PMB 419, 25 NW 23rd PL STE 6, Portland, OR 97210-5599

SITE INDEX
HOME

Become a Member

By-Laws

Conference Info

(JavaScript must be enabled to display this email address.)

THE HERE AND NOW OF SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGY

By Karen O'Brien, NASP Delegate

As you may know, the Conference on the "Future of School Psychology was held in November 2002. Follow-up activities and sessions have been held since then at NASP Regional Meetings and at the yearly Annual Conventions. Some state associations have identified "Future Liaisons" and developed action plans for their states to address some of the outcomes of the conference. The Colorado Association has received a grant to provide further training for their school psychologists. To view the conference website, detailed information on the principles and priority outcomes and access articles and training modules go to www.indiana.edu/~futures/home.html.

It has been three years since the conference and what was the "Future" is the "Here and Now"! If we are to make a difference for students, families and our schools we must work toward developing or improving our skills to meet the outcomes of the conference and the challenges we face on a daily basis to meet the social-emotional and academic needs of the students we serve. We need to impact the practice of school psychology at all levels - national, state and local. NASP and others are working at the national level to impact our practice and provide training and knowledge to us so we can be effective practitioners. It is imperative that you, as an individual school psychologist, strive to enhance your skills and improve the practice of school psychology at the local level. It is also imperative that OSPA provide training to help us enhance our skills and improve the practice of school psychology across the state.

The 5 guiding principles and priority outcomes of the Future's Conference are listed for you here as well as some activity suggestions. You'll notice some similarities in language in relation to the "No Child Left Behind" and IDEIA 2004 regulations.

Guiding Principles

1. Currently, and for the foreseeable future, we are faced with a shortage of school psychologists that threatens our capacity to meet the needs of children in schools. The profession must increase efforts to recruit and retain professionals in our field.
2. Recruitment/retention strategies alone will be insufficient and inadequate to increase our capacity to meet the imminent needs of children, families and schools. As a result, changes in school psychology practices and service delivery will be required to use the resources we have to maximize the benefits to the children and schools that we serve.
3. Prevention and early intervention will be necessary to achieve positive outcomes for children, families, and schools.
4. Evidence-based practices will be necessary to achieve positive outcomes for children, families, and schools.
5. In order to be effective, school psychological services must demonstrate respect for and understanding of diversity factors for children, families and schools, including factors related to cultural, individual, and role difference.

Priority Outcomes

1. Improved academic competence and school success for all children
2. Improved social-emotional functioning for all children.
3. Enhanced family-school partnerships and parental involvement in schools.
4. More effective education and instruction for all learners.
5. Increased child and family services in schools that promote health and mental health and are integrated with community services.

The following list of activities was developed at the 2005 NASP Convention in sessions for Future Liaisons, State leaders and Delegates. I hope you will find one or more that will fit into your current practice.

• Make other stakeholders (administrators, school board members, allied professionals, etc.) aware of the guiding principles and priority outcomes and work with them to develop a plan for your district.
• Do a presentation for your colleagues on the "Here and Now of School Psychology".
• Enlist the support of your principle when writing yearly goals. Ask what other services you can provide other than assessment, such as mental health, prevention, designing interventions, etc.
• Use grant money (NASP Children's Fund & ERT, OEA, NEA) to help fund projects related to the principles and outcomes.
• Make a point of conducting one "outside the box" activity each year.
• Promote a broader role for yourself in your school and district.
• Enhance your skills with NASP audio presentations of convention workshops and special strands and sessions. Go to www.nasponline.org/conventions/index.html and look for the link to the audio recordings. Any school psychologist can access this public site.
• Use the training modules or articles on the Futures website do earn CPD or have a "Futures of School Psychology book club" in your district. The training modules have readings and questions for discussion. They can be found at the website given earlier under the Resources button.

Activities for state associations include:

• Focusing state conferences on intervention and prevention.
• Holding a conference specifically on change issues.
• Making the Future of School Psychology an explicit focus o a state conference.
• Inviting administrators & other stakeholders to state conference sessions.
• Posting PowerPoint presentations on the OSPA website that can be downloaded and revised for local use.
• Training in how school psychologists can assist their school in meeting Adequate Yearly Progress requirements.
• Integrating the principles and outcomes of the Futures conference with the state association strategic plan.
• Choosing an outcome goal as a theme for the association and orient activities for the year around that theme.
• Creating a committee to make ODE more aware of school psychology issues, develop stronger relationships, and promote the Futures conference agenda.
• Developing a closer relationship between the association and trainers.
• Clarifying and institutionalizing the role of the Futures Liaison in the association.
• Ensuring the Futures agenda is a standing agenda item at all board meetings.
• Offering small grants for Futures activities.
• Placing a link on the state webpage to the Futures Conference site.

Personally, I am working on improving academic competence for children by being a member of the Early Reading Team at one elementary school. This team analyzes the progress monitoring data and then decides on further interventions for the students who are below their target line for meeting benchmarks. I have also been working with a reading team at my other school to appropriate place all fourth graders in reading groups. As I have fewer referrals for special education this year, I am able to meet the social-emotional needs of students by doing individual counseling or small group sessions to help them develop friendship, anger management or improve self-esteem. A Child Development Specialist and I are planning an intensive parent and child training program starting in February that we hope will improve the social-emotional functioning for these students as well as improve family-school partnerships.

Please

JavaScript must be enabled to display this email address.