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As school psychologists, we have an ethical responsibility to engage in social justice and anti-racist action. School psychology organizations and graduate education programs play an important role in shaping future generations of school psychologists to lead the mental health, educational and research, and advocacy initiatives that promote equity for school personnel, students, families and communities they serve. This is only possible if our field acknowledges, evaluates, and works to reconstruct existing systems, structures, and policies that lead to inequitable outcomes for some groups and not others. "How can the school psychology community serve the diverse society in which we live without explicit and intentional education and growth in this area?" To help answer this question, APA Division 16,

Universal screening for behavioral and emotional difficulties is integral to the identification of students needing early intervention and prevention efforts. However, unanswered questions regarding the stability of screening scores impede the ability to determine optimal strategies for subsequent screening. This study examined the 2-year stability of behavioral and emotional risk screening scores and investigated whether change could be predicted based on student characteristics or initial risk scores. As part of a district-wide screening effort, 863 middle and high school students completed the Behavioral and Emotional Screening System at two time points. Stability coefficients were moderate, with the majority of students remaining in a similar risk category across time. Gender, race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, grade, school transition, and special education status were not predictive of movement across time. Initial risk score was predictive of movement from normal to at-risk categorization, with the internalizing domain being the most predictive of change. C 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

The Behavioral and Emotional Screening System (BESS) is a relatively new method for identifying behavior and emotional risk (BER) in children and adolescents. Psychometric evidence regarding this instrument is important for researchers and practitioners considering the use of the BESS for identifying BER in students. Previous psychometric research specifically regarding the BESS Student Form involved the use of samples of elementary and middle school-age children. This study adds to the psychometric evidence for scores on the BESS Student Form by using samples of high school aged students to assess both the factor structure reported by Dowdy, Twyford et al. (2011) and the measurement invariance of the BESS items with regard to ethnicity, English language proficiency, and socioeconomic status. The results indicate that while the proposed 4-factor structure of the BESS Student Form is appropriate, lower than preferred reliabilities for some of the factors indicates that reporting the overall risk T score is more appropriate than reporting factor scores for risk classification purposes. Additionally, the BESS Student Form items did not exhibit measurement bias when comparing across ethnicities, language proficiency classification, or socioeconomic status (via free/reduced lunch classification).