The Thayer Conference: Comments on Fagan's discussion of its 50th anniversary.

Abstract

This article comments on Thomas Fagan's historical account of the 1954 Thayer Conference and offers my personal views on its importance. Many improvements to the infrastructure of school psychology in addition to its growth, are attributable to the program of goals established at the conference, as well as the efforts of passionate and dedicated professionals who worked to implement them. I was delighted when Rik Carl D'Amato, Editor-in-Chief of School Psychology Quarterly, asked me to review an earlier draft of Thomas Fagan's manuscript on the 50th anniversary of the Thayer Conference (Fagan, this issue). I have an immense respect for Fagan's knowledge of school psychology. Few if any know as much as he about this specialty. No one knows more than he about its history.Fagan's scholarship always provides valuable information and interesting perspectives. Furthermore, I share his fondness for history. It was my undergraduate major, and I have written on the history of the International School Psychology Association (ISPA, Oakland, 1993) and the International Test Commission (Oakland, Poortinga, Schlegel, & Hambleton, 2001).Although I had read about the Thayer Conference in textbooks on school psychology, I discovered and read Cutts's (1955) seminal discussion of the conference while visiting the school psychology archives maintained by Dr. Fagan at the University of Memphis-a treasure-trove that others are invited to use. Fagan's (this issue) discussion provides a historical context for the conference and traces its contributions during the last 50 years, thus enriching our understanding of this conference.The purpose of the Thayer Conference was to establish and promulgate a plan for the professionalization of school psychology. Its ambitious and unwritten goals were to help establish the identity to school psychology and promote its legitimacy and growth. Fagan's belief (this issue) that "The vast majority of the Thayer Conference recommendations have come to fruition" is accurate.