Increasing Diversity in School Psychology: Uniting the Efforts of Institutions, Faculty, Students, and Practitioners

This qualitative study investigated eight African‐American specialist‐level students’ experiences with and perceptions of their retention and persistence toward degree completion in school psychology programs. Findings indicate that participants deemed the general supports faculty offered to all students and positive, supportive relationships with faculty as retention strategies they experienced as effective and access to diversity in support systems as a retention strategy they perceived would be beneficial. Participants described social engagement and reliance on family and classmates as persistence strategies they used. Based on these findings, the article provides recommendations for school psychology faculty interested in retaining African‐American students and African‐American students who aim to persist to degree completion.

Section: Retentionmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Retention and persistence of African‐American students in school psychology programs

Proctor

Nasir

Wilson

et al. 2018

“…Proctor and Truscott (2013) noted the necessity of having culturally competent school psychologists of all races, but especially those of color, to offer expertise and services that benefit students across a range of educational, social, and psychological issues inclusive of and beyond special education. Grapin, Bocanegra, Green, Lee, and Jaafar (2016) contended that efforts to increase workforce diversity in school psychology may lead to appropriately recognizing and addressing the needs of vulnerable student populations.…”

Section: The Need For Workforce Diversity In School Psychologymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, the continued underrepresentation of racially and ethnically diverse individuals in school psychology has sparked calls for more research about the retention of diverse students in school psychology graduate education (Castillo et al, 2013;Grapin et al, 2016;Proctor, Nasir, Wilson, Li, & Castrillon, 2018). Yet, it is difficult to know what research needs to be done without examining the state of current research.…”

Section: Retention Research In Applied Psychology Graduate Programsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, the NASP Minority Scholarship Program offers a competitive scholarship for exemplary racially and ethnically diverse specialist‐level students, the association sponsors a diversity mentorship program that pairs racially and ethnically diverse school psychology graduate students and early career scholars with seasoned school psychologists of similar backgrounds, and a recent initiative seeks to expose students attending Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) to the profession via presentations by individuals in the field (NASP, 2018b; Proctor & Truscott, ). However, the continued underrepresentation of racially and ethnically diverse individuals in school psychology has sparked calls for more research about the retention of diverse students in school psychology graduate education (Castillo et al, ; Grapin et al, ; Proctor, Nasir, Wilson, Li, & Castrillon, ). Yet, it is difficult to know what research needs to be done without examining the state of current research.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

School psychology graduate education retention research characteristics: Implications for diversity initiatives in the profession

Proctor

Owens

2019

Lack of racial and ethnic diversity in the school psychology workforce has been a concern since the profession's inception. One solution is to graduate more racially and ethnically diverse individuals from school psychology programs. This structured review explored the characteristics of studies published from 1994 to 2017 that investigated graduate student retention and school psychology. An electronic search that included specified databases, subject terms, and study inclusion criteria along with a manual search of 10 school psychology journals yielded two published, peer‐reviewed studies focused primarily on graduate student retention and school psychology over the 23‐year span. Two researchers coded the studies using a rigorous coding process with high inter‐rater reliability. Findings suggest that mostly Black and White individuals served as participants, undergraduate students represented the largest group sampled, and key school psychology stakeholders’ views were missing. Additionally, programs interested in retaining racially and ethnically diverse students should have a commitment to multicultural issues, expose students to diverse professional networks and mentorship, and cultivate an inclusive program environment. Implications point to a need for more studies focused on school psychology graduate student retention in general and in specific relation to retaining racial and ethnic minoritized students.

A snapshot of multicultural training in school psychology

Malone

Ishmail

2020

With the rapidly increasing racial and ethnic diversity of the school‐aged population, school psychologists must be properly trained to engage in culturally competent practice; however, little is known about how school psychology programs prepare their trainees to serve diverse populations. The purpose of this study was to update Rogers et al.'s study on multicultural training by examining the extent to which school psychology programs use multicultural training recommendations noted in the literature. Thirty‐eight school psychology program coordinators completed the Multicultural Environmental Inventory‐Revised (MEI) to assess their perceptions of their program's multicultural environment. Participants were also asked about their training in multicultural and diversity issues and how their program conducts multicultural training. Findings suggest that programs most frequently used the integration and separate course models for multicultural training along with clinical experiences serving diverse students. In addition, multicultural coursework was associated with higher scores on the MEI Curriculum and MEI Research subscales. With regard to program environment, the percentage of racial and ethnic minoritized (REM) students was positively correlated to the percentage of REM faculty and the number of required multicultural courses. However, programs lacked specific strategies to recruit and retain diverse students. Findings and implications for training programs are discussed.