History of School Psychology

School Psychology is a very young science that started in 1870. The first "special education" classrooms began in New Haven, Connecticut. They were for adolexcents involved with the law; similar to juvenile delinquint centers. Significant begginings of school psychology began in 1890.

• The Hybrid Years: 1890 - 1969
• The Thoroughbred Years: 1970 - Present

The hybrid years consisted of a mixture of practitioners with education and psychology degrees. There was a lot of confusion in the field and looking for a professional identity. There was a growth in training programs. States that were leaders in the field consisted of: California, Connecticut, Ohio, Illinois, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania.

During this time there was a growth in training programs in school psychology, an increase in practitioners trained in school psychology, development of state and national organizations, expansion of the literature in school psychology, and an expansion in regulations such as accredidation.

G. Stanley Hall was a student of Wants (the father of experimental psychology; started to look at learning and memory). Hall established the first learning lab at John's Hopkins. His students (Goddard, Gessell, and Terman) went out and did the same. He was the first president of APA. He took a nomothetic approach (focused on group norms, statistics, commonality, and general scientific laws).

Witmer is the Father of School Psychology and Clinical Psychology. He took an idiographic appraoch (individual approach). He began the first child guidance clinic at the University of Pennsylvania. His focus was on reading and spelling.

Healy work in the Chicago public schools and brought psychology clinics into shools. This was the first time mental health provider (non-educators) moved into the schools.

Binet worked with Simon and helped create the Binet-Simon scale in France in 1905. This was the first standardized intellgigence test and spurred the testing movement.

Beers began a national comitee on psychological hygiene. Beers had a mental illness. He allowed himself to be admitted into a treatment center and then wrote a book about his experience. He brought acceptance to people with mental illesses.

Goddard began the first school psychology internship program at the Vineland Training School.

Gessell was the first individual to be given the title of School Psychologist. He tested children with mental retardation and work to design interventions for them.

Terman successfully tanslated the Simon-Binet Scale from French into English. He developed US norms for the scale and named it the Standford Binet Scale.

Hildreth was the first person to publish a book pertaining to School Psychology. It was called Psychological Services for School Problems.

Gray brought a data-oriented problem solver role to school psychologists. He used data and research to make decisions in practice.

Reger was an educational prgrammer in 1965.

Bennett was the first to achieve Diplomat Status in School Psychology. It was a mark of high quality training.

APA was began in 1892.

Division 16 is the School Psychology group of APA. It was began in 1944 - 1945. It gave acknowledgement to the group of psychologists that worked in schools with children and adolescents. It only acknowledges PhD level education.

NASP was began in 1969. This organization caters to sub-doctoral individuals (Ed.S. degrees not masters).

Formerly the Amercian Psychological Society. It began in 1988. It was a splinter group off of APA. APA became ver practitioner oriented. So, a group of people the were involved in academia and science oriented began APS.

The Boulder Conference was in 1948 - 1949. A group of clinical training prgram directors came up with the scientist-practitioner model. We are scientists first and practitioners second. Practitioners should use science and research to guide decisions and develop practice.

The Thayer Conference was in 1954. The future of School Psychology was discussed. It was decided there would be two levels of training (Ed.S. and Ph.D.). State departments of education should be in charge of credentialling practitioners. Accredidation of School Psychology prgrams would be done by APA.

The Spring Hill Symposium was in 1980. People gathered to define the field of school psychology. The discused ethical, legal, and professionalism issues and well as training content.

The Olympia Conference was in 1981. It was also held to discuss the future of school psychology.

The Futures Conference was in 2002. Those attending developed 5 goals for the future of school psychology. These 5 goals are as follows: 1. Improve the academic competence of all children; 2. Improve the social and emotional competence of all children; 3. Encourage and enhance more effective education and instution; 4. Enhance family and school partnerships and parentinvolvement; 5. Increase family and child services.

The four core journals are: Journal of School Psychology (oldest), Psychology in Schools (has many series, covers controversial issues), School Psychology Review (NASP), School Psychology Quarterly (APA-Division 16). The Journal of Applied School Psychology covers application. Specialy journals include: Journal of Educational and Psychological Consultation, Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment, School Psychology International. The School Psychology Forum: Research in Practice is produced by NASP and is the first online journal.

Mexican American children were tested in English not Spanish and consequently put into Special Education. When they were assessed in Spanish, they scored higher and were put back in general education classrooms. You have to assess children in their primary language and make sure that test items are not biased.

They were preventing children with mental retardation and other disabilities access to school. All citizens have a right to equal educational opportunities.

In Washington D.C. they were suspending and expelling children with emotional and behavior disorders as well as mental retardation. They were denying children of their equal opportunity to education.

In Topeka, Kansas. Put an end to segregating schools.

Children were expelled or suspended without due process. Education is a property right. And you cannot take away a property right without due process. Therefor children cannot be suspended or expelled with a due process hearing.

Children had black arm bands in school as a protest to the Vietnam War and were expelled. Children have a right to Free Speech and Assembly as long as it doesn not intervene or disrupt nornal school functioning and learning. Obscenities are not considered Freedom of speech and epression.

Wolman V Walter (1977): School Psychologists could diagnos and assess children in parochial schools but no therapy services on school grounds

Agostini v. Felton (1997): Certain instructional services were allowed in parochial schools under Title I.

Zelman v. Simmons-Harris (2002): If the state provides tuition money to parents, it can be used to send their child to a parochial school of their choosing.

A secondary school wanted to work on drug abuse. Notified the parents and surveyed the students. Surveyed consisted of some very personal information. A parent got mad. Court ruled that parents and families have a right to privacy in federally funded programs. Schools now have to get written permission.

There were a disproportional amount of African American students in special education. The first case banned IQtesting in California on African American Children. The ban was lifted for gifted children if you had parental permission. Then was lifted for mentally retarded children with parent permission. You have to look at multi-culterism.

Illinois parents thought IQ tests were biased against African American children. Judge Gray read the entire the test outloud in court and ruled on each question. Found that the test was not biased.

Children between 7 and 14 were required to be in school. This brought children back into the system that had dropped out and brought children into the system that had never been in school. Spurred a growth in the need of school psychology.

Spurred the testing movement with Army Alpha (verbal) and Army Beta (non-verbal) testing. Weschler was involved in this movement and advocated for intelligence tests to have both verbal and nonverbal components.

First training program in School Psychology. 1928.

First state department of education standards establsihed ing New York in 1935.

Initiatied the first PhD in school psychology. 1938.

Brought personality measures and theraputic interventions.

First state association found in 1943. NASP and Division 16 of APA were also both started in Ohio.

Started the first recognized doctoral program in school psychology in 1953.

First school psychology doctoral program accredited by APA. 1971.

Accrediting body through NASP. After your intership and you pass the praxis you have to get your license. Began in 1988.

First APA acredited internship program in the schools. 1991.

For training in practice. 2006.