NASP Communiqué, Vol. 28, No. 8
School Psychology 2000 - What Is Average?
by Alex Thomas, NCSP
During this past year, the Communiqué has published a
significant amount of information highlighting demographic and job setting
information about school psychology (see the September 1999 Communiqué
for a description of the project). One purpose of this project has been
to gather data on a state by state basis in addition to determining
national averages. For this final installment of the volume year, much
of this information is summarized. Associated with this introduction
and brief comment is a table indicating the median (fiftieth percentile)
response from each of the respondent school psychology full-time practitioner
NASP members within the state indicated. For some of the variables summarized
with median response, prior issues of the Communiqué may
have provided more detailed information, such as a range of percentiles
by state (10th, 25th, 50th, 75th
and 90th). Readers interested in receiving detailed state
by state percentile responses that have not previously appeared in
the Communiqué may request this information - see below.
One purpose of accumulating this information is to provide school
psychology state association leaders with information that may be helpful
in planning priorities within their districts and states as well as
to inform practitioners about demographics and work conditions. I will
make some brief comments about some of the categories in the attached
table.
School Psychologist to Student Ratio
NASP recommends a school psychologist to student ratio of 1:1000 and
currently only five states appear to achieve that ratio (Connecticut,
Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico and New York). The national median
ratio is 1:1500. The following seven states, according to this survey,
report median ratios of 1:2500 or higher: Alabama, Florida, Georgia,
Louisiana, Mississippi, North Dakota and West Virginia. What are the
activities and supports needed to effectively lower this service ratio?
Quality services are simply harder to deliver when the ratio of school
psychologist to students is high.
Number of schools served
Though there is no recommended number of schools to be served, it is
not complex to conclude, all factors being equal, that the more schools
served the more challenging it is to provide quality comprehensive psychological
services. The median respondent in the following states report that
they are primarily responsible for five or more schools: Arizona, Hawaii,
Iowa, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Missouri, Mississippi, North
Dakota, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
Number of Evaluations Yearly
Very few school psychologists can deliver comprehensive school psychological
services if they are involved in more than 100 evaluations a year. The
median respondent from the following states report that the number of
evaluations in a year equal or exceed 100: Alabama, Florida, Hawaii,
Idaho, Indiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Tennessee and West
Virginia.
Years Until Retirement
One contributing factor to the actual and potential shortage of school
psychologists is retirement. The median respondent from the following
states report that they plan to retire within the next ten years: Alaska,
Alabama, Colorado, Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, Ohio and
Oklahoma.
Caveat/Conclusion
It may be that some of this information reported for a few of the states
may be attributable to sampling error or low response rate. However,
at this time, this is the best state by state information available.
It does not follow that states with a high ratio, a large number of
evaluations in a year, or a high number of schools served per school
psychologist are necessarily not providing quality psychological services.
However, it is more difficult for any earnest professional to provide
quality comprehensive psychological services with a high ratio, a large
number of schools to serve, and/or a very high evaluation load. It is
important for state leaders to look at what their association can do
to promote quality psychological services and, as individuals, for us
to triangulate this information in our own setting to determine a strategy
to make systemic changes leading to the provision of quality comprehensive
psychological services. This sounds like good summer cogitation to me.
Alex Thomas, Ph.D., NCSP, is the outgoing Past President of NASP
(for the second time!) and trainer of school psychologists at Miami
University in Oxford, OH. School Psychology 2000 has appeared in each
issue of volume 28, and hopefully will continue well into the coming
year as Alex further explores our survey data. For specific state information
not already published, contact Alex at thomasa@muohio.edu
Access the summary table here.