PSYC 682: School Psychology: Legal and Ethical Principles and Preventive Service Delivery

Course Description

PSYC 682 is designed to consider legal and ethical issues affecting the delivery of school psychological services and professional practice in traditional and nontraditional settings. In addition, this course will explore various psychological interventions designed to prevent school failure and/or behavioral, emotional, or social challenges in school-aged children. Students will examine techniques of identifying pupils who are experiencing mental health difficulties that interfere with school functioning, and design, implement, and evaluate intervention techniques intended to address these problems.

This course is required for the MA in Applied Psychology/School Psychology

Course Modality

PSYC 682 will be taught in-person where the instructor and students are all simultaneously present in the classroom space for Fall 2021. Accommodations will be made for remote attendance if needed due to unanticipated (e.g., COVID-related) interruptions.

Participation

Students are expected to come to class having read the assigned texts in advance and be prepared to reflect, share, and discuss important topics.

Students must actively engage in class, small group discussions, exercises, role-play simulations, and group presentations by listening, sharing comments, and asking questions.

Active student participation is valuable as it supports the student’s synthesis, integration, and application of the information as well as it facilitates the learning process by enhancing the student’s experience of the material.

Students are encouraged to share their relevant professional experiences and/or resources as it relates to course subject matter and class discussions.

Course Design

The content is organized one topic per week.

Backwards design is used and each topic is aligned to the state and national school psychology accreditation standards.
Students are required to complete the readings (including a CA due process case) and a chapter quiz.
I try to find model examples from the field to illustrate the concepts.

Student Engagement & Feedback

The students fill in 2-3 slides of main themes from one of the weekly articles. I provide feedback to ensure accuracy and provide support to help students connect material across articles on the topic. The purpose is to equip students with ready made presentations for work as school psychologists.

For our class activity, I provide 3 prevention programs that have undergone cultural adaptations and we evaluate the research on this website.

All students read 5-6 articles on the topic of the week.

Sample Assignment & Rubric

Each week, students complete several slides that briefly summarize the articles’ main points, in addition to making connections with other articles for the week, and present an activity (i.e., debate, role-play, video clip, case example) to engage classmates in discussion of the relevant issues.

Students will be graded in three areas: on the accuracy of their summary slides, the ability to connect information across articles, and the effectiveness of their activity in engaging their peers. The rubric is on a three-point scale: 1 for emerging, 2 for satisfactory, and 3 outstanding

Assessment of Student Learning

Course Student Learning Outcomes

Demonstrate knowledge of evidence-based Tier 1 prevention services within a school system. {NASP DOMAINS 2.5, 2.6}
Students demonstrate knowledge of theories and foundations of prevention science. {NASP DOMAINS 2.5, 2.6}
Students demonstrate knowledge of evidence-based practices in prevention science and health promotion. {NASP DOMAINS 2.5, 2.6}
Recognize how individual differences, abilities, disabilities and other diverse characteristics may influence learning, socialization and mental health within a school system. {NASP DOMAIN 2.8}

Grading Policy

Superior Work (A)

A level of achievement so outstanding that it is normally attained by relatively few students. More specifically, the submitted assignment provides in-depth, detailed descriptions. It includes additional information from readings, observations, class discussion, other coursework and/ or background knowledge that is related to the assignment. It includes insights, reflections, evaluations, and/ or applications of knowledge that reflect time spent in higher order thinking. The assignment fully incorporates feedback from previous assignments in this course as well as preceding (and concurrent) courses.

Adequate Work (B)

A level of achievement indicating adequate competence in the subject matter/ skill that is usually met by a majority of students in a class. More specifically, the submitted assignment provides detailed answers to all parts of the assignment. Some additional information is provided but, in less detail, than required for a grade of A. Comments and summaries are good but less indicative of time spent in higher order thinking. Connections are unsupported or weak. The assignment partially incorporates feedback from previous assignments in this course as well as preceding (and concurrent) courses.

Minimally Acceptable Work (C)

A level of achievement that meets the minimum requirements for the course. More specifically, all parts of the assignment are completed, but little or no additional information is included. Comments and summaries are adequate but show little depth of thought as evidenced by evaluation or application of knowledge. The submitted assignment does no more than the minimum required. No attempt to incorporate feedback from previous assignments.

Unacceptable Work (F)

A level of achievement that fails to meet the minimum requirements for the course. The submitted assignment is incomplete and/ or inadequate. Little or no evidence of effort toward completing the assignment.

Technology & Tools

This course utilizes BlackBoard Learn which:

Provides course documents in a central location. (Previously, I used email for all my documents!)
Lowers costs for students for this class by providing links to other readings and media sources available instead of using a textbook.
Provides an accessible, usable format of written materials for students.
Uses adaptive release function in Blackboard to allow early or extended release of materials.

Experiential Learning & Connections to the Profession

The students who take this class also are in a supervised experience in the public-school setting. The newly designed assignment will leverage student’s placements to collect and analyze data for class wide screening of academic or social emotional difficulties.

Civic & Community Engagement

Students will utilize data from local schools practice to calculate base rate of risk as well as make recommendations for intervention.

Accessibility & Universal Design for Learning

Use of technology that facilitates access
Elements of course design that include an attention to accessibility issues
Evidence of options given to students to express themselves in different formats (writing, video, audio)
Evidence of compliance with Blackboard Ally

Elements of Equity, Diversity & Inclusion

If your course includes elements of equity, diversity and inclusion, please provide some narrative, including:

Course materials that promotes diversity and comes from authors that are people of color
Elements of course design that promote equity and inclusion
Assignments/activities focused on equity and diversity

National trends show an over-representation of students of color identified as critical or at risk in behavior and academics. In other words, we know that disciplinary and academic inequity persists in education today. And more than ever, measurable goals around equity and inclusion are at the core of school district planning and priorities.

Too often, without universal screening, only students with sufficient resources and advocacy on their behalf are identified as being at risk for learning and/or behavioral difficulties and receive the appropriate instruction and support they need to reach their full potential. This project encourages students to use universal screening data is to advocate for giving each student just the right amount of support at an early stage so they can succeed.

Training in Course Design

The Institute of Active Learning is the only training I have received for course design.

I will be utilizing hands-on activities using data and using authentic research as part of this class. However, the podcast, global community, and sense of place strategies will be used for other courses!

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