The Delivery of Psychological Services in Schools

Concepts, Processes, and Issues

Stephen N. Elliott, Joseph C. Witt, Stephen N. Elliott, Joseph C. Witt

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Year: 2017
• eBook ISBN: 9781351630924
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Education in Psychology
• Index: Psychology

Originally published in 1986, the volume is organized into three parts: Basic Issues, Models and Settings, and Evaluation and Development. The Editors begin with a description of the major conceptual dimensions and the fundamental questions that affect the practice of school psychology. Part 2 focuses on psychological service delivery issues as they are affected by particular models of service delivery and the settings in which a service is provided. Part 3 consists of various evaluation and development issues that influence school psychology. Taken together, the chapters provide a comprehensive view of major service delivery issues within school psychology. In addition, virtually all of the chapters offer suggestions about needed directions for the field and many identify avenues by which these new directions can be accomplished.

1 Fundamental Questions and Dimensions of Psychological Service Delivery in Schools

Stephen N. Elliott

Joseph C. Witt

Louisiana State University

Schools provide an ideal setting for the delivery of psychological services. This supposition is based on the belief that schools are relatively predictable environments where children spend hundreds of hours during formative years interacting with significant adults and peers. It is estimated that collectively 67 million children, parents, and teachers are directly involved with kindergarten through high school (Hummel & Humes, 1984). In addition to the favorable setting and large number of potential clients, many of the goals and processes of education are highly consistent with those of psychology. Both professions want to see children develop cognitively, emotionally, and physically to their fullest potential. In sum, no other social system provides a more comprehensive opportunity to impact children and parents. Yet, psychology is a “guest” in education’s house, which is akin to living with friends who frequently fight and also occasionally are targets of public criticism. Thus in addition to its own shortcomings, psychology runs the risk of additional public criticism through association with education. We believe, however, it is a risk well worth taking!

This book, and particularly this chapter, focuses on concepts and proceses that influence the delivery of psychological services in schools. To date, relatively little has been written specially about the delivery of school psychological services even though it was a major topic at the Thayer Conference (Cutts, 1955) and the Spring Hall Symposium (Ysseldyke & Weinberg, 1981). Instead of focusing on delivery systems, previous authors have examined related areas such as the roles of school psychologists (Bardon, 1965; Monroe, 1979; Reger, 1965; Valett, 1965) and the administrative organization of psychological services (Cutts, 1955; Elkin, 1963; Herron, Green, Guild, Smith, & Kantor, 1970; Rettke, 1971). The primary purpose here is to examine concepts, processes, and issues involved in delivering psychological services to school children.

FUNDAMENTAL QUESTIONS FOR SERVICE DELIVERY

As a means of analyzing present arrangements for delivering psychological services in schools, we will pose and explore answers to four basic questions: What are the major service goals of school psychologists? Who is the client when psychologists work in schools? What are the major theoretical orientations of service delivery systems? Are school psychological services socially valid and effective? In an earlier volume entitled School Psychology: Essentials of Theory and Practice (Reynolds, Gutkin, Elliott, & Witt, 1984), we examined similar questions and found it a useful heuristic for conceptualizing service delivery practices and issues. We hope that by revisiting the first three questions and initiating an exploration of the fourth, we will foster further understanding of concepts and processes central to successful school psychological services.

What are the Major Service Goals of School Psychologists?

Education has been characterized as the major path to personal development and success. Consequently, the public has high and varied expectations for schools. In many ways, it is the result of this public concern for education that applied psychology is present in schools. Psychologists’ entree to schools was initiated by educators concerned about assessing the learning potential of children. By now, most everyone knows the story of Alfred Binet and Theophile Simon and their work in France during the early 1900s to develop a test that could accurately assess the cognitive functioning of children. Even earlier (in the 1800s), Galton had begun to keep systematic records of students’ performances on tests of vision, hearing, reaction time, and discrimination. In fact, White and Harris (1961) cited Galton’s work as the first example of school psychological services. Regardless of who was first, it seems accurate to conclude that psychological services in schools started in the form of testing with the intent to classify children as capable or not capable of benefiting from education. The testing movement, originally given impetus by educators, served to promote many changes in educational practices (Murphy, 1929).

The form in which psychology appears in schools today varies, with testing providing a baseline and other activities such as family counseling, teacher and system-level consultation, and direct intervention providing examples of more advanced forms of school psychological services. Ysseldyke, in Chapter 2 of this volume, provides a more comprehensive examination of the scope and nature of the psychological services provided in school today. To identify the major service goals of school psychology, however, we believe the American Psychological Association’s (1982) Guidelines for the Delivery of Services by School Psychologists provides the best summary. According to the Specialty Guidelines (APA, 1982):

School Psychological Services refers to one or more of the following services offered to clients involved in educational settings from pre-school through higher education for the protection and promotion of mental health and facilitation of learning: a. Psychological and psychoeducational evaluation and assessment of the school functioning of children and youth through the use of screening procedures, psychological and educational tests (particularly individual psychological tests of intellectual functioning, cognitive development, affective behavior, and neuropsychological status), interviews, observation, and behavioral evaluations with explicit regard for the context and the setting in which the professional judgments based on assessment, diagnosis and evaluation will be used.

b. Interventions to facilitate the functioning of individual or groups with concern for how schooling influences and is influenced by their cognitive, conative, affective, and social development. Such interventions may include, but are not limited to, recommending, planning, and evaluating special education services, psycho-educational therapy, counseling, affective educational programs, and training programs to improve coping skills.

c. Interventions to facilitate the educational services and child-care functions of school personnel, parents, and community agencies. Such interventions may include, but are not limited to, in-service school personnel education programs, parent-education programs, and parent counseling.

d. Consultation to and collaboration with school personnel and/or parents concerning specific school-related problems of pupils and students and the professional problems of staff. Such services may include, but are not limited to, assistance with the planning of educational programs from a psychological perspective; consultation to teachers and other school personnel to enhance their understanding of the needs of particular pupils; modification of classroom instructional programs to facilitate children’s learning; … and the creation, collection, organization and provision of information from psychological research and theory to educate staff and parents.

e. Program development services to individual schools, to school administrative systems, and to community agencies in such areas as needs assessment and evaluation of regular and special education programs; … coordination, administration, and planning of specialized educational programs; the generation, collection, organization, and dissemination of information from psychological research and theory to educate staff and parents.

f. Supervision of school psychological services.

More specific goals could be added to this list, but items a through f capture the essence of most school psychologists’ service goals.

A recent proposal from the National School Psychology Inservice Network, entitled “School Psychology: A Blueprint for Training and Practice” (Yesseldyke, Reynolds, & Weinberg, 1984), identified 16 domains of school psychology leadership and function. These domains extend the list of service goals for school psychologists and emphasize educational relevance within the mission of school psychology. Briefly, it was proposed the following domains represent parts of the knowledge base in psychology that can be applied to the solution of educational problems:

1.Class Management,

2.Interpersonal Communication and Consultation,

3.Basic Academic Skills,

4.Basic Life Skills,

5.Affective/Social Skills,

6.Parental Involvement,

7.Classroom Organization and Social Structure,

8.Systems Development and Planning,

9.Personnel Development,

10.Individual Differences in Development and Learning,

11.School-Community Relations,

12.Instruction,

13.Legal/Ethical and Professional Issues,

14.Assessment,

15.Multicultural Concerns, and

16.Research

The 16 domains of knowledge identified in “School Psychology: A Blueprint for Training and Practice” represent challenging “goals” within the profession of school psychology. The goals of the School Psychology profession are similar to the goals of any other organization: that is, self-preservation and growth. But at some point, we must begin to ask hard questions about the ends (i.e., the goals) which this expansion in activities will allow us to accomplish. Many of the calls for role expansion are made without any reference to how, for example, children would be better served. Those who write about expansion seem to believe that because a skill (e.g., system development) is taught in a graduate school psychology program, that fact alone is reason enough to add it to the list of activities that school psychologists should perform. Where are the data supporting the virtually infinite list of activities school psychologists want to perform? Unfortunately, school psychologists should spend less time writing about what they want to do and more time conducting efficacy studies on what they can do. With very few exceptions, there are no organized bodies of knowledge in school psychology (i.e., area of systematic research) and the field is relatively devoid of any conceptual (i.e., theoretical) unification.

Who Is The Client When Psychologists Work in Schools?

Traditionally, clients for school psychologists have included children and youth, both normal and abnormal; parents and occasionally entire families; and teachers and other significant educational personnel. The current emphasis on school psychological consultation research and evaluation services has served to increase this list of clients to include organizational units such as classrooms, schools, curriculum tracks within schools, and even entire school districts (e.g., see Snapp & Davidson, 1982). Thus, potential clients for psychologists working in educational settings range from one child and a teacher and/or parent to an entire school district composed of hundreds of children and educational personnel.

We believe one’s general conceptualization of clients is influenced by several factors including (a) a psychologist’s model of human behavior; (b) a psychologist’s training or spectrum of competent services; (c) a psychologist’s philosophy about preventive mental health; (d) legal mandates; and (e) financial remuneration. The extent to which these factors actually affect client selection and services may be influenced most by the work load or psychologist-to-student ratio within a given school district.

Our answer to the question of “Who is the client?” is “It depends!” This seemingly ambiguous response is based on the recognition that several factors can influence psychologists’ conceptions of their target population. Some of the factors, such as one’s model or theory of human behavior, training, and spectrum of competent services, are controlled by the individual psychologist. Other factors, such as leg...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of Contributors
• Acknowledgments
• Preface
• 1. Fundamental Questions and Dimensions of Psychological Service Delivery in Schools
• 2. Current Practice in School Psychology
• 3. Psychology and Schooling: The Interrelationships Among Persons, Processes, and Products
• 4. Disentangling the Complexities of Clientage
• 5. The Organization and Structuring of Psychological Services Within Educational Settings
• 6. Models of School Psychological Service Delivery
• 7. Conceptual and Logistical Hurdles: Service Delivery to Urban Schools
• 8. Service Delivery to Rural Schools: Conceptual and Logistical Hurdles
• 9. School Psychology in Bicultural Settings: Implications for Service Delivery
• 10. The Effectiveness of School Psychological Services
• 11. The Connections Among Educational and Psychological Research and the Practice of School Psychology
• 12. The Impact of Education and Training on School Psychological Services
• 13. An Alternative Model for the Delivery of Psychological Services in the School Community
• 14. School Psychology: A Reconceptualization of Service Delivery Realities
• Author Index
• Subject Index