The competencies initiative in American professional psychology: Implications for school psychology preparation

Abstract

In the past decade, American professional psychology has taken significant steps toward a unified statement of the competencies that define the practice of psychology, regardless of specialty. The purpose of this article is to explain the current competency initiative in professional psychology and examine its implications and potential impact on graduate training in school psychology. A brief overview of competency-based training and the current competencies initiative in psychology is presented. Two significant challenges to implement competency-based training are then discussed. The first challenge has to do with conceptualizations of training and practice across accreditation agencies. As a part of the discussion, two recently published competency documents from the Assessment of Competencies Benchmark Workgroup of the American Psychological Association and the National Association of School Psychologists are compared in a content analysis. The second challenge discussed is the difficulties associated with operationalizing and measuring competencies. Specifically, the empirical and consequential bases for existing assessment methods are examined. In spite of current pressure by accrediting agencies to implement a competencybased training model, based on the challenges examined in this article, significant work remains if school psychology trainers want to assure that competency-based training is done well. C 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychology in the Schools

The Legal Content of School Psychology Journals: A Systematic Survey

“…The first overall finding stands in clear contrast to the long-acknowledged importance of knowledge of law to the practice of school psychology (e.g., Philips, 1983) and its current recognition by both NASP and APA as a key competency for practitioners in this field (e.g., Daly et al, 2011). More specifically, the major school psychology journals are generally devoid of law-related articles, with 0.5% (n = 35) of all their articles (N = 7576) during the 43.5 years meeting rather relaxed threshold standards for legal content.…”

“…Acknowledging the significant effects on the practice of school psychology, the NASP and APA's Division 16 have explicitly endorsed law and ethics as one of the core competencies for school psychologists (Daly, Doll, Schulte, & Fenning, ). For example, NASP included the following provision in its most recent blueprint for school psychology training:

The issues addressed by [the] foundational domain [of law] are relatively straightforward but absolutely central to the efficacy of a school psychologist's work.

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“…The published content analyses in school psychology have addressed law only as subsidiary to the coverage of professional competencies and not for the leading professional journals. For example, Daly et al (2011) examined the competencies in the NASP and APA models to determine the differences and overlaps, incidentally finding that legal and ethical issues were common to both models. Additionally, the Little, Akin-Little, and Lloyd (2011) content analysis was limited to coverage of the categories in NASP's practice model in only one of the main school psychology journals, School Psychology International, during a 22-year period.…”

Perceptions of Competencies Among School Psychology Trainers and Practitioners: What Matters?

“…Thus, there is a question as to the fit of general competencies with school‐based practices and alignment with requirements of the varied agencies and professional associations that have oversight over school psychology. Further, unlike other professional psychology areas, competencies in school psychology need to be defined at both the specialist and doctoral levels (Daly et al., ).…”

“…Thus, there is a question as to the fit of general competencies with school-based practices and alignment with requirements of the varied agencies and professional associations that have oversight over school psychology. Further, unlike other professional psychology areas, competencies in school psychology need to be defined at both the specialist and doctoral levels (Daly et al, 2011). Daly et al (2011) analyzed the overlap and discrepancies between the NASP (2010b) Standards for Graduate Preparation of School Psychologists, the NASP (2010d) Standards for the Credentialing of School Psychologists, and the APA Competency Benchmarks (Fouad et al, 2009).…”