School Psychology program philosophy

School Psychology Program

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Program Mission, Philosophy, Goals & Objectives

DEPARTMENT OF COUNSELING & SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGY MISSION STATEMENT

Programs within the Department of Counseling and School Psychology prepare individuals to enter professional roles in school and mental health settings. The department is unified by common goals of providing graduate education to prepare students to be thoughtful, involved, and responsive professionals, particularly in meeting the needs of children, their families, and others in a collaborative and problem-solving fashion. Members of the department collaborate to insure that students develop expected proficiencies in their respective fields of study, consistent with state and national standards. Programs within the department adhere to the highest standards of the professions of counseling and school psychology.

Graduates from counseling and school psychology programs will develop both the knowledge base of their respective professions and the interpersonal professional skills to work with children, parents, teachers, administrators, other school specialists, and community professionals to provide support for learners with a variety of needs. By completing the program, students will value diversity and individual differences, and follow a commitment to lifelong learning and professional development.

SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGY PROGRAM PHILOSOPHY

The school psychology training program at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls (UW-RF), located in the Department of Counseling & School Psychology in the College of Education and Professional Studies, is founded on the scientist-practitioner model of training in professional psychology. The program is committed to training professional psychologists with comprehensive knowledge and skills, particularly in the areas of data-based decision-making and culturally-responsive practice. It is aligned closely with the training domains developed by the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) and the Wisconsin State Department of Public Instruction (DPI) School Psychology and Pupil Services Standards. These domains of school psychology training and practice guide training program curricular content, future performance-based reviews, and outcomes of training for students. The student assessment system discussed in this handbook ( See Pages 49 & 50 ) was designed to measure student ability to attain the knowledge and skills of a NASP-accredited school psychology program.

SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGY TRAINING PROGRAM GOALS & OBJECTIVES

To ensure a program aligned with the program's philosophy, the following specific training goals and objectives have been developed. The goals and objectives reflect the training domains established by NASP and the Wisconsin DPI, with particular emphasis given to training that includes collaboration and culturally-responsive skill building. Please, note each objective is measured by an instrument included in the student assessment system discussed in the Program Policies and Procedures Handbook. Program goals and objectives:

GOAL #1: Candidates will build culturally-responsive competencies during training.

• Objective A: Candidates will develop and build upon their own diversity values and dispositions during training.

• Objective B: Candidates will be exposed to varied practicum experiences, leading to diverse and varied school psychology competencies.

GOAL #2: Candidates will experience a training approach that emphasizes collaboration with fellow candidates, faculty, and colleagues.

• Objective A: Candidates will develop successful professional work characteristics during training.

• Objective B: Candidates will collaborate during the completion of the required directed research project (with classmates, faculty, and/or other educators in the field)

• Objective C: Candidates will successfully collaborate during their applied practicum and internship experiences.

GOAL #3: Candidates will demonstrate a positive impact on the students, parents, teachers, and others who are served.

• Objective A: Candidates will collect pupil intervention case study data during practicum and internship reflecting success (i.e., positive impact) with those students they work.

• Objective B: Candidates will show success with multiple school psychology competencies that impact others during practicum and internship

GOAL #4: Candidates will experience a training program aligned with the training domains of the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) and the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI).

• Objective A: Candidates will complete a curriculum specifically aligned with NASP and Wisconsin DPI training domains.

• Objective B: Candidates will successfully complete a portfolio to include statements of their knowledge and artifacts of emerging skills and competencies for each NASP and Wisconsin DPI training domain.

NON-DISCRIMINATORY PRACTICE

The school psychology training program at UW-RF is committed to a policy of providing equal opportunity for all qualified persons, regardless of race, religion, creed, color, sex, national origin, ancestry, age, disability, marital status, pregnancy, sexual orientation, political affiliation, membership in the National Guard, state defense force, or any other reserve component of the military forces of the United States or the state of Wisconsin.

VALUES STATEMENT ADDRESSING DIVERSITY

The school psychology training program at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls (UW-RF) has a core value of respect for diversity. This value coincides with mandates outlined by fields within the profession of psychology through various sources, including the National Association of School Psychologists' (NASP) Professional Conduct Manual (2000) and the American Psychological Association's (APA) Ethical Principles and Code of Conduct (2002); it also is closely aligned with the Counseling Psychology Model Training Values Statement Addressing Diversity (2006), an exemplar for the entire profession and one that provided the structure and content for the statement contained herein. Emerging movements within the field of school psychology related to work and advocacy in the domain of social justice reflect this value of respect for diversity. School psychologists provide services, teach, and/or engage in research with or pertaining to members of social groups that have historically been and continue to be devalued, viewed as deficient, or otherwise marginalized in the larger society.

It is the belief of the school psychology faculty at UW-RF that its academic training program, practicum placements, and internship sites (hereafter delineated as “the school psychology training program”) exist within multicultural communities that contain people of diverse racial, ethnic, and class backgrounds; national origins; religious, spiritual, and political beliefs; physical abilities; ages; genders; gender identities; sexual orientations; and physical appearance. The faculty also believes communities are enriched by members' openness to learning about others who are different from them as well as learning acceptance of others. The faculty agrees to work together with students and interns (hereafter “trainees”) and with practicum and internship supervisors and other professors (herein “trainers”) to create training environments characterized by respect, safety, and trust. Further, trainees, trainers, and faculty are expected to be respectful and supportive of all individuals, including, but not limited to clients, staff, peers, and research participants.

The school psychology faculty at UW-RF recognizes no individual is completely free from all forms of bias and prejudice. Therefore, it is expected that each training milieu will evidence a range of attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors. Nonetheless, trainees, trainers, and faculty members associated with the UW-RF school psychology program are expected to be committed to the social values of respect for diversity, inclusion, and equity. Further, trainees, trainers, and faculty members are expected to be committed to critical thinking and the process of self-examination so that such prejudices or biases (and the assumptions on which they are based) may be evaluated in the light of available scientific data, standards of the profession, and traditions of cooperation and mutual respect. Thus, trainees, trainers, and faculty members are asked to demonstrate a genuine desire to examine their own attitudes, assumptions, behaviors, and values and to learn to work effectively with “cultural, individual, and role differences including those based on age, gender, gender identity, race, ethnicity, culture, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, disability, language, and socioeconomic status” (APA Ethics Code, 2002, Principle E, p. 1063). Stated simply, trainers, trainees, and faculty members are expected to demonstrate a willingness to examine their personal values and to acquire and utilize professionally-relevant knowledge and skills regardless of their beliefs, attitudes, and values.

Faculty members associated with the school psychology training program at UWRF will engage trainees in a manner inclusive and respectful of their multiple cultural identities. They will examine their own biases and prejudices in the course of interactions with trainees so as to model and facilitate this process for the trainees. Faculty members will provide equal access, opportunity, and encouragement for trainees inclusive of their multiple cultural identities. Where appropriate, faculty members will also model the processes of personal introspection in which they desire trainees to engage. As such, faculty members will engage in and model appropriate self-disclosure and introspection with the trainees. This process can include discussions about personal life experiences, attitudes, beliefs, opinions, feelings, and personal histories. Assuming no one is free from biases and prejudices, faculty members will remain open to appropriate challenges from trainees to their held biases and prejudices. Faculty members are committed to lifelong learning relative to multicultural competence. They will also encourage and work with other professors and trainers associated with the school psychology training program to engage in all of the above activities, as well.

The school psychology faculty at UW-RF believes providing experiences that call for trainees to self-disclose and personally introspect about personal life experiences is an essential component of the program. Specifically, while in the program, trainees will be expected to engage in self-reflection and introspection on their attitudes, beliefs, opinions, feelings and personal histories. Trainees will be expected to examine and attempt to resolve any of the above to eliminate potential negative impact on their ability to perform the functions of a school psychologist, including but not limited to providing effective services to individuals from cultures and with beliefs different from their own and in accordance with NASP and APA guidelines and principles.

Faculty members associated with the school psychology training program at UWRF are committed to educating each other and other professionals on the existence and effects of racism, sexism, ageism, heterosexism, religious intolerance, and other forms of invidious prejudice. Evidence of bias, stereotyped thinking, and prejudicial beliefs and attitudes will not go unchallenged, even when such behavior is rationalized as being a function of ignorance, joking, cultural differences, or substance abuse. When these actions result in physical or psychological abuse, harassment, intimidation, substandard school psychology services or research, or violence against persons or property, members of the training community intervene appropriately.

In summary, all members associated with the UWRF school psychology training community are expected to commit to a training process that facilitates the development of professionally relevant knowledge and skills focused on working effectively with all individuals regardless of demographics, beliefs, attitudes, and values. Members must agree to engage in a mutually-supportive process that examines the effects of one's beliefs, attitudes, and values on one's work with all clients. Such training processes are consistent with the primary core value of the school psychology training program at UWRF: respect for diversity and for ways of being similar and different from one's own.

NOTE: This document was adapted from the Counseling Psychology Model Training Values Statement Addressing Diversity (CPMTVSD) endorsed by the Association of Counseling Center Training Agents (ACCTA), the Council of Counseling Psychology Training Programs (CCPTP), and the Society for Counseling Psychology (SCP) in August of 2006. The joint writing team for that document consisted of members from ACCTA, CCPTP, and SCP, including Kathleen J. Bieschke, Ph.D., Chair, (SCP), Arnie Abels, Ph. D., (ACCTA), Eve Adams, Ph.D., (CCPTP), Marie Miville, Ph.D., (CCPTP), and Barry Schreier, Ph.D., (ACCTA). That document was intended to serve as a model statement for counseling psychology training communities and the authors encouraged sites to adapt the CPMTVSD to reflect their particular environment. The writing team for the original CPMTVSD document acknowledged Laurie Mintz, Ph.D. and her colleagues at the University of Missouri-Columbia; the values statement for their program served as the starting point for the CPMTVSD document. Correspondence regarding the original CPMTVSD document should be directed to Kathleen J. Bieschke, Ph.D., 306 CEDAR Building, University Park, PA, 16802 or to kbieschke@psu.edu .

Special Course

School Psychology Program

Program Mission, Philosophy, Goals & Objectives