NASP Professional Practice Model Paper

There are several levels of education attainable in the school psychology field. An individual may either attain a specialist level of credentialing, a doctorate in school psychology, and also available are post-doctoral certifications (Merrell, et al, 2012, page 62-79). When pursuing a career in school psychology, a student should expect to spend a minimum of four years in school in addition to their bachelors degree, with five to six years being more common, including an internship of approximately one year (Merrell, et al, 2012, pages 78-79). There are programs which are accredited by the American Psychological Association (APA), the National Association of School Psychology (NASP), as well as programs that are not eligible or have not

The model also recommends a ratio of one school psychologist to between 500 and 700 students (Skalski, et al, 2015). An example of the data-based decision making model, a school psychologist might receive a referral from a teacher regarding a student who is struggling with reading and attentiveness. In order to ascertain the cause of the problem, the school psychologist would gather additional information (environment behavior occurs in, teacher expectations, positive behaviors exhibited, etc.) and clarify the problem(s) through interviews with the teacher, student, possibly the student’s family as well (Merrell, et al, 2012, pg. 183, 189-190). Assuming the developed hypothesis is that it is a learning difficulty that has resulted in the problem behavior(s), formal assessments would be provided to the student, such as the Curriculum-Based Assessment/Measurement (CBA/CBM), specifically the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) discussed on page 179 (Merrell, et al, 2012). The

IDEIA has evolved over time (since the original passage in 1975), including several changes to the title and contents, and currently consists of four parts that cover different ages and areas of education (Merrell, et al, 2012, page 122). Those four parts are IDEIA-2004: “Part A, General Provisions; Part B, Assistance for All Children with Disabilities; Part C, Infants and Toddlers with disabilities; and Part D, National Activites to improve education for National Activities to Improve Education of Children with Disabilities” (Merrell, et al, 2012, page