This digest examines the role of school psychologists in improving educational opportunities for children and adolescents. A variety of issues that affect children and their ability to learn are discussed: widening social class differences and increases in the number of children living in poverty; changing value systems; family disintegration;…

Psychological services have been part of the American schooling experiences for nearly a century. The nature of school psychology services, however, has changed dramatically over the decades so that modern school psychology services differ significantly from their roots. For much of this century school psychology services have emphasized…

With the rapidly changing population demographics of the United States and significant growth of diverse multicultural groups, schools and professionals are being challenged on how to provide the best comprehensive educational and support services to their increasingly diverse student population. The changes between 1980 and 1990 have been…

The role of school psychologists and counselors in assessment is well established. With the current emphasis on collaboration in schools and the use of a pupil services model to deliver services, it is important to examine ways in which school psychologists and counselors can work together for assessment purposes. School psychologists' involvement…

Social reforms in American education are setting the stage for a paradigm shift in the delivery of psychological services in our nation's schools. The convergence of education and health care reform, along with movement toward service integration models, provides an unprecedented opportunity to redefine psychological services in schools. School…

System reform in U.S. heartland is the story of a decade-long effort to change the ways we think about children and youth who experience learning or behavior problems in educational settings. This fundamentally different way of thinking involves a shift from seeking the causes and solutions to learning and emotional/behavioral problems in inferred…

School psychologists can play a unique role in schools because of their assessment expertise. Traditionally, they have been most involved in individual psychoeducational assessment for classification and labeling purposes, but the limitations of this form of assessment for building intervention strategies has led many school psychologists to…

With the release of "A Nation at Risk" in 1983, Americans focused on the report's declaration of "a rising tide of mediocrity" in the schools, which suggested unacceptable results in the education of America's children and youth. Concurrent to the missives levied at schools' lack of progress with academics and other…

Factors outside of psychology, both positive and negative, are pressing school psychology to re-examine itself. Thus, the time is right for a reconceptualization of doctoral school psychology. This reframing should take into account the relationship of doctoral school psychology to the larger fields of both school psychology and professional…

The predoctoral internship in professional psychology is a culminating training experience conducted at the end of one's doctoral education. One might say that the internship is to practice what the dissertation is to research. The doctoral graduate education and training program, through didactic and experiential training in the science and…

There are two essential social systems with which virtually all children and families have routine, significant contact: school and health care settings. Schools are being asked to address the needs of children and youth at a time when fundamental transformations of schooling structures and outcome expectations are also being demanded. To address…