User:Lucyc2/School Psychology

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Assessments

Historically, the main role of school psychologists has been to assess and diagnose students with behavioral or learning disabilities and determine their eligibility for exceptional needs programs. Within the contemporary field, the roles and responsibilities of individual practitioners have expanded significantly beyond the service of special needs students; however, assessment remains a central service performed by school psychologists.

Current trends in the field of school psychology call for practitioners to move away from IQ-based assessment practices and encourage assessments that consider students’ individual profiles and attainable, more tailored intervention practices. Individualized education programs (IEPs) are reports summarizing the student’s current performance, goals to guide the student’s progress, and proposed resources to meet any special educational needs.

Intervention
One of the primary roles and responsibilities of school psychologists working in schools is to develop and implement '''programs geared towards the optimal learning and mental well being of students. School psychologists call these programs 'interventions' when they are implemented in response to a significant issue affecting one or more students.''' ensure the interventions they utilize effectively address students’ behavior problems. Interventions in school psychology are typically classified as "direct" when practitioners work with students to rectify their own academic or behavioral problems and as "indirect" when they collaborate with the student's family or teachers to correct academic or behavioral problems. Popular intervention formats include individual meetings, school assemblies, parent-teacher conferences, workshops, and awareness campaigns. After significant developments in related psychological fields over the latter half of the twentieth century, school psychologists have begun to move towards intervention frameworks that center on individually tailored assessments and evidence-based interventions, rather than diagnosed disabilities. This is part of a larger movement to expand the role of school psychologists outside of special education.

Newly designed interventions must be empirically tested through a series of randomized studies conducted by researchers in order to be proven effective for school environments. Issues arise when school psychologists do not select interventions with sufficient research-based evidence in being effective for the individual with whom they are working. '''Evidence-based interventions, known within the field as EBIs, while widely circulated amongst researchers, can be difficult to implement within school environments. This is due in small part to the fledgling nature of school psychology as a field, but also due to the difference between research settings and clinical or classroom settings, with the later being generally more unpredictable and vulnerable to outside influences than the former. Thus, practitioners often modify research-based interventions in order to suit the particular needs of a student or student population.''' School psychologists, as researchers and practitioners, can make important contributions to the development and implementation of scientifically based intervention and prevention programs to address learning and behavioral needs of students (National Association of School Psychologists (NASP). https://www.nasponline.org/ .)

There is a concern with implementing academic and behavioral interventions prior to the determination for special education services, and it has also been proposed that MTSS (Multi-Tiered Systems of Support) may address these concerns[citation needed ]. The National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) recognizes the need for evidence-based prevention and intervention practices to address student learning, social emotional development, behavioral performance, instructional methodology, school practices, classroom management, and other areas salient to school-based services and improving student outcomes (National Association of School Psychologists (NASP). https://www.nasponline.org/ . )Intervention and prevention research needs to address a range of questions related not only to efficacy and effectiveness, but also to feasibility given resources (e.g., time, money, staffing), acceptability (e.g., teacher, student, and community attitudes toward intervention strategies) , social validity (the relevance of targeted outcomes to everyday life of students) , integrity or fidelity (the extent to which individuals responsible for implementing an intervention can do so as intended by its designers) , and sustainability (extent to which school staff can maintain the intervention over time, without support from external agents) (National Association of School Psychologists (NASP). https://www.nasponline.org/ .)

A specific example of an intervention that has recently become popular among school psychologists is the School-Wide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (SWPBIS) intervention. The SWPBIS involves a communal effort among school staff to establish school-wide behavioral expectations, which are reinforced by reward systems in order to promote positive forms of coaching and mentorship . Authorized under Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDIEA), '''the SWPBIS system has been implemented in over 25,000 schools as of 2018. Like other Evidence-based interventions, the SWPBIS has a large body of research supporting its effectiveness in promoting positive academic and interpersonal behaviors among students .''' the PBIS offers a “preventative, positive, and systemic framework or approach to affect educational and behavioral change” and can be used in the support of Tiers 1–3 in the education system. Research from single-case design studies and group studies demonstrates that the intervention can result in a reduction of major disciplinary infractions and aggressive behavior, improvement in academic achievement, an increase in prosocial behavior, a reduction in bullying behavior reported by teachers, and much more. Through consistent and strong implementation fidelity, PBIS can provide school psychologists opportunities to assist the administration, teaching staff, and students in broad and specific ways.

*** Editor's note - I'm hesitant to delete and completely rewrite this entire section, but there are some pretty pervasive problems with it (including some citation and, I suspect, plagiarism issues). For now, I've decided to try and bolster the information that's already here rather than completely rework the section. I'll post in the talk page before I make any final decisions, but I intend to revisit this question over the course of this project. I suspect the deletion of PBIS and IDEA is something you may need to edit, rather than fully delete.

Prevention
A way in which school psychologists can help students is by creating primary prevention programs. In school psychology, prevention programs are interventions that are implemented before an academic or behavioral issue becomes clinically significant, or before it even presents itself at all. '''Substance abuse, bullying, truancy, and drop-outs are some common issues targeted by prevention programs. However,''' i nformation about prevention should also be connected to current events in the community.