This document concerns performance appraisal as mandated by the North Carolina Legislature for all certified educational professionals. It notes that, in 1985, all newly certified professional education personnel, including school psychologists, came under the Initial Certification Program (ICP) requirements which issued newly certified school…

A county (Harris County, Texas) education agency, along with Special Education Directors and Personnel Officers from the county's 24 school districts, identified problems in recruiting special education teachers and such related service personnel as psychologists, psychological associates, educational diagnosticians, speech therapists, art…

This paper is a book review of William M. Phillips, Jr.'s "The School Sociologist: A Need and an Emergent Profession" (Washington, DC: University Press of America, Inc., 1981; 216p. ISBN-0-8191-1946-6. $12.95). Dr. Phillips defines a new professional field and expounds upon the role of the professionals within it. He seeks to combine factual…

This paper presents a functional approach to the performance apppraisal of school psychologists, citing the high likelihood of increased public demand for accountability from human service professionals and a paucity of systematic efforts to appraise the performance of school psychologists as evidence of the importance of this topic. A functional…

In spite of statistics that show that demographically there are increasingly more women than men as people age, and that epidemiologically women are more likely than men to utilize health services, most health services continue to be based on research and training that is both age and gender biased. Few mental health professionals are…

Benefits of hospital-based internship and residency programs for training psychologists are discussed, along with issues concerning licensing or certification. In hospitals, interns and residents are exposed to unusual and diverse forms of physical and mental pathology, as well as contact with a diverse patient population crossing all ages, racial…

Barlow (1981) lists nine reasons why clinical psychologists do not undertake research and why traditional research does not influence clinicians. These reasons focus on: (1) lack of access to a large subject pool; (2) manpower costs of conducting research; (3) financial costs of conducting research; (4) ethics; (5) research's overreliance on…

This handbook explores the dynamics of crisis and the alternatives available to school psychologists in working with students, teachers, and parents. The materials contained in this manual are designed to help direct the school psychologist to other support services in the school and community. The role of the school psychologist in confronting…

Training behavioral consultants in the school psychology field has emerged as a high priority, with most efforts centering on training consultants to assist teachers in solving children's academic and behavioral problems in the regular classroom. With the growing success of consultation procedures in applied settings, a corresponding need has…

In order to compare the practice of school psychology by doctoral and nondoctoral practitioners, the National School Psychology Questionnaire was sent to a nationwide, random sample of practicing school psychologists employed in public school settings. Responses from 869 school psychologists (142 doctoral practitioners and 727 nondoctoral…

This report focuses on a myriad of national, state, and local laws, regulations and court decisions which govern the everyday work of industrial and organizational psychologists. Legislation already in effect and legislation still pending are discussed. Citing relevant legislation and court decisions throughout the text, the paper addresses such…

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…

Despite the assumptions some have naively made about various stresses and the quality of life associated with rural settings, most who have studied people residing in rural areas would acknowledge the strong need for mental health services. However psychologists, like most other health care professionals prefer the amenities of more metropolitan…

School psychologists (N=119) were surveyed regarding current practices in diagnosing children with mental retardation. Results showed a wide range of responses for diagnostic criteria. Substantial discrepancies were found in relative weight given to intelligence and adaptive behavior, IQ cut-offs and ranges, importance of various areas of adaptive…

Experiencing the loss of a loved one can be one of the most traumatic events in a child's life. Grief resolution must be attained no matter how trivial a loss and it becomes even more important when a child's parent dies. School psychologists need to understand how the age of the child influences his ability to grieve and what behaviors might be…