Talk:School psychology

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Contents 1 School psychologist qualifications 2 First psychologist 3 Educational requirements 4 Relation to School psychology entry

[edit] School psychologist qualifications

I don't know who wrote this page, but no state lets you be a school psychologist with only a bachelors degree. First, it is unethical to use the term 'psychologist' unless you have a doctorate (check APA) and are licensed. Second, you cannot be a licensed school psychologist unless you have at least an educational specialist degree.

• You need to provide your sources
• Your edits should not contradict the references already cited, reputable references too.
• Just because APA declars its unethical does not mean that it is illegal
• Non-doctoral School Psychologists are allowed to join Division 16 of APA whicky1978 05:39, Jun 11, 2005 (UTC)

[edit] First psychologist

I don't know anyone who considers Binet a school psychologist. Developing an IQ test does not defione one's career. More likely that Lightner Witmer is considered to be the first. Then again, given the evolution of the science of psychology - if you can call it a science at all - there isn't likely to be a "first" at all. Rather, school psychology is the culmination of several burgeoning fields mixed together in one big salad bowl. BrainDoc 01:06, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

Binet did practice in schools, and was interested in the application of his work to education. He did not, strictly speaking, develop an IQ test- this was Terman at Stanford, hence, the Stanford-Binet. He could be broadly considered a school psychologist, although he predated the term.

The use of the term "psychologist" by nondoctoral "school psychologists" is the one exception allowed by APA. School psychologists should only refer to themselves as such when practicing in school settings.

[edit] Educational requirements

Is it true that you can have only a Bachelor's, or need a doctorate in some states? I will look into this because I don't believe that either is true.

Tennessee requires only a Specialist in Education or Ed.S degreewhicky1978 20:22, 14 March 2006 (UTC)

Each state's requirements are summarized at this page: http://www.nasponline.org/certification/state_info_list.html; you can also get the information directly from each state's department of education certification web sites. Hawaii requires a master's degree plus 30 hours, as does Maine, New Jersey, and Tennessee.

Most states require a Master's degree plus 30 graduate credit hours. This, in turn, can earn an Ed.S., a CAGS, or raised eyebrows when explaining your lengthy graduate work that never earned anything more than the M.A. Some states require a supervised internship which can range from 300 hours to 1200 hours. An NCSP can be earned through NASP but it only earns the right to fork over $120 in dues every year to maintain it. BrainDoc 02:00, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

I edited the page's text to reflect information from NASP's website. It does not appear that a Bachelor's degree is sufficient to practice in ANY state; neither is a Doctorate required in any state. Bddaly 05:34, 19 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Relation to School psychology entry

I recently noticed that school psychology redirected to educational psychology, which is certainly not ideal. The entry has since been reverted to a previously-used stub, but before more work is done on it, I wonder how it should fit with school psychologist. Would it make more sense to combine them or can they co-exist without too much overlap? If they are combined, it makes most sense to me to bring them together under the entry for the field as a whole, not under the entry for the title of people working in the field. Tim 15:51, 17 April 2006 (UTC)

Looking at the most related practitioner/discipline pairs, I would support two distinct articles. There seems to be enough information in these articles to expand the stub and justify complementary articles. Identifying notable school psychologists could be part of this expansion. Rfrisbie^talk 16:21, 17 April 2006 (UTC)

Practitioner	Discipline
School psychologist	School psychology
Educational psychologists	Educational psychology
Psychologist	Psychology

I have redirected school psychology perhaps I was hasty. I did not add or try to merge the two. But then again it was a stub.whicky1978

My preference is to have just one article for school psychology/school psychology and one article for educational psychology/educational psychologist. Let's redirect school psychology to the school psychologist article Nesbit 14:17, 15 May 2006 (UTC)

I too would prefer that there be one article "school psychology" - this is the broader term - school psychology is a discipline with its own knowledge base, as well as practitioners. "School psychology" should emphasize the discipline, "school psychologist" the practitioners. User:jdmacdonald2

If articles were to be merged, the concept of "discipline" seems to be more basic than the concept of "practioner," IMHO. Wikipedia classification schemes are much stronger in the area of disciplines, using people subcategories of them when warranted. If we were to consistently merge all three pairs above (not that I'm suggesting it), I believe "Psychology - Educational psychology - School psychology" as article titles with the corresponding emphasis on discipline to be preferred over "Psychologist - Educational psychologists - School psychologist" as titles and emphases. Rfrisbie^talk 16:03, 15 May 2006 (UTC)

I agree that discipline (rather than member of the discipline) is more common as the central focus for WP articles. For example, educational psychologist is a simple redirect to the article on educational psychology. One could make the argument that school psychology is an exception because it is such an applied discipline, but I don't have a strong opinion on whether the article should be titled school psychologist or school psychology. In any case, there should be two separate articles, one for educational psychology and one for school psychology. Nesbit 17:08, 15 May 2006 (UTC)

I would point out that articles such as teacher and professor are titled as practioner rather than discipline. I guess it would seem funny to say professorship. I try to have a more occupational focus on school counselor, school psychologist, and school social worker.whicky1978 21:41, 15 May 2006 (UTC)

My actual preference is to have six articles for the topics we've been discussing! :-) I'm just saying that if a pair gets merged, I prefer the "discipline" version of the title. Then, I would place any "practitioner"-specific info under a top-level heading. I also support keeping school psychology and educational psychology separate under any scenario. In the case of "teaching," the "discipline" would be more like physical education, etc., such as listed under the Education disciplines. Rfrisbie^talk 22:24, 15 May 2006 (UTC)

Rfrisbie, to prove how unconventional your thinking is I did a quick survey of WP and found that you may actually be in the majority. The disciplines which have separate discipline and practitioner articles include physics, chemistry, biology, psychology, chemistry and economics. Those which have a single article include anthropology, sociology, and paleontology. I note, however, that the practitioner articles (e.g., economist) look much further away from FA status than their discipline-focused partners (e.g., economics). Nesbit 23:51, 15 May 2006 (UTC)

Lumping me with the majority! Was that a put-down? :-) Rfrisbie^talk 00:46, 16 May 2006 (UTC)

Not at all... WP obviously owes its one-million article success to splitters like you, not lumpers like me. :-) Nesbit 03:17, 16 May 2006 (UTC)

Chalk it up to short attention span. Does that go under generic, educational or school pyschology? ;-) Rfrisbie^talk 03:24, 16 May 2006 (UTC) p.s. What was the question? Rfrisbie^talk

In coming back to this entry, it occurred to me that it was bothering me just a little bit too much to let it go as it is. To me, logic dictates that the main entry for the field should be "school psychology" and not "school psychologist." Therefore, I have transferred all content to school psychology. Hope this sits well with everyone. Perhaps the entry can be reorganized to fit with its new placement. --Tim 05:29, 2 August 2006 (UTC)