Identifying Examples of Schools, Districts, and States Improving Practice 

An important component to advancing NASP’s Strategic Goals is identifying and sharing examples of school districts and states engaging in efforts to improve practice that aligns with our goals and, also in the near term, our priorities related to ESSA implementation. The Leadership in Action Spotlight initiative seeks to elicit and disseminate stories of schools and districts engaged in this work, as well as to shine a light on school psychologists leading change—often the behind the scenes work—that facilitates better systems, capacity building, and inclusive communications.

Many school psychologists throughout the country use their role to improve practice and expand their role, which ultimately impacts the children and youth they serve. By aggregating these stories and describing the processes involved, NASP hopes to provide school psychologists with both inspiration and concrete examples they can use to advocate for their critical role in promoting children’s mental and behavioral health.  

We will use these examples to:

• Inspire school psychologists to take leadership roles in similar systems change within their schools/districts/states.
• Demonstrate to federal, state, and local decision-makers that the approaches, systems, and models we recommend are working.
• Provide members and state associations with concrete, real world ideas and strategies of how to move forward on systems change, one step at a time.

We want the examples to be:

• Real, conveying difficulties as well as sharing successes.
• Expansive, both geographically and contextually.
• Diverse regarding the issues tackled and opportunities for change identified.
• Varied in terms of the approaches and resources used.
• Updated over time (and with accompanying data) if possible.

We will disseminate these stories via:

• Communication Matters Communiqué columns to highlight the individual school psychologist as a systems change leader and to highlight challenges or barriers and steps people are taking.
• Related video and podcast interviews with the people involved.
• The NASP Practice Model Implementation Guide, perhaps broken down into shorter examples of specific strategies.
• Blog posts, fact sheets, and other materials for use in advocacy resources and outreach.
• Research Reports or other mechanisms (e.g., infographics) to share data that schools and districts are collecting.
• Graduate education programs, which can use these examples in coursework.

The online form, which can be completed by a team or a person, asks for contact information, a brief description of the stakeholders involved and information on the school or district, the current status of systems change, and a brief description of the effort. A NASP leader will connect with you to gather additional information and provide information on how the piece can be used within NASP.

For questions, contact Marsha Huff Miller (mmiller048@aol.com), Chair of the NASP Communications Committee.