Gender and sexually diverse (GSD) students face unique challenges in schools due to the privileging of cisgender and heterosexist norms in these settings. In particular, GSD youth who belong to ethnically and racially minoritized groups face further challenges within school environments that disregard their cultural contexts and intersectional…

In order to progress as a field, school psychology research must be informed by effective measurement techniques. One approach to address the need for careful measurement is Rasch analysis. This technique can (a) facilitate the development of instruments that provide useful data, (b) provide data that can be used confidently for both descriptive…

School psychologists commonly conduct interventions for individual students and evaluate their success through single-case research designs, most of which include a baseline observation period. However, concluding intervention effectiveness from a single-case design is problematic when pronounced baseline trend is evident. With positive baseline…

The authors support role changes for educational practitioners who work with children and youth with disabilities as they make important transitions. Principles from critical pedagogy and disability studies are summarized to provide a new theoretical framework to support role changes. Rather than needs-based services that focus on helping those…

The trend in school psychology services is a shift from an emphasis on an assessment-based paradigm to one of consultation problem-solving and behavioral intervention. A critical component of consultation-derived interventions and behavior change is "treatment integrity." Treatment integrity (or fidelity) refers to the extent to which an…

The authors support role changes for educational practitioners who work with children and youth with disabilities as they make important transitions. Principles from critical pedagogy and disability studies are summarized to provide a new theoretical framework to support role changes. Rather than needs-based services that focus on helping those…

We look at three common research scenarios, one in the behavioral domain (i.e., disruptive behaviors) one in the cognitive domain (i.e., academic achievement), and one in the affective domain (i.e., anxiety and stress) for which school psychologists are asked to address important questions related to change. We list measurement and statistical…

A survey of 97 school psychologists found that the majority felt they needed additional training in administering, scoring, and interpreting the fourth edition of the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale. Thirty-four percent were using the fourth edition. Rank ordering of instruments of choice was: Wechsler scales, Kaufman Scale, old Stanford-Binet,…

This book emphasizes the importance of research to the school psychologist. Written in a conversational style, it looks at research as a tool for problem solving and a basis for action rather than as an academic exercise. Research is described as an interaction, a point of contact to get things moving, a different way of seeing a problem. The…

When 43 experienced school psychologists were asked to evaluate discrepancy scores, it was found that they made inconsistent choices, failed to use standard statistical procedures for testing differences between scores, and tended to misinterpret percentile ranks as useful for discrepancy analysis. Implications for learning-disabilities…

School psychologists and education students and faculty were asked to distinguish between computer-generated and individually written psychological test comments and indicate cues used in making identifications. Even though results indicate correct identification did not differ significantly from chance, school assessment reports must provide more…

Many surveys of school psychologists have documented their desire to devote more time to consultation--an indirect service delivery system in which the school psychologist interacts with a consultee (teacher, parent, other professional) for purposes of solving a client problem. To expand the work of Martin and Curtis (1981) on school…

The present study was an investigation of the potential moderating effect of social support on academic performance for students living in poverty. Data were collected in one urban middle school from 164 primarily Hispanic students using the Child and Adolescent Social Support Scale (CASSS; Malecki, Demaray, & Elliott, 2000) and students' course…

School psychologists function as experts in the diagnosis of childrens' educational difficulties. Can the decision-making activities of school psychologists be characterized as expert? Practicing school psychologists (N=10) reviewed cases of children (N=120) being considered for placement in learning disabilities programs. A case consisted of 17…

Paskewicz (1984) believes that the language individuals use conveys information about the possibility of change, independent of content. To test this notion, consultant-consultee verbal interactions were analyzed. Advanced doctoral students in school psychology (N=4) served as consultants; consultees were 19 parochial school teachers each of whom…