Shortages of school psychologists have been documented for many years with this deficiency extending not just to practitioners but to trainers as well. This article presents the results of a search to identify individuals employed in academic institutions and their graduating universities. Using an Internet search and mailings to doctoral degree-granting school psychology programs, 633 individuals were identified as having graduated from a school psychology program in the United States or Canada and being currently employed full-time in a faculty position in an institute of higher education. When graduating university was examined, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and University of Texas at Austin were consistently the highest rated programs in terms of producing school psychology academics. Other findings indicated that APA-accredited programs produced the majority of individuals in academic positions and that women have outnumbered men in entering the professorate every year since 1987. Women also currently comprise 51% of the school psychology professorate. While these data should not be considered a measure of program quality, they do provide an objective rating of program success in preparing students for careers in academia.

A survey was conducted of teachers' classroom management practices in the United States and Greece. The United States sample consisted of 149 teachers in Arizona, Illinois, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. The Greek sample consisted of 97 teachers in Athens and the surrounding area. The survey asked questions regarding teachers' use of important classroom management principles (e.g. rules, classroom management practices). Responses of the teachers in the two samples were remarkably similar which indicates that, overall, teachers are reporting the use of empirically validated classroom management procedures (e.g. rules, positive reinforcement) in relatively high frequencies. Results and implications are discussed in terms of the importance of cross-cultural research of this type.

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A major problem faced by schools across the country is student absenteeism. Although the problem is pervasive in American schools, the attention focused on this issue has been inadequate. Poor student attendance has far reaching effects on the individual, the school, and society in general. The intent of this paper is to document the problem, summarize existing research on mediating factors, provide a summary of interventions for improving student attendance rates in schools, and to offer specific suggestions for school psychologists. In addition, specific attention is given to suggestions for future research to help expand the current understanding of the causes and remediation of poor student attendance.Keywords: Attendance, Truancy, InterventionOne major barrier to learning faced by students and teachers in American schools today is a lack of consistent attendance in classrooms. In fact, the United States Department of Education (1994) has cited absenteeism as the most important factor linked to performance differences among students, and absenteeism has recently been identified as being at crisis proportion (Kearney, 2003). Although many schools realize the importance of this issue, educational researchers have not consistently given this topic the attention it deserves (Corville-Smith, 1995). Additionally, while some attempts to increase attendance rates have been successful, the methodologies used have had notable disadvantages including cost, drainage of faculty resources, difficulty of implementation, or time consumption (DeKalb, 1999;Lamdin, 1996).Researchers have attacked this problem from a number of directions. For example, interventions have been community-based (McPartland & Nettles, 1991;Reid & Bailey-Dempsey, 1995), familybased (Copeland, Brown, & Hall, 1974;Volkman, 1996), and school-based (Gottfredson, Jones, & Gore, 2002;Noonan & Thibeault, 1974). The intent of this paper is to summarize existing research on improving attendance rates in schools and offer suggestions for school psychologists on how they can become involved in formulating interventions to help schools deal with problems of attendance. AbsenteeismTruancy has been labeled one of the top 10 major problems in American schools, and rates of absenteeism have reached as high as 30% in some cities. In New York City, an estimated 150,000 out of 1,000,000 students are absent daily (DeKalb, 1999). Similarly, the Los Angeles Unified School District reports that 10% of its students are absent daily, and only half return to school with written Correspondence should be addressed to Steven G. Little; Department of Educational and School Psychology; Benerd School of Education; University of the Pacific; 3601 Pacific Avenue; Stockton, CA 95211. Electronic mail may be sent via Internet to slittle@uop.edu. The California School Psychologist, Vol. 8, pp. 127-139, 2003 Copyright 2003 California Association of School Psychologists The California School Psychologist, 2003 excuses (DeKalb). Although school officials are unsure as to the proportion o...

Using the principles of mental health and behavioral consultation, combined with concepts from positive psychology, this paper generates a new preventative model of school consultation. This model has two steps: (1) the school psychologist aids the teacher in the development and use of his/her personal positive psychology (e.g., optimism, objective happiness, etc.); and (2) the teacher is then encouraged to utilize positive psychology in the classroom. In support of this model a brief overview of consultation, a discussion of primary prevention in the schools, and a description of positive psychology is presented. It is the authors' belief that teachers who are taught to develop their own personal positive psychology and practice positive psychology in the classroom will (a) provide a more reinforcing classroom environment which may prevent behavior problems from developing; (b) be more accepting of the use of the behavioral principles in the classroom; and (c) implement interventions with greater integrity.