NASP 2009 Annual Convention

New This Year!

Advanced Sessions to Earn NASP Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Credit

The Boston convention will include a strand of invited sessions specifically designed for more advanced practitioners. Several of these sessions will be sponsored by the Society for the Study of School Psychology and will target improvement of participants’ research, statistics, and methodology skills. Other sessions will be sponsored by the Nationally Certified School Psychologists (NCSP) Board and will focus on Tier 1 and 3 interventions.

In addition, participants in these sessions will be eligible to receive a certificate of attendance documenting NASP CPD credit. Participants who want documentation of attendance will need to sign in at the beginning of each session and complete an evaluation at the end of each session. These sessions will count toward the 25 hours of NASP CPD credit that will be required for NCSP renewal beginning in 2010. This is a new member service that is included in your convention registration!

NASP Night-at-the-Movies Documentary and Discussion

On Wednesday night, attendees will have the opportunity to watch a new documentary, Children Left Behind, that examines the effects of high-stakes exams for graduation on at-risk students in Massachusetts. There also will be a postscreening discussion. Have some popcorn and conversation about this important professional issue.

Participant Information Exchange

New to the poster sessions at this year’s convention will be Participant Information Exchanges (PIEs). In PIEs, presenters sit at round tables with a small group of interested participants. They briefly present on their topic for 10–15 minutes and then engage participants in a structured discussion of their work and its application, using a list of discussion questions. Participants will be able to move from table to table or sit and interact with the group. Five PIEs will be scheduled during each poster session. PIE presenters will be solicited from among approved poster presenters.

Town Hall Meeting

Although it isn’t exactly new, it has been a few years since the NASP convention program has included a town hall session. This year, we will be inviting several school psychologists on the front line of response-to-intervention (RTI) implementation to share their experiences and lessons learned. Panelists will respond to several questions prepared in advance; then the audience will have a turn to ask questions, make comments, and respond to the panel.