Calls for change in the role of school psychologists have appeared in the literature over a period of nearly 50 years. Evidence of change exists for some outstanding individual school psychologists and in a number of model programs, but not on a widespread basis. This paper discusses ideas for role change that have appeared rather consistently in the literature: an emphasis on indirect service, application of the science of psychology, an emphasis on prevention, systematic evaluation of services, involvement of various stakeholders, and consideration of diversity from a broad perspective. Hopefully the 21st century will bring more widespread implementation of these ideas because there is likely to be an even greater need for such services in the schools.
Research has consistently demonstrated the importance of providing an appropriate level of challenge, called the instructional level, within curricular material. Although the instructional level is a generally well-defined and researched construct, much less data exist on the acquisition rate (AR) component of an appropriate level of challenge. The current study used curriculum-based assessment to assess the AR of five fourth-grade students diagnosed with a reading disability and taught each 20 words from the Esperanto International Language over two sessions (10 each session). Students were observed during instruction, and the number of demonstrated off-task behaviors was converted to a mean rate of off-task behaviors/minute. Comparison of pre- and post-AR data showed that each student demonstrated an increase in off-task behaviors while rehearsing the word that immediately exceeded his or her AR. Implications for practice and suggestions for future research are discussed.
The increasing level of public attention to violence in American schools makes the issue a top priority among educators. School psychologists could play an important role in identifying at-risk youth, and planning appropriate individual, school, and community interventions related to school violence. However, there is limited literature examining different assessment approaches that could be used to evaluate student risk for violence. This article reviews (a) characteristics of students "at risk" for violence, (b) informal checklists and matching student characteristics to profiles of typical violent students and (c) threat assessment based on Borum et al. 's (1999) model. Ethical and legal considerations are covered as well.
The Responsiveness to Intervention (RI) model for diagnosing learning disabilities has been proposed as an alternative to previous definitions. Given the importance of reliable and valid assessment in the instructional process, assessment must be a crucial aspect of any RI approach. Curriculum-based measurement (CBM) has been discussed in previous descriptions of RI, but arguably does not address all of the components of an RI model. This article examines the potential use of curriculum-based assessment (CBA) in distinguishing ineffective instruction from unacceptable learning and informing instruction, which are two key elements of RI. How CBA can be used to plan, manage, deliver, and evaluate classroom instruction is specifically discussed, as are the central tenets of CBA.
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