A vision of school psychology for the future: What is our charge

Research indicates that school psychologists have spent the majority of their time conducting educational assessments for special education despite more expansive training. This study investigated barriers within the field of school psychology that have precluded the field from moving forward toward a strength-based social emotional learning approach rather than continue to identify children using a deficit approach. This study investigated the role of school psychologists from multiple perspectives of key stakeholders in education. An interpretive, multiple case study design was used to describe the role of school psychologists, to identify a vision for the future of school psychology, to identify barriers to change and to discover possibilities for a new paradigm within the field. Fifteen in-depth interviews were conducted primarily within a suburban school district in Colorado. The findings confirmed that school psychologists continue to engage primarily in the testing role. They have not undertaken broader roles in education within the school environment because they are primarily fulfilling legislative mandates for special education. It was interesting to find that few people within education know what a school psychologist does, especially among the senior administrators including the superintendent and school board members. Although many of the stakeholders in education wanted the school psychologists to undertake the broader role this was not done due to resistance to change on the part of the school psychologists, rigid interpretation of special education laws, payment by the departments of special education, lack of strong drivers for change, and lack of awareness of the roles of school psychologists by the key senior administrators at the local, state and federal level. The overall recommendation of many was that school psychologists should have broader representation at the local, state and federal levels and should undergo additional training so that they can be better viewed as the key people who would be able to implement general education prevention initiatives, such as Social Emotional Learning. Overall, school psychologists are viewed as key individuals who can and should have a broader role in affecting change within the schools.