Exploring Judgment and Decision-Making in School Psychology: Setting an Agenda

Abstract Problem-solving frameworks have the potential to promote objective data-based decisions that increase the likelihood students are matched to appropriate evidence-based interventions. Unfortunately, cognitive biases, heuristics, and fallacies can lead to erroneous conclusions within problem-solving frameworks. Some of these effects have been well-studied within special education and related fields, while the effects of lesser-known biases that have not garnered the same level of attention have been extensively investigated in fields like finance and medicine. Previous educational decision-making research has focused largely on special education evaluation processes. The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, we highlight lesser-known cognitive biases that may impact educational decision making. Second, we discuss how said biases can be researched within problem-solving frameworks and challenged in practice.