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In recent years, school psychology has given increasing attention to issues of social justice and antiracism. While such orientations are not new, the scope and centrality of these movements within the field are, as is the growing appreciation of the need to integrate them across all areas of professional activities and efforts in school psychology. The aim of this special topic section is to create a space for scholarship addressing a broad range of issues relevant to advancing equity and justice in school psychology. In particular, we seek to curate diverse scholarship that expands the ways we conceptualize, design, implement, and interpret school psychology research, as well as how we approach graduate preparation and practice in school psychology to advance equitable and just services for individuals from historically and systemically marginalized backgrounds. The resulting compilation of articles provide insight into how school psychologists can approach scholarship, practice, and professional education to advance antiracism, social justice, and equity. Themes include expanding the nature and scope of school psychology scholarship by confronting the detriments of whiteness and epistemic exclusion; centering equity, healing, and minoritized voices in practice; and leveraging diverse research methods, including participatory approaches, to elevate youth and family voices in addressing some of the most pressing issues in schools. Impact Statement School psychology has given increasing attention to issues of social justice and antiracism, with growing appreciation of the need to integrate them across all professional activities. This article contributes important information regarding how these broad efforts can be supported by confronting the detriments of epistemic exclusion and whiteness in scholarship; centering equity, healing, and minoritized voices in practice; and leveraging diverse research methods, including participatory approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reflexivity, defined as the critical analysis of how one's identity and values influence their scholarship, has been underscored as a crucial element of antioppressive scholarship. Despite its importance, reflexivity, and particularly its documentation, remains relatively uncommon in school psychology scholarship. In the following commentary, we introduce the need for reflexivity as it relates to the field's commitment to antiracism, followed by a brief review of the literature on reflexivity, including its historical foundations and its previous applications within the fields of psychological research. We conclude with recommendations for the school psychology scholarly community for conceptualizing, conducting, and disseminating scholarship. Impact Statement Despite its importance, reflexivity, or the critical analysis of how one's identity and values influence their scholarship, in school psychology scholarship remains uncommon. In this commentary, we introduce the need for reflexivity within school psychology scholarship and provide recommendations for the school psychology scholarly community. This manuscript serves as a call to increase implementation of a reflexive approach in school psychology scholarship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this commentary, I argue that the systemic inequities driving and resulting from the wide-ranging immediate and long-term effects of COVID-19 are the key issue around which our field should rally as we reconceptualize school psychology in the 21st century. I offer this commentary as complementary to the growing body of scholarship describing reforms and practices to address the current and long-term challenges of COVID-19, as well as to broader calls to address systemic racism wherein critical consciousness and interrogation of the roles of systematic racism in the field are prerequisite to action and sustained practice change. I first enumerate the multisystem, intersectional complexities of the COVID-19 disaster, synthesizing scholarship on how it has been particularly detrimental to minoritized communities and students, as a basis for fostering critical awareness. I then propose three core ideological shifts as the basis for expansive reflection and re-envisioning across all areas of professional activity. I conclude with implications for graduate educators and scholars to support fieldwide transformation as the field endeavors to rise to the challenge of this historic unfolding and advance social justice and antiracism. Impact Statement COVID-19 as more than a matter of health or disparities thereof—indeed, it is a disaster—because of the consequences across all domains of life and social systems. School psychology's short and long-term responses to COVID-19 and advancing social justice and antiracism should be grounded in ideological shifts foundational to lasting change in rhetoric and other practices. These include centering the most marginalized, uprooting white supremacy in our field, and conceptualizing trauma and associated professional responses intersectionally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is imperative that the field of school psychology in the United States continue to evolve in order to support the development, well-being, and educational success of all students. The confluence of numerous factors, including the sociopolitical zeitgeist, significant societal events, and the need to provide appropriate supports for students from minoritized backgrounds, converge to reveal and inform the importance of the field of school psychology continuing to develop. This special topic section of School Psychology Review focuses on reconceptualizing school psychology for the 21st century. The compilation of articles featured herein is both introspective and forward looking. These articles present important theories, frameworks, and approaches to improve school psychology's responsiveness to the social injustice embedded in many of the core foundations of American society and inform our professional efforts to more effectively support every student. Several foundational orientations are emphasized, including critical consciousness, critical reflexivity, and other mindsets key to engaging in sustained efforts to advance social justice and antiracism. Implications for practice, scholarship, graduate education, and professional standards in school psychology are discussed. Impact Statement Sociopolitical and cultural changes have affected the lived experiences and needs of students, families, and educators, which, in turn, create the contexts within which school psychologists engage and affect the attitudes, assumptions, behaviors, and resources school psychologists bring to their work. This article highlights considerations and opportunities for school psychology faculty, practitioners, and students to advance the development of the field to support the students, families, and communities we serve. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bilingual students comprise a substantial and growing proportion of U.S. school enrollment and often experience unsatisfactory school outcomes attributed to limited opportunities to learn. Bilingual consultants have the unique opportunity to shape school psychological services and general education supports for all bilingual students by working with monolingual professionals and stakeholders to improve the instructional and mental health services provided to bilingual students, particularly English language learners. In this article, we provide a framework for integrated individual and systemic bilingual school consultation that extends existing consultation models. Specifically, we (a) compare the proposed framework to existing consultation models, (b) identify core competencies for bilingual consultants, (c) describe how the bilingual consultant can contribute to multitier systems of support responsive to the needs of all students, and (d) offer a case study of implementation of the framework. Implications for professional development and research are addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the past 30 years, the dropout rate for students with emotional disturbance has hovered around 50%, a rate substantially higher than the dropout rate for students with other disabilities and the general population. This systematic review evaluated the literature published between 1990 and 2013 on the effectiveness of dropout prevention and intervention for students with emotional disturbance. Only one experimental or quasi-experimental study tested a dropout prevention program with students with emotional disturbance meeting the methodological criteria for this review. The results reveal a dearth of research-based strategies or programs to support high school completion among students with emotional disturbance, underscoring the need for rigorous intervention research to improve outcomes for these students. We discuss implications for research and practice in light of this research gap. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

KIBO is a developmentally appropriate robotics kit for young children that is programmed using interlocking wooden blocks; no screens or keyboards are required. This study describes a pilot KIBO robotics curriculum at an urban public preschool in Rhode Island and presents data collected on children's knowledge of foundational programming concepts after completing the curriculum. The curriculum was designed to integrate music, literacy, and design with engineering and robotics. Children (N= 64) from seven preschool classrooms, ranging in age from 3 to 5, participated in the study. Findings indicated that children as young as age 3 could create syntactically correct programs for the KIBO robot, although older preschoolers (closer to age 5) performed better than younger preschoolers on a standardized programming task. Additionally, all students generally performed better on the programming tasks that required them to manipulate less programming instructions. Implications for designing developmentally appropriate curriculum and scaffolding for young children are addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Somali immigrants and refugees have entered the United States with increasing frequency due to civil war-induced violence and instability in their native country. The resultant increase of Somali students is of particular relevance to educators and school psychologists because Somali youth possess unique cultural backgrounds. In addition, refugee youth are at an elevated risk for mental health and academic difficulties due to their pre-immigration exposure to traumatic events and lack of formal education. In this article, we provide an overview of Somali history and culture, recent immigrant trends, and the challenges faced by Somali children and youth in the United States. Then, we describe the research on school-based supports for the academic and social-emotional needs of this population, and discuss implications for school psychological services and applied research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the inception of special education, scholars and practitioners have been concerned about the disproportionate representation of students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds among students identified with disabilities. Professional efforts to address this disproportionality have encompassed a range of targets, but scholars increasingly view disproportionality as a complex, multiply-determined problem that requires systemic change to ameliorate disparities. In this article, we describe a framework for systemic change to foster equity in special education identification and placement. We discuss the use of ecologically oriented organizational consultation as a means of facilitating systemic change, emphasizing the role of stakeholders, and the implications for school psychology practice and training. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Past researchers suggested there are a number of shortcomings in the psychoeducational evaluation process and practices used with English language learners (ELLs). In the present exploratory study, the authors descriptively examined the assessment practices used in the special education eligibility determination process for ELLs as documented in 34 psychoeducational evaluation reports in one southwestern state. The authors reviewed psychoeducational evaluation reports prepared by school psychologists to determine (a) the extent to which school psychologists adhered to legal and ethical guidelines in the evaluation of ELLs for special education eligibility and needs and (b) how school psychologists account for cultural and linguistic differences in the evaluation process. Results indicated that school psychologists rarely used culturally and linguistically responsive practices such as the use of interpretation and translation services and language proficiency data, as well as limited adherence to legal and ethical recommendations. We address implications for training and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For more than 30 years, scholars and practitioners have debated how to distinguish emotional disturbance (ED) from social maladjustment (SM) when determining special education eligibility and need. Scholarship on the nature of ED and SM has paid little attention to the legal parameters of practice despite the fundamentally legalistic nature of special education and resultant special education eligibility determinations. Accordingly, this study systematically reviewed and interpreted the published federal case law distinguishing SM from ED. This analysis of the idiosyncratic constellation of student characteristics and behaviors that courts held were relevant for proving SM or ED sheds light on the types of data school psychologists and multidisciplinary evaluation teams should consider during ED evaluations. The implications for practice and policy are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Delivering psychological services in rural communities presents a number of unique challenges for practitioners relative to their peers in urban and suburban communities. In this article, the authors describe the current context of rural schools and examine the ethical and legal issues school psychologists may face when practicing in rural educational settings. They link these issues to the field's ethical guidelines and educational policy and offer practical recommendations for resolving potential dilemmas. Implications for practice, training, and research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the concurrent and longitudinal relationships between reactive and proactive aggression and children's peer status. Participants were 94 Dutch elementary school-aged boys in self-contained special education classrooms for students with emotional/behavioral disorders (EBD) and 47 boys with no disabilities in general education classrooms. Hierarchical and logistic regression analyses were conducted to test how aggression, context, and their interactions predicted participants' peer status, which encompassed social preference and social impact as indicated by classroom peers. Descriptive analyses show that both reactive and proactive aggression were more common in EBD classrooms. Classroom type moderated the concurrent and longitudinal relationships between subtypes of aggression and social preference. The results indicate that to understand the relationship between aggression and children's peer status, it is important to analyze the specific type of aggressive behavior and the context in which it occurs. These findings also suggest the importance of students and teachers' responses to aggression in reducing aggressive behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Scholars and practitioners advocate for the use of social skills interventions for students with emotional disabilities because significant social skills deficits are common among these students. Yet contemporary practices must be vetted for empirical evidence of their efficacy and effectiveness to ensure students are provided appropriate services. In this systematic review, the authors evaluated research examining the effectiveness of social skills interventions for students with emotional disabilities. The authors applied quality indicators to appraise the characteristics of the nine studies identified and found that they did not meet these rigorous methodological criteria. This review underscores the need for more and better studies of school-based social skills interventions within this population to support using such interventions with students with emotional disabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study examined prevalence and relative risk of school-based autism identification by race, and the relations of each to state characteristics. The sample was drawn from general and special education enrollment data for students ages -21 in 46 states during the 2008-2009 academic year. The results show that 1 in 228 students nationwide was identified with autism for special education eligibility, but there was substantial variability across states, with some states nine times more likely to identify students with autism than others. There were significant differences in prevalence between racial groups at the state level. Hispanic and American Indian/Alaskan Native students were often less likely to be identified with autism relative to White students, whereas Asian/Pacific Islander students were commonly more likely to be identified with autism than White students. Regression analysis indicated systemic predictors of prevalence and minority relative risk varied. Implications for research, practice, and policy are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite improvement in educational opportunity and outcomes, students with disabilities remain substantially less likely to participate in postsecondary education than individuals without disabilities. The purpose of this exploratory study was to examine the relations of teacher-rated social-emotional skills to postsecondary enrollment among students with disabilities. Using data from the National Longitudinal Transition Study-2, a classification tree analysis was conducted to ascertain which social-emotional skills were predictive of postsecondary enrollment in conjunction with student sociodemographic characteristics. Results indicate that compliance and, to a lesser extent, peer-relations skills, in addition to family income, predict postsecondary enrollment for students with high-incidence disabilities. This finding suggests that social-emotional skills play an important role in postsecondary enrollment for students with disabilities, providing support for the use of social-emotional skills interventions in improving postsecondary enrollment rates for students with disabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Research shows the importance of social interaction between peers in child development. Although technology can foster peer interactions, teachers often struggle with teaching with technology. This study examined a sample of (n = 19) children participating in a kindergarten robotics summer workshop to determine the effect of teaching using a structured versus unstructured robotics curriculum on fostering peer-to-peer collaborative interactions. Results indicated that using a structured curriculum was associated with significantly less collaboration than an unstructured curriculum. Findings from this study indicated that to foster peer collaboration, a less structured learn-by-doing approach might be useful for teachers when integrating technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Minority disproportionality in school discipline outcomes continues to trouble practitioners and scholars. The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of sociodemographic characteristics and indicators of school policy enactment (e.g., retention rates, special education identification) on students' risk of suspension. The sample consisted of archival student and school-level data for approximately 18,000 kindergarten through 12th-grade students in 39 schools of a Midwestern school district. We used multilevel logistic regression and multinomial logistic regression to estimate students' risk of receiving one or more suspensions. Results indicated that gender, race, disability, and socioeconomic status were significantly related to suspension risk, but that school variables reflecting school-level demographics, performance, and teacher characteristics were not. Implications for future research, service delivery, and policy development are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study used multiple regression to determine the predictive value of Kindergarten phonemic awareness, rapid serial naming, letter knowledge, and cognitive ability for predicting first-grade word reading and fluency. Participants were 131 first-grade students from a mid-Atlantic school system. A combination of predictor variables was found to be more effective than single measures in predicting later word reading and reading fluency, with cognitive ability, phonemic awareness, and letter knowledge contributing significantly to the prediction of skill. The results underscore the need to use a multivariate battery, rather than any single measure, along with consideration of intelligence, to identify children for early intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

There are ample research and position papers advocating response-to-intervention (RTI) frameworks to address the academic struggles of students identified as English language learners (ELLs) and to prevent inequitable outcomes such as overrepresentation in special education. However, some scholars have questioned how RTI is conceptualized and implemented with ELLs. This systematic literature review explores how the existing research on RTI for ELLs has addressed (a) the quality and appropriateness of Tier 1 practices for ELLs and (b) linguistic factors as contexts that impact this quality. A key finding is that current research is not sufficiently linked to general education instruction. Thus, we suggest that future RTI research address instruction for ELLs in general education settings, including the incorporation of Title I supports, bilingual education and language acquisition programs, and culturally responsive pedagogy into Tier 1 universal interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Community-based exercise can support long-term management of Parkinson's disease, although it is not known if personal goals are met in these programs. The objectives of this study were to: (1) examine the goals of community based exercise programs from the participant and instructor perspectives; (2) establish the extent to which these programs meet self-described exercise outcomes; and (3) explore participant and instructor perspectives on barriers to meeting exercise expectations. Materials and Methods: This study explores the experiences of people with Parkinson's disease participating in a structured exercise program at six community sites. A mixed-methods approach was used, including participant and instructor interviews, assessment of exercise intensity, and mapping of exercise dosage to participant goals. Twenty-four exercise participants provided interview, quality of life, and exercise intensity data. Results: Twenty-one participants exercised for primary management of their Parkinson's disease. None met the exercise dosage necessary to meet this primary objective, although 60% met exercise dosage required to prevent disuse deconditioning. Participants and instructors did not describe similar goals for the community-based exercise program. Conclusions: Community-based exercise programs could be optimized by better aligning participant goals and exercise intensity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We used the Rasch (1980) model to develop new pictures for the Thematic Apperception Test (C. D. Morgan & Murray, 1938; McClelland, Atkinson, Clark, & Lowell, 1953) or picture story exercise to measure need for achievement (nAch). In Experiments 1 and 2, we analyzed stories to assess the difficulty level of a total of 8 pictures using the multifaceted Rasch model with picture difficulty, story probe difficulty, and participant ability as facets with a partial credit model (FACETS; Linacre, 2005). A total of 6 pictures were retained and 4 new ones added for Experiment 3 in which 201 participants wrote 6 stories to a random set of the 10 pictures. FACETS analysis revealed improved person separation reliability. In Experiment 4, 206 participants wrote 1 story to the Studying picture either before or after filling out a battery of achievement-related questionnaires. The 2 experimental groups did not differ in the amount of nAch in their stories. The coder facet was demonstrated with 2 independent coders using the revised coding system for nAch. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]