Top contributors to the school psychology literature: 1996–2005

An erratum has been published for this article in Psychology in the Schools 43(7) 2006, iii‐vi. [ ]. S.G. Little (1997) reported the top contributors to the school psychology literature from 1987 to 1995. The present study represents a follow‐up by examining the top contributors from 1996 to 2005. Similar to Little, a list of the top 50 contributors was developed using a point system that assigned more credit based on fewer coauthors and higher authorship placement. Expanding upon the Little study, we also computed a list of the top 50 contributors in terms of number of articles authored, thus facilitating a comparison of the two methods. Melissa Bray ranked first on both lists. The top 10 authors in terms of articles also were ranked in the top 13 in terms of points. Thus, for the most productive authors, choice of criteria for ranking does not appear important; however, in terms of encouraging versus discouraging collaboration among researchers, criteria choice may be important. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 43: 737–743, 2006.     

Acceptability assessment of school psychology interventions from 2005 to 2017

Recommendations from multiple professional organizations (e.g., American Psychological Association, Council for Exceptional Children, National Association of School Psychologists) suggest that collection of data on the social validity in practice and research is necessary. The purpose of this study was to systematically review the inclusion of acceptability measurement, which has been one of the most common way to measure social validity, within the intervention literature published across five school psychology journals between 2005 and 2017. Findings suggested just over one third of intervention studies included acceptability assessment. Intervention studies that were delivered individually, targeted behavior skills, and included treatment integrity data were significantly more likely to include acceptability assessment. When acceptability was measured it was typically evaluated one-time following treatment completion using self-report tools completed by teachers. Nearly half of studies employed one of seven published tools and the remaining half used researcher-created measures. The published tools were adapted in a variety of ways and inconsistently reported either item or total scores making it difficult to summarize these data according to intervention target or delivery format. Implications of findings are described.     

Diversity research literature in school psychology: 1990–1999

This study is an extension of an initial study conducted by Wiese Rogers in 1992 that examined the diversity literature in school psychology journals. The purpose of this study was to review all research published in four major school psychology journals during the decade of the 90s for diversity content to determine if there had been an increase. Results indicated that 10.6% of the articles have diversity as a focus, a slight increase over Wiese Rogers's findings. Assessment continues to be the area that has the greatest number of diversity articles. Six reasons are proposed for the continued gap in the literature base. Implications for the field of school psychology and suggestions for increasing diversity articles are provided. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Including fathers in school psychology literature: A review of four school psychology journals

It is well documented that fathers have a significant influence on their children's success in school. To examine the ways in which fathers have been represented in school psychology literature, the authors searched over 1,000 recent articles published in four leading U.S. school psychology journals (Psychology in the Schools, School Psychology Review, School Psychology Quarterly, and the Journal of School Psychology) for content on fathers. Fathers were included substantially in nine articles and were the primary focus of only one other article. Reasons for the lack of information on fathers and suggestions for increasing the focus on fathers in school psychology literature are discussed. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 41: 575–580, 2004.     

Intervention research productivity from 2005 to 2014: Faculty and university representation in school psychology journals

The purpose of this study was to identify authors and training programs making the most frequent contributions to intervention research published in six school psychology journals (School Psychology Review, School Psychology Quarterly, Journal of School Psychology, Psychology in the Schools, School Psychology International, and Journal of Applied School Psychology) over the 10‐year period from 2005 to 2014. A total of 310 articles were identified as intervention articles; 919 unique authors, representing 289 universities or organizations, contributed to these publications. Top‐ranked authors and universities were identified based on authorship rating and total publications, respectively. This evaluation highlights key contributors to the primary intervention research in school psychology, as well as themes of the publications of top‐ranked individuals and programs.     

Men in academic school psychology: A national survey

There is a paucity of research examining the experiences and perceptions of men employed as school psychology academicians. The purpose of this investigation was to ascertain male school psychology academicians' perceptions of their respective academic climates, levels of support, incidences of harassment, and levels of stress, and to compare these results with a previous survey conducted with women in similar positions. A total of 146 male school psychology academicians (41% response rate) completed the 48‐item survey entitled, “Men in School Psychology: Academia Questionnaire.'' The findings suggested that men were more likely than women to indicate that climate and opportunities within their department were equal, whereas women indicated that the climate and opportunities tend to favor men. When men indicated that inequalities exist, they reported believing that women were favored. Results are discussed in terms of implications for faculty in school psychology. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

LGBTQ student experiences in schools from 2009–2019: A systematic review of study characteristics and recommendations for prevention and intervention in school psychology journals

The present systematic review analyzes ways in which empirical studies in the field of school psychology have studied the experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) students in the past decade (2009–2019). Results from 23 studies revealed an over-representation of quantitative studies conducted mostly in the United States and an over-representation of majority White, cisgender, and high school participants across studies. Results also showed that studies in the last decade have: (a) focused on exploring negative attitudes and behaviors toward LGBTQ students and the outcomes of these attitudes and behaviors, (b) provided direction on how to support LGBTQ students in schools, and (c) analyzed the effects of bystanders and perpetrators on the well-being of LGBTQ students. In addition, this review revealed ways in which studies in school psychology journals present prevention and intervention practices for creating a safe environment for LGBTQ students, including: (a) policies that focus on the inclusion and protection of LGBTQ students, (b) training for faculty and other school staff to promote LGBTQ students' safety, and (c) curriculum and extracurricular activities that address LGBTQ issues. We provide recommendations for improving the experiences of LGBTQ students in schools such as involving community stakeholders in drafting affirming policies.     

Incorporating physical activity‐based interventions in school psychology research and practice: A systematic review

Physical activity provides a myriad of well‐documented social‐emotional, behavioral, and academic benefits for youth. While research suggests that physical activity should be integrated within the school day to support the well‐being of students, an understanding of related empirical work within school psychology research and practice is unclear. School psychologists are well positioned to systematically incorporate physical activity within their intervention practices, particularly given their role and expertise in implementing and evaluating interventions. Authors engaged in a systematic review of 20 years (1998–2018) of physical activity intervention research within 10 peer‐reviewed school psychology journals and six school psychology‐related journals. Authors analyzed 22 studies to glean a comprehensive understanding of the literature base and highlight the ways in which physical activity can be incorporated to support school and student outcomes. Suggestions for research and practice in school psychology are discussed in light of the examined literature.     

School psychology interns’ characterizations of family–school partnerships

School psychologists are encouraged to establish family–school partnerships with culturally and linguistically diverse families across the spectrum of child development. Partnerships and collaborations have been described in prior literature as bidirectional, nonhierarchical relationships between families and schools, expanding on the more traditional but limited concept of unidirectional parent involvement in school. This qualitative study describes five specialist‐level school psychology interns’ experiences facilitating family–school partnerships with culturally diverse families during their internship year. Findings focus on defining and identifying characteristics of family–school partnerships from interns’ recollections of their lived experiences. Five salient elements characterized the practical experience of a partnership: requisite situations for partnering, stakeholder involvement, intern's actions, intern's emotional responses, and the outcome or quality of the family–school partnership. These findings have implications for the training of school psychologists and the ways that family–school interactions are conceptualized both in training programs and in school settings.     

Motor skills,attention and academic achievements. An intervention study in school years 1–3

The aim was to study effects of an extension of physical education and motor training on motor skills, attention and cognition during a period of three years. The study has two intervention groups (n = 152) that have physical activity and motor training one lesson every school day and one control group (n = 99) that has the school's ordinary physical education two lessons per week. The method is hypothetic‐deductive. The results confirm the hypothesis that children's motor skills improve with extended physical activity and motor training. The hypothesis that children's attention will improve cannot be confirmed. Although pupils in intervention groups have better attention in school year 2 than pupils in the control group, the differences do not remain in school year 3. The third hypothesis concerning academic achievements is confirmed by several results in Swedish and mathematics. The MUGI observation programme was found to be useful both as a screening and as a pedagogic instrument.     

Measuring ‘equity’ and ‘equitability’ in school effectiveness research

This paper introduces a Gini‐type index for measuring ‘attainment equity’ in schools; that is to say, how far a school (or group of schools) is from having a ‘fair’ proportion of its examination success attributable to a fair proportion of its student population. Using data from the National Pupil Database, the Index is applied to more than 20,000 students with matched attainment records at KS2 and KS4 in two ‘statistical‐neighbour’ local authorities in England, capturing the extent to which they are meeting a public policy notion of equity. It is then combined with existing contextual value added measures to analyse school and local authority performance in terms of both attainment equity and context.     

Empirical Research on Ethnic Minority Students: 1995–2009

Ethnic minority disproportionality has been a topic of extensive discussion and research for many years. In 1997, Artiles, Trent, and Kuan conducted a seminal review of the special education research literature to identify how often researchers report and disaggregate data in ways that would support conclusions about specific ethnic minority groups. These authors found alarmingly low rates of publication on identifiable minority groups. The purpose of this review is to replicate the work of Artiles et al. and extend this literature analysis to the subsequent 15‐year period (1995–2009). We found increases in the proportion of articles reporting ethnic minority information 15 years following the Artiles et al. publication. Discussion focuses on the gap in our knowledge of evidence‐based practices for ethnic minority students in special education.     

Prevalence of mindfulness literature and intervention in school psychology journals from 2006 to 2016

Mindfulness has been gaining momentum in the field of school psychology, however compared to other applied psychology fields, less research on mindfulness interventions has been conducted. This study systematically reviewed mindfulness literature and empirical studies in nine school psychology journals from 2006–2016. The prevalence of mindfulness articles and research specifically focused on mindfulness intervention were examined. Additionally, the type of intervention implemented, tier of intervention, and targets of intervention were examined. Results indicated that .57% of articles during the ten‐year time frame were related to mindfulness (n = 17). Eight of the 17 articles investigated mindfulness interventions, with interventions ranging from informal practices (e.g., Mandala coloring) to specific intervention programs (e.g., Compassion and Attention in the Schools). Majority of interventions were implemented at the universal level for students. Future directions for mindfulness research and the importance of mindfulness in school psychology are discussed.     

Comparison of efficiency measures for academic interventions based on acquisition and maintenance

Previous research has demonstrated the importance of examining the instructional efficiency of academic interventions and has defined efficiency as the number of items learned per instructional minute. Maintenance of the skill is also an important instructional goal, however. Therefore, the current study compared efficiency metrics using initial learning and maintenance with 25 fourth‐grade students. Each student was taught the pronunciation and English translation of 12 words from the Esperanto international language with two instructional conditions (six words for each condition). The first condition was traditional drill (TD) rehearsal with all unknown words, and the second was incremental rehearsal (IR) with one unknown and eight known words. Results indicated that, although the IR condition led to significantly more words being retained, TD was significantly more efficient using initial learning. The two conditions were equally efficient, however, when maintenance data were used. Therefore, evaluating the efficiency of instructional interventions should consider maintenance data as well. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.