (2007). Canadian Psychological Association, 1-48. doi:78-1-896538-73-0

 

The Difference Between School Counselors and School Psychologists. (n.d.). Retrieved November 24, 2016, from http://www.capella.edu/blogs/cublog/school-counselor-vs-school-psychologist/