Improving Referral Decision-making and Evaluation Conceptualization and Planning Using Formal Review of Existing Data (RED) Practices
The apparent belief in the universal utility and defensibility of diagnostic testing as part of special education re/evaluations keeps school psychologists under persistent pressure to conduct evaluations to determine initial or continued special education eligibility. However, many questions facing multidisciplinary teams (MDTs) can be effectively addressed through the standardized, formal, and equitable use of a Review of Existing Data (RED) process. Although some school psychologists and MDTs utilize RED, the use of these processes and procedures appears to be very informal and the exception rather than the rule. This workshop introduces participants to formal, ethical, and legally defensible RED practices to support special education eligibility re/evaluation decision-making. Methods for conducting legally defensible RED practices, including recommendations for collecting RED information and example processes and forms, will be presented. Lastly, presenters will discuss how formal RED practices can be utilized to support referral and case conceptualization decisions.
CASP Convention
Costa Mesa, CA - 10/12/2023
School Psychologists' Role in Physical Activity-Based Social-Emotional Learning Instruction
School psychologists are key stakeholders in the implementation of interventions targeting students’ psychological, social, and behavioral well-being. Social and emotional learning (SEL) instruction is one such intervention, with a focus on students’ SEL becoming a vital role of school psychologists. School psychologists are well-situated to promote physical activity-based SEL instruction within the school setting. Aligning with the NASP Practice Model, school psychologists can engage in both direct and indirect service delivery practices related to physical activity-based SEL, including direct implementation, facilitation within multi-tiered systems of support, consultation, and evaluation. Beyond traditional SEL instructional approaches, school-based physical activity is identified as an avenue through which SEL skills can be taught and reinforced. This presentation introduces participants to SEL and its importance, discusses best-practice recommendations for physical activity-based SEL instruction within the school setting, and highlights the important role of school psychologists in supporting the implementation of physical activity-based SEL in schools.
CASP Convention
Costa Mesa, CA - 10/11/2023
Microaggression in schools: An approach to awareness
School Psychologists play an important role in supporting the prosocial and academic needs of students at their schools. Microaggressions are brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioral, or environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative slights and insults. Microaggressions can be based on the intersections of race, gender, social economic status, age and can affect the academic and social experience of students in interaction with their peers. When students are asked to meet with a School Psychologist the nature of the interaction offers chances where microaggressions can occur as an attempt to build rapport is made. This often happens when there are intersectional differences between one or more self-identifications between the School Psychologist and the student they are attempting to support. This presentation introduces participants to pertinent background and research related to microaggressions, helps participants learn to identify microaggressions, and provides recommendations to effectively respond to microaggressions to support more inclusive practices.
CASP Convention
Costa Mesa, CA - 10/11/2023
Beyond Pedagogy: Teaching in Contemporary Classrooms
Educators persistently report feeling underprepared to promote academic engagement and, at the same time, preempt and reduce disruptive student behavior in their classrooms. Consistent with teacher reports of feeling underprepared to function effectively in their classrooms, evaluations of teacher training curricula document a continued, persistent, and dogged overemphasis on pedagogy and neglect of other essential skills and practices that support effective classrooms (e.g., behavior management, pre-corrections, establish routines, effective transitions).
This presentation discusses the need to shift away from the historic overemphasis on pedagogy in order to support teachers in contemporary classrooms through improved, holistic pre- and in-service training activities.
Critical Questions in Education Conference
San Diego, CA - 2/27/2023
Efficient, Effective School-based Problem-solving Teams
School-based problem-solving teams (SB PST), in their varied forms and names, are now used in most schools to help address deficiencies in student academic, social-emotional, or behavioral functioning. Unfortunately, despite four decades and wide-spread use, it appears in the absence of external oversight, these teams are ineffective, inefficient, or both. This presentation introduces an efficient and effective approach to conducting school-based problem-solving teams for use within tiered service delivery models.
Critical Questions in Education Conference
San Diego, CA - 2/27/2023
Let’s Get Physical! Incorporating Social Emotional Learning Instruction Into School-Based Physical Activity
Schools have been identified as ideal settings for incorporating social emotional learning (SEL) instruction, which promotes the acquisition of a range of cognitive, affective, and behavioral skills that are fundamental for development across the lifespan. While the integration of SEL into core academic subjects has become increasingly common, incorporating SEL instruction into school-based physical activity is a relatively new and underutilized practice. It has been argued by educators and researchers that physical activity can provide students with more than gross motor skill acquisition and can also be utilized to teach a variety of developmental skills, such as those within the social and affective domains, which includes the SEL core competencies.
Critical Questions in Education Conference
San Diego, CA - 2/27/2023
Microaggressions in Schools: Prevalence, Impact, and Action
Experiencing (i.e., being the target, recipient, witness) microaggressions frequently elicits a variety of short- and long-term negative emotional responses including anger, frustration, sadness, depression, fear/anxiety, self-doubt, and isolation. Research has consistently demonstrated that experiencing microaggressions is both emotionally and psychologically taxing because of the high frequency at which they occur and the personal nature of the resulting trauma. This presentation provides an overview of the prevalence of microaggressions in schools and the resulting psychological effects on students. Best-practice recommendations on prevention and intervention efforts will also be discussed.
Critical Questions in Education Conference
San Diego, CA - 2/28/2023
Motivational Interviewing to Challenge Racism and Foster Allyship in School Settings
Discourse around dismantling systemic racism in educational settings has intensified as of late. While members of the dominant racial groups who are school personnel in positions of power purport to lack prejudice, in reality, deeply rooted, prejudicial belief systems remain unexamined and unchallenged. These belief systems reify systems of racial discrimination. While change is generally difficult, changes to ingrained beliefs related to power and oppression may be even more challenging. This workshop introduces attendees to foundational concepts related to racism and systemic oppression in education, core principles and skills of Motivational Interviewing (MI), and application of MI micro-skills to challenge promote antiracist actions and foster allyship in schools.
National Association of School Psychologists Annual Convention
Denver, CO - 2/7/2023
Continued Validation of Direct Behavior Rating-Classroom Management: A G-Theory Study
Users must consider potential advantages and disadvantages, defensibility, and feasibility when selecting an assessment. Assessment defensibility, or the confidence with which users can make reliable and valid data-based decisions, is arguably the most critical criterion considered in the process of
selecting and implementing any assessment instrument. Defensibility is based on the accumulation of psychometric evidence supporting use of an assessment for its intended applications or interpretations. GT offers notable advantages to validation work within educational settings. GT examines sources of variance through the calculation of generalizability and dependability coefficients associated with predefined sources, or facets (e.g., persons, occasions, and raters).
National Association of School Psychologists Annual Convention
Denver, CO - 2/9/2023
Everyday Conversations About Change: Using Motivational Interviewing to Challenge Racism and Foster Allyship in School Settings
Discourse around dismantling systemic racism in educational settings has intensified as of late. While members of the dominant racial groups who are school personnel in positions of power purport to lack prejudice, in reality, deeply rooted, prejudicial belief systems remain unexamined and unchallenged. These belief systems reify systems of racial discrimination. While change is generally difficult, changes to ingrained beliefs related to power and oppression may be even more challenging. This workshop introduces attendees to foundational concepts related to racism and systemic oppression in education, core principles and skills of Motivational Interviewing (MI), and application of MI micro-skills to challenge racist behaviors, beliefs, and foster allyship in schools.
Classroom Management and Student Outcomes: Using Assessment to Support Consultation-based Educators Professional Development
Educator classroom management (CM) practices have a well-established connection with student academic, social, emotional, and behavioral outcomes. Despite these identified connections, CM has garnered relatively little attention in educator pre-service training. As a result, consultants, including school psychologists, are being increasingly called upon to support improved CM practices. Of particular relevance are feedback-based professional development activities (e.g., coaching, performance feedback). Unfortunately, the availability of CM assessment tools to support such activities appears limited. Thus, the DBR-CM was developed to generate data to support consultation-based, CM-focused professional development activities. This presentation introduces participants to contemporary conceptualizations of CM, including evidence-based CM practice examples. Further, presenters will introduce psychometric evidence linking DBR-CM data to student outcomes to support the use of the DBR-CM. Lastly, implications for applied application within school psychological consultative practices will be discussed.
Transitioning from Practitioner to Graduate Educator in School Psychology Society for the Study of School Psychology - Early Career Forum
Do School-Based Problem-Solving Teams Work? A Meta-Analysis
Development and Preliminary Validity Evidence for the Direct Behavior Rating-Classroom Management (D
Development and Preliminary Validity Evidence for the Direct Behavior Rating-Classroom Management (D
California Association of School Psychologists 2019 Convention - Long Beach, CA 10/25/2019
Development and Preliminary Validity Evidence for the Direct Behavior Rating-Classroom Management (D
Development and Preliminary Validity Evidence for the Direct Behavior Rating-Classroom Management (D
Development and Preliminary Validity Evidence for the Direct Behavior Rating-Classroom Management (D
American Psychological Association 2019 Convention - Chicago, Illinois 8/10/2019
Supporting Positive Classrooms: Teacher, Administrator, School Psychologist Perspectives
Development and Preliminary Validity Evidence for the Direct Behavior Rating-Classroom Management (D
Supporting Positive Classrooms: Teacher, Administrator, School Psychologist Perspectives
American Psychological Association 2019 Convention, Chicago, Illinois 8/10/2019