Constructively Avoiding the Need for Due Process

School professionals are often faced with formal due process hearings regarding education of exceptional students. By the time a formal hearing is required to resolve differences, parental perceptions of school personnel are often negative, while educators develop similar views of parents. Fortunately, there are easily understood ways to preclude need for due process hearings, while meeting legitimate needs of children, parents, and school personnel. Although not infallible, these techniques can improve the probability of avoiding a formal hearing and improve parent-school relationships.     

Law, educational reform, and the school psychologist

The law has become a major vehicle for those seeking to reform education. The two areas of reform which most affect school psychologists are the extension of the right to a public education to previously discriminated against and excluded groups, and the extension of the protection of the Bill of Rights to all school children. The potential impact of these areas on the role of the school psychologist is suggested by preliminary findings on one such reform, the right of retarded children to an appropriate education and the guarantee of that right through the provision of procedural due process. Any response to the reform by school psychologists will involve risks and opportunities which must be carefully weighed if a wise choice is to be made from the point of view of both children and the profession.     

Risks and costs of a treatment litigation: Focus on the family

Decision-making in special educational settings is always based on an implicit process of assessing risks, costs, and benefits of proposed alternative program options. We urge decision-makers to make the process explicit. The hidden costs of IEP decisions are discussed in the context of the question of using aversive procedures to treat severe destructive behavior. Some agency decisions result in significant cost transfer to or generation of risks and costs for families. The experiences of one family involved in a due process proceeding with a school system are examined for evidence of burdensome psychological, social and financial consequences.     

The school psychologist as expert witness in due process hearings

As a consequence of the Consent Agreement reached between the Pennsylvania Association for Retarded Children and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, school of psychologists are finding themselves increasingly in the role of expert witness in due process hearings. The paper identifies a number of problems regarding the witness behavior of psychologists in these hearings and proposes some recommendations and resolutions.     

父亲参与教养与农村寄宿制学生学校适应：自我控制的中介作用和相对剥夺感的调节作用

为探讨父亲参与教养与学校适应的关系及其作用机制,采用问卷法对548名农村寄宿制学生进行调查。结果发现：（1）父亲参与教养与自我控制、学校适应呈显著正相关;（2）父亲参与教养既能直接正向预测农村寄宿制学生的学校适应,也能通过自我控制的中介预测学校适应;（3）相对剥夺感在自我控制的中介作用中起到调节,当农村寄宿制学生的相对剥夺感较高时,父亲参与教养对自我控制的作用减弱。研究结果揭示了父亲参与教养对农村寄宿制学生学校适应的影响及作用机制,能为提高农村寄宿制学生的学校适应水平提供有效启示。     

The impact of school transitions: A focus for preventive efforts

The relationship between cumulative or single school transfers and a student's academic adjustment was explored. The school records of 250 high school students were examined and school transfers due to either residential mobility or the normative school change from eighth to ninth grade were identified. Correlations between the cumulative number of school transfers in a student's history and their ninth-grade academic performance and attendance record were computed for both ethnic and sex subgroups. Analyses of variance for repeated measures were performed to assess the impact of any single school transition occurring at different points in the child's development. Correlational analyses indicated that high rates of school mobility were significantly related to poor academic performance, particularly for black and Hispanic students. Analyses of variance revealed that while no single school transition due to residential mobility in Grades 1 through 8 had a significant impact on the student's posttransfer adjustment, the normative transition to high school was significantly related to lowered school performance and increased absences, particularly for students with a history of repeated school transfers and for black students.     

Arab and Jewish elementary school students' perceptions of fear and school violence: Understanding the influence of school context

This inquiry explores variables that predict elementary school stsudents' fear of attending school due to school violence and their overall judgments of school violence as a problem. Using a nationally representative sample (Israel) of 5,472 elementary‐school‐aged children, this study tested the hypotheses that: (a) young students' personal fear of attending school due to violence, and (b) students' assessment of a school violence problem, are best understood as separate conceptual constructs. Structural equation modelling was used to test the proposed theoretical model for the sample as a whole and separately for across gender and for Arab and Jewish students. Student fear of attending school due to violence was related directly to experiences of personal victimization on school grounds by students and teachers. Children's judgments of their schools' overall violence problem were influenced directly by the school climate, risky peer‐group behaviours, and personal victimization. The findings provide evidence that the proposed theoretical model applies across gender groups and for both Arab and Jewish students. Implications for policy, theory, and future research are highlighted.     

A Model for Building School–Family–Community Partnerships: Principles and Process

The extant literature documents the importance of school counselors’ roles in school–family–community partnerships, yet no model exists to guide school counselors through the process of building partnerships. The authors propose a model to help school counselors navigate the process and principles of partnerships. They define partnerships; discuss the principles of democratic collaboration, empowerment, social justice, and strengths focus that should infuse partnerships; enumerate a partnership process model; and discuss implications for practice and research.     

Resilience and Protective Factors in Adolescence: An Autobiographical Perspective From Disadvantaged Youth

This article focuses on the development of adolescent resilience and protective factors within a sample of 86 inner-city high school students in Chicago. Resilience was considered present when (a) children living in conditions of risk (b) show better-than-predicted outcomes (c) presumably due to some intervening process. Conditions (a) and (b) were met using quantitative comparisons. Condition (c), the intervening process, was examined using autobiographical essays to begin to understand protective factors youth consider salient in overcoming adversity. Internal attributes such as perseverance, determination, and having the awareness to learn from the risk-attrition process surfaced in the content analyses. Motivational support from family members and teachers was also highly valued for promoting successful adjustment.     

Resistance to a dynamic world view

The fact that people think is taken for granted. How we go about the thinking process is seldom reflected upon by the individual. In order to be able to grasp complex phenomena, and changing and interdependent relationships students participating in a systems course are required to become aware of their way of performing the thinking process. In discussions with them and based on ‘soft analysis’ it seems that there is resistance to a dynamic, multilevelled thinking process due to habits acquired at school, or perhaps even at an earlier age. The personality structure, and a coherent experience of a complete ‘self’ seems to enhance mental mobility, and the possibility of developing a dynamic world view.     

When all COVID breaks loose: Examining determinants of working parents' job performance during a crisis

As governments mandated organization and school closures due to COVID-19, working parents involuntarily found themselves trying to balance both work and child educational responsibilities from home while still endeavoring to remain productive at work. As such, we integrate the crisis management literature with boundary theory and the work–home resources model to propose and test a process model to better understand how abrupt shifts to remote work and school closures impact working parents' job performance during a crisis. Using data collected across four time periods beginning at the time when most states had issued “safer at home” orders, we examine a serial mediation model and find, consistent with predictions, that early experiences of boundary violations and job insecurity impact work–family balance self-efficacy, which in turn drives future job performance by way of its effects on working parents' subjective well-being. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.     

Guidance program for a ghetto school

High school students from the ghetto have special problems that often need more attention than mere talk. Many students lose all sense of personal motivation and worth, for example, due to overcrowded conditions or teacher conflicts in the school, or lack of money or parental guidance outside of school. To help students find concrete solutions to their problems, a new guidance program is suggested for the ghetto school, and the Center for Personal Advancement, now in effect at a Philadelphia high school, is offered as one example.     

中学生考试焦虑与元担忧

使用元担忧问卷,对1152名中学生的元担忧及其与考试焦虑之间的关系进行了研究。中学生的元担忧项目共有5个类型的：社会评价、考试过程、家庭冲突、前途命运和父母状况。对考试焦虑贡献显著的元担忧项目有18个,涉及到所有5个方面,家庭和考试过程是中学生元担忧的2个主要来源。男女学生共有的元担忧项目有8个,家庭和考试过程家是初中和高中学生共同的主要元担忧来源,但是,考试过程因素更可能构成男生元担忧的来源,社会评价更可能构成女生的元担忧来源。初中、高中学生共有的元担忧项目有9个,也涉5个方面,家庭冲突和考试过程仍然是二者的主要来源,但是,初中学生更倾向于出现对结果期望的元担忧,高中学生则更倾向于出现对将来工作的元担忧     

The Interface between Mental Health Providers, Families, and Schools: Parent and Child Attitudes about Information-Sharing

Youth with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) are at an increased risk for school problems and negative consequences into adulthood, increasing the need for collaboration between families, school personnel and mental health providers. Current treatment guidelines emphasize the importance of information-sharing between providers and schools, yet few studies have addressed parents’ or students’ attitudes and preferences about this process or about the disclosure of mental health-related information to school professionals. Using a sample of 73 pairs of parents and their adolescents seeking outpatient treatment, this study assessed parental and adolescent attitudes about disclosure of mental health treatment information to school personnel. The majority of parents reported that the school should be informed that their adolescent was receiving counseling or medication for EBD, and that they should be the primary informant, rather than providers. By comparison, adolescents preferred more discretion about their involvement in treatment. Taken together, the study results highlight a number of implications relevant to the therapeutic relation and the process of obtaining and sharing mental health-related treatment information with various school personnel. Future research directions regarding the consultative and collaborative process with school personnel are also discussed.     

Restructuring School Counselor Education: Work in Progress

Responding to the cry for school reform and to the growing demand for school counselors, this article offers a rationale for the pursuit of a new approach to educating school counselors. Based on a set of related assumptions, the proposed model relies on a group-oriented, democratic strategic planning process of empowerment that involves participants in the collaborative development of a school counselor education program.     

The school psychologist in evaluating educational programs

A discussion of school psychology practice is presented, with emphasis on school programs rather than on individuals. While pressures exist to continue emphasizing the individual as the unit of study, current literature in evaluation theory and community psychology suggest a more viable model for the practice of school psychology. The learning process as it occurs in school programming is discussed, illustrating potential sources of involvement for school psychologists in effecting change in education. It is suggested that school psychologists, operating from a framework of evaluation theory, are well suited to be evaluators of school programs.     

成人与中学生科学概念形成过程的四个对比实验

以一组非人工的、自然的科学概念(“反作用力”、“机械能守恒”、“熵”和“场”)为学习内容,分别以成人和中学生为被试,实验研究成人和中学生科学概念形成过程的异同。结论如下：(1)成人与中学生科学概念形成过程均分为振荡渐进期、高原期和突变期。(2)成人的振荡渐进期较长;中学生的振荡渐进期较短且振荡特征比较明显。(3)成人的高原期出现较晚,但持续较长;中学生的高原期出现较早,但持续较短。(4)中学生的突变期的跨度随概念的抽象程度提高而越来越大。     

Fidelity Assessment to Improve Teacher Instruction and School Decision Making

Teachers must provide high-quality instruction based on evidence-based practices to provide students meaningful opportunities to learn and to improve school outcomes. Although teachers have access to a variety of resources on evidence-based practices, poor implementation may limit the effectiveness of teacher practices, as indicated by low levels of student achievement and flat rates of progress. However, inadequate student response to instruction or intervention may also be due to a mismatch between teacher practices and student needs such as when students require more intensive support. As a result, school teams must determine the degree to which teachers provide instruction and intervention as intended (i.e., fidelity of implementation) to determine if an inadequate student response is due to poor implementation of practices that match student needs or due to a need for more intensive support. The authors report the necessity of including contingencies for measuring fidelity within school-wide assessment practices. Methods for assessing fidelity that can be used by school administrators, school psychologists, and teachers are discussed. Examples of recommended methods are provided for both academic and behavioral practices.     

The Impact of More Fully Implemented Guidance Programs on the School Experiences of High School Students: A Statewide Evaluation Study

Relationships between the statewide implementation of comprehensive guidance programs and the school experiences of high school students were explored. Data from 22,964 students attending 236 Missouri high schools were analyzed by using hierarchical linear modeling. Schools with more fully implemented model guidance programs had students who were more likely to report that (a) they had earned higher grades, (b) their education was better preparing them for their future, (c) their school made more career and college information available to them, and (d) their school had a more positive climate. Positive program effects were found after removing differences due to school enrollment size, socioeconomic status, and percentage of minority students in attendance. Results highlight the important roles school counselors play in promoting the central educational goals of their schools and support a comprehensive guidance program focus for university counseling faculty who train school counselors.