School Psychology Supervisors' Perceptions of Specialist-Level Training: An Exploratory Study.

Abstract

Surveys of trainers in school psychology have been administered to examine training competencies and content delivered to school psychology trainees. Surveys of practitioners working with school psychology trainees are limited as discussed by Lewis et al. (2005). The purpose of this exploratory study is to seek to understand the perceptions of specialist-level site-based supervisors in relation to practicum students' knowledge in several competency areas. Utilizing the National Association of School Psychologists' Model for Comprehensive and Integrated School Psychological Services and Standards for Graduate Preparation of School Psychologists as reported by NASP (2020b) and commonly reported school psychology practices as discussed by McNamara et al. (2019), a survey was developed and administered to specialist-level practicum supervisors. Results of Chronbach's alpha analyses examining internal consistency for each of the seven domains ranged from good to excellent (0.85-0.95) although mean differences in domain ratings were not found to be significant. Results of the study are presented along with study limitations and directions for future research.