From Beckham until now: Recruiting, retaining, and including Black people and Black thought in school psychology

This article reflects on key ideas in Graves (2009) that are relevant to recruitment, retention, and inclusion of Black people in school psychology. The article begins with a critique of the field's lack of engagement with the ideas Albert Beckham introduced in the 20th century. Then, the article discusses issues that Black school psychologists are engaging today through their research and practice to illustrate the critical need for inclusion of Black thought and Black people in school psychology. Next, the article offers a brief review of extant research related to the recruitment and retention of Black people in school psychology. The article concludes with implications for the recruitment, retention, and inclusion of Black people in school psychology.

An Analysis of the Workforce Pipeline in School Psychology

Shortage of school psychologists in the USA jeopardizes the capacity of schools to meet the needs of struggling students. The aim of the study was to evaluate the progression of school psychologists through the professional preparation—to practice pipeline for attracting, preparing, and retaining school psychologists. Descriptive research methods were used to retrospectively track three annual cohorts of graduate students from eight school psychology programs as they progressed through key milestones in their preparation and early professional practice. The results indicate that a large percentage of students completed their graduate program and continued to work in the field 1-, 3-, and 5-year post-internship for a sample that was predominately White and female. The implications of the study reinforce previous calls for graduate programs to engage in targeted, personalized efforts for recruiting graduate students with minoritized cultural identities to better meet the needs of students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.