An Analysis of the Workforce Pipeline in School Psychology
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An Analysis of the Workforce Pipeline in School Psychology Julie Q. Morrison 1
&
Susan C. Davies 2 & Amity Noltemeyer 3
Accepted: 31 August 2020 # California Association of School Psychologists 2020
Abstract 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. Keywords Professional issues in school psychology . Training in school psychology . Diversity
School psychologists provide an array of academic and mental health services to support students and schools. However, a significant shortage of school psychologists in the USA jeopardizes the capacity of schools to meet the needs of all students and this personnel shortage is predicted to persist into the foreseeable future (American Association for Employment in Education 2016; Castillo et al. 2014). Ongoing shortages in underserved areas are particularly acute and some positions have remained unfilled for many years (National Association of School Psychologists 2017). Several trends help account for the increasing demand for school psychologists. The overall number of school-age students has increased as well as the number of students with recognized academic and behavioral needs. According to the National Center for Education Statistics (2017), the total number of students in public schools rose by 6.6% from 2000 to 2014 (from 47,203,539 to 50,312,581), with a projected increase to 51,737,900 by 2026. One in six children aged 2–
* Julie Q. Morrison [email protected] 1
CECH-School of Human Services, School Psychology Program, University of Cincinnati, P.O. Box 210068, Cincinnati, OH 45221-0068, USA
2
University of Dayton, Dayton, OH, USA
3
Miami University, Oxford, OH, USA
8 years (17.4%) had a diagnosed mental, behavioral, or developmental disorder in 2016 (Cree et al. 2018). Increased student populations with intensified needs combined with a shortage of school psychologists threaten the availability and quality of school psychological services. School psychologist shortages, further compounded by an aging population of professionals, are predicted to continue
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