The Employment Context of School Psychologists
Majority of school psychologists work at the
local community level and almost exclusively
with health and educational agencies
Most often they are employed in public
educational institutions including county and city
school systems, cooperative educational
agreements, and related public agencies with
educational programs.
Less frequently, school psychologists are
employed in the private sector.
Regardless of their employment setting, school
psychologists serve children with school-related
problems and need to have an understanding of
the school setting.
Purposes of Schooling
The concepts of education and the presence of
schools were observable in the early settlements
of colonial North America and during every
subsequent historical period.
The evolution of the U.S. society over several
centuries reached a point where various forces
came together to create a fertile environment in
which compulsory education emerged and grew
as the dominant model of schooling.
The factors involved in creating these conditions
included industrialization, urbanization, child
labor laws, the changing structure and function
of the family, changes in the meaning and status
of childhood, the changing status of women, and
increased European immigration.
These factors provided the bases for compulsory
education which the subsequent problems of
schooling were met by other developments
including the rise of psychological science and
by the availability of “experts”.
Whether religious influences or the three “R’s”
dominated, schools in the U.S. have served the
dual purposes of transmitting both the basic
academic content necessary for individual
economic survival and the cultural values
considered necessary to ensure the survival of
the nation.
Goslin(1965) describes the principal functions of
schooling as the maintenance and transmission
of culture, the encouragement and
implementation of change and the discovery of
new knowledge, and the allocation of individuals
to positions in society.
Spring(1989) discussed the political, social, and
economic purposes of school. Other purposes
include child care, delinquency prevention,
courtship and mate selection, cultural and
subgroup identity and stability, and effecting
social reforms.
Recent crises in U.S. education are related to the
perception of declining scores on nationally
standardized tests(content) and to societal
concerns about substance abuse, crime, teen
pregnancy, and other “at-risk” conditions that
suggest a deterioration of our national
character(values).
The broad purposes of schooling are generally
consistent across school settings, public or
private, serving child populations with or
without special needs. However, their
interpretation into specific curricular objectives
and activities may vary considerably among
school settings.
Developing character and citizenship may lead to
a much different curriculum in a parochial school
than in a public school.
The public school may offer elementary
guidance activities on values clarification
whereas the parochial school may prefer
religious education.
In rare instances, psychological services may be
perceived as counterproductive.
In general, psychological services are well
received in public, private, and parochial school
settings.
Various interpretations of purposes also may
occur within a school system.
So what about school psychologists? They are
employed to help schools develop and achieve
their goals. They are aware of the important
relationship between academic learning and
positive mental health.
Personal and social learning as well as academic
learning of students are considered by school
psychologists as important goals for schools.
Through a variety of services, school
psychologists seek to improve both the academic
and the mental health environments of the
school.
One frequently encountered conflict is the
narrow interpretation of school psy service s by
some school administrators and teachers.
School psychologists should be concerned with
there they fit into the structure and purposes of
education and with what can be done to broaden
others’ recognition of the school psychologist’s
training and potential contributions.
The conflicts of goals and their implementation
have implications for training as well.
Ideology of training has been to train school
psychologists to perform functions not only
within typical employment roles, but also as
much or more so for what the role of school
psychologists ideally might be.
Accredited programs offer comprehensive
training and assessment, intervention,
consultation, research and evaluation, and other
roles.
Sarason(1971) discussed conflicts in the
perspective of the culture of the school.
Differences of opinion on the implementation of
goals and the use pf psychological services are a
fact of life. Training orientations and
backgrounds influence choices.
School psychologists are in a position of power
rather than authority, the school psychologist’s
viewpoint may be given less attention than those
with more powerful and authoritative influence.
This reinforces the importance of the public
relations and collaborative consultation roles of
the school psychologist.
It is important for every prospective school
psychologist to ponder why our society has
schools, and why those schools employ school
psychologists.
Answer “What do you think our district is trying
to do in this community, and what can you do to
help us achieve these goals?
Some Basic Characteristics of U.S. Schooling
In earlier years, U.S. public schools consisted
mainly of children, teachers, and
administrators.
Today there are about 5 million school
employees, including 2.6 million teachers,
348,000 administrative personnel, 51,000
librarians, 87,000 guidance counselors, and
23,000 school psychologists.
Private schools add another 5 million students,
331,000 teachers, 23,600 administrators, 8,900
librarians, 8,600 guidance counselors. Data on
school psychologists in private schools is not
available.
Responsibility of the States
Federal interest in education has grown in
importance throughout the 20th century
corresponding to the changing status of
children and the growing interest in them
shown by the federal government.
However, the system of education in the
constitutional responsibility of state
government and is regulated at the state and
local level.
There is no national school system.
Pressure is brought to bear from the federal
level, but the schools are regulated by the
states, according to laws enacted by each
state legislature and regulations established
by each state board of education and
implemented through the state department of
education (SDE).
The relationship between state and federal
governments is one where states voluntarily
agree to respond to federal incentives,
usually financial ones, through grants and
other funds available to those states who
comply with federal regulations for
education.
The widespread growth of special education
since the passage of P.L. 94-142 in the mid1970’s has been an outgrowth of state and
local educational agencies responding to
federal agency initiatives and regulations.
Funding is directly linked to compliance,
and compliance is viewed as essential to the
civil rights of persons with disabilities.
All states participate in these federal
programs, so every local district must
demonstrate to its SDE that it, too, is in
compliance with the federal regulations as
interpreted and enforced at the state level.
Diversity and Commonality of Practices
Although states hold the responsibility for
education, they differ in the means by which
they provide for the education of their
citizens. Different states have different
districts and allocation of funding.
More affluent school districts may offer
regular and special ed Programs of greater
quality than poorer districts. Urban and rural
schools may have greater financial problems
than suburban schools. The results are
diverse systems and practices of schooling.
States share several commonalities: they
comply with federal regulations in order to
secure additional funds; they have an SDE
whose staff oversees the delivery of
schooling in the state; they are responsible
for ensuring that educational opportunities
are available to all children in the state; and
they establish funding mechanisms,
regulations, and procedures for that purpose.
Recent crises in education have led several
states to consider statewide curricula,
objectives, and testing programs.
Political Influences and Funding
Schools are intensely political places.
(Legislative enactment of competency testing)
State school boards and many
employees of a SDE May be politically
appointed by the governor. Local school board
members are elected their constituent citizens;
some may be parents of children attending the
school.
School Psychologists must understand that
the political influence is considerably
different from employment in a nonpublic school setting.
A closely related aspect of this political
influence is the complex process by which
public ed is financed. School districts
obtain their funds from federal, state, and
local sources. Federal funds account for a
small portion of a district’s overall budget.
The 1994-95 operating budget for K-12th
grade in U.S. was about 275 billion
dollars.
Funds come mainly from state and local
sources including legislative
appropriations based on state revenues
from a variety of taxes, mainly sales and
income taxes, city and county sources
such as local property taxes and local
sales taxes.
Hence, most school-district funding is
closely related to their wealth of its
residents and their property and to the
district’s ability to attract retail
businesses.
The tax bases are established and regulated
by state and local governments. The
allocation of school finance has its
political aspects as well.
The portion of local property taxes that will
go to the schools is politically regulated
by local governments, and the state
government usually has rules by which its
funds are allocated to districts.
Also, the school district’s budget is
reviewed and approved by the school
board and often by city or county
governing boards.
Hence, all the major sources of funding and
allocation of funds are politically driven.
State funding may be allocated according
to minimum funding formulas that
guarantee a minimum per pupil per
classroom expenditure to all districts or
funds may follow a more complicated
pattern of differential allocations based on
specific employee or educational
categories ( e.g., different categories of
ESE).
Greater equity in school district funding
among poor and wealthy districts has
become a major political issue.(adequate
education and most adequate education).
This influences available program options,
the number of school psychologists, and
their roles and functions, salaries, and
benefits.
A state’s foundation program also may
guarantee certain levels of funding for
various local employee categories. In
several states, foundation categories
include pupil personnel workers. Most
school districts employ school
psychologists who hold proper credential
from the SDE.
Political nature of public education has its
legal side. For example, multicultural
issues may be expressed in hiring
practices, home-school communications,
assessment techniques, curricula, and
programs.
Schools must address gender equity issues
in sports.
In dealing with children with disabilities,
services and school buildings must ensure
proper access.
Professional and Business Perspectives
Recently, attention has been directed at the
schools form private business or corporate
perspective in contrast to the professional
educational perspective.
Some school reform proposals have been
drawn from the practices of corporate
America such as school-based management
and total quality management.
U.S. education is big business and business
concepts and practices may be successful in
improving some aspects of schooling.
However, the business analogy does not
apply totally to the schools.
School psychologists need to be involved in
bringing a psychological perspective to
improving schools.
School Psychologists in the Educational
System
Power and Authority
Power means the individual or collective
capacity to hold influence over other
people and/or situations.
Authority means the legal or regulatory
capacity to make decisions and have the
responsibility for decision-making. The
superintendent is responsible for activities
within the entire system, the principals for
all that goes on in their buildings, and
teachers are responsible for the activities
of their classrooms.
Professional pupil personnel have
practically no decision-making capacity
unless it is delegated to them by others in
authority. Authority may be direct or it
may be indirect.
The relationship of power and authority in
a typical school system are depicted in
Figure 3.1 and include the following:
1. Authority, which is present at the top,
lessens with each level from top
downward; power, which is greatest at
the bottom, lessens with each level
form bottom upward.
2. Typically there are fewer people with
authority than are in power.
3. The consumers of the system,
including parents and children, have
little authority despite considerable
power.
4. Power-authority conflicts in the school
system are the basis of most
interprofessional problems.
5. Professional psychologists employed
by the schools never make decisions
for others in any authoritative manner
except when such authority has been
delegated to them by someone in the
system who has such authority.
6. Power and authority may vary as a
function of the situations. For school
psychologists, this means their
power(influence) will be greater or
lesser in some situations.
7. Perceived authority exists in situations
where an employee having no real
authority is believed by others to have
authority.
School psychologists operate from
a base of power, but they generally
have no authority to make
decisions that affect others in their
sphere of activity.(e.g., final
placement decision).
In recent years, opportunities have
improved for school psychologists
to advance to administrative
positions in school districts.
School psychologists usually
operate from bases of power that
include “referent power” and
“expert power”. Referent ppower
exists when they are perceived to
be helpful people with values and
goals similar to those of their
clients. Referent power usually is a
process of identification that
usually develops over a long period
of time in a working relationship
between the school psychologist
and their clients.
Expert power exists when the
school psychologist is perceived to
have valuable information
regardless of the level of referent
power.
Expert power may be developed on
a short-term basis and related more
to credentials and perceived
professional knowledge than to the
extent to which the professional’s
goals seem similar to those of the
client.
Developing a balance of referent
and expert power is important to
overall success in the day-to-day
practice of the school psychologist.
Structure and Location of Services
Figure 3.2 represents the flow of
power and authority in the structural
arrangement of education in the state.
The figure shows the usual
position of school
psychologists in this structure
for city and county school
systems.
It represents most smaller
school systems and rural ones.
Figures 3.3 and 3.4 represent large
urban school systems.
In urban schools, the school psychologist is one
of many service providers within an
administrative structure for psychological
services.
The structure may be within a larger
administrative unit for special ed, mental health,
or ppservices. School psychologists may be
assigned to traditional assessment, consultation,
as well as alcohol and drug abuse, sex abuse, or
other assignments.
Memphis City Schools is unique in the service
delivery scheme.
Figure 3.5 represents three alternative types of
service delivery to one or more school settings,
public, or private.
Importance of Administrative Location
At the local level, public education is composed
of two major instructional sectors: regular
education serving about 90% of the school
population and special ed serving about 10% of
the population.
School psychologists are part of a concept of
“pupil personnel services” situated between
regular and special education. These services
may be administered from different district
departments or contracts and are depicted
together in Figure 3.6.
PPS often help to regulate the flow of students
from one sector to another or within the sector.
This relationship has led to the term
“gatekeeper” being assigned to school
psychologists and others involved in this
activity.
Within the special ed sector a variety of service
option exist. Mainstreaming, normalization,
inclusion and LRE influence interventions and
placement decisions.
SST- referrals, interventions, assessment,
placements
ESE Director or PPS location of school
psychologists?
Should the school psychologist’s office be in the
local school building or a more centralized
office?
Administrative Versus Professional Supervision
Administrative supervision refers to supervision
regarding specific interpretations and
implementation of district policies and
regulations to school psychologists.
Professional supervision refers to specific
interpretation and implementation of actions
taken by school psychologist in their capacity as
professional psychologists.
Recent survey of school psychologist showed
professional supervision fell below the levels
recommended by AP AND NASP. ONLY 10%
RESPNDENTS WERE INVOLVED IN
CLINICAL SUPERVISION EVEN THOUGH
MOST WANTED TO BE INVOLVED.
Systemic Influences- Where the school
psychologist is positioned in the
organizational structure also influences
service delivery such as Policies, funding,
collegial relationships.
Employee Benefits
There are distinct advantages to public
school district or agency employment. These
include tenure, collective bargaining,
employment and salary stability, travel
expenses and mileage, continuing education,
sick leave, insurance, retirement, credit
unions, office space, secretarial assistance,
equipment, phones, and mail.
Job Satisfaction
Studies of job satisfaction have shown
that school psychologists, especially
those with several years of experience,
are generally satisfied with their jobs
and they have a positive outlook on the
future of school psy.
Related to satisfaction are affliation
with professional school psy
associations, student to school psy
ratios, gender issues in the workplace,
supervisor’s level and area of training.
Two factors that appear most closely
related to dissatisfaction are school
system policies and perceived lack of
opportunities for advancement.
The “Guest” in the School
1. Each house has its own rules.
2. Guests typically are invited to one’s
house.
3. Guests in one’s house typically are
not perceived as members of the
family.
4. Guests are perceived as temporary.
Guests usually have similar
background and status to those of the
house members.
Effective school psychologists must
work to overcome such perceptions
and to be perceived as integral to the
schooling of children.
Who is the Client?
Client may refer to the person in
need of professional help.
The client may include child,
parents, teacher, principal, special
education director, school
superintendent, school board, or an
agency administrator or governing
board.
Shift from individual child
assessment to family assessment
Family as client
School Psychologists in
the Community
All school psychologist
work in and with the
community.
A growing number are
working in other settings
including denominational and
independent schools, nonschool agencies, and
independent private practice.
School-based and schoollinked services
May be employed in
community and regional
health center
Community Resources
Regardless of the setting,
it is likely that it cannot meet
the needs of the client
completely.
School psychologists need
to know resources available to
assist certain client needs.
Role of school psy as a
“liaison agent” between
school and other agencies is
important and often
overlooked