Retention and persistence of African-American students in school psychology programs

Centering the contributions, perspectives, and experiences of Black school psychologists: Commentary on Proctor (2022)

This commentary offers a reflection on Proctor's (2022) contribution to the special issue. In particular, it focuses on three primary threads: (a) centering Black voices in school psychology's history; b) applying an anti-racist lens to recruitment and retention research and practices; and c) recognizing the role of historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in advancing school psychology. Future directions for school psychology research and practice are discussed.

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.

The Maze Test: A Computer Tool for Testing Perseverance

INTRODUCTION

Perseverance is an important component of human functioning. The main factors that allow people to achieve their goals are perseverance and the motivation for change. The concept of perseverance is not new, but most studies in this field do not define it precisely. Perseverance is a formal trait of behaviour determined by situational (external) and personality-related (internal) factors - a complexity which can cause problems when one tries to measure it.

METHODS

In this project, we present the Maze Test, a novel tool for testing perseverance. We discuss the theoretical foundations of the test, including the definition of perseverance, as well as the indicators on which this tool is based. We present the basic methodological properties of the test and report two studies which illustrate how it can be applied in practice: Study 1 - measurement of personality-conditioned perseverance, and Study 2 - measurement of situation-conditioned perseverance.

RESULTS

In Study 1, a significant weak correlation between the indicators of perseverance and the Big Five model personality traits was discovered. Neuroticism correlated negatively with the number of maze tasks solved and the Synthetic Indicator of Perseverance. Positive correlations were found for conscientiousness and agreeableness. In Study 2, mental simulations were observed to have a medium to high effect on the indicators of perseverance.

CONCLUSION

The tool presented in this study affords a new approach to perseverance. Based on an analysis of how the tasks were being solved by the subjects, we developed perseverance indicators which allow to view perseverance as a multidimensional construct. The tool has been designed for use in both laboratory tests and remote web tests. A major advantage of the tool is that it is available for general use free of charge.

Cross-university dialogues to support multicultural school consultation training

There is a growing need for school psychologists to build multicultural knowledge, skills, values, and dispositions to serve increasingly diverse student, teacher, and caregiver populations in schools. The purpose of this study was to investigate the process and outcomes of a cross-university dialogue (CUD) activity for 88 school psychologist trainees enrolled in consultation courses, across three school psychology training programs, over three years. The CUD involved partnering with a peer or peers from another training program, individually and then collaboratively completing a case study activity, and writing a guided reflection exercise. It was intended to support trainees' development of multicultural school consultation (MSC) competency and their application of a MSC framework. Constructivist grounded theory methodology and methods, including several features to enhance trustworthiness, guided the investigation. Four themes emerged from the data: (a) trainees established increased self-awareness and professional identity, (b) trainees made sense of multiple perspectives during CUD interactions, (c) trainees learned from their partners and considered future relevance of MSC, and (d) trainees' learning reflected cross-cutting ecological perspectives, influencing the CUD interaction and learning process at multiple levels. A grounded theory based on the data is described, and implications are drawn for the training and development of MSC competence.