CASP Presidential Address March 6, 2003 Los Angeles, California

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CASP Presidential AddressMarch 6, 2003Los
Angeles, California

• Brent B. Duncan, Ph.D., NCSP
• Humboldt State University

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CASP Presidential Address

1. CASP Today
2. The Political Context
3. A Psychological Context

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CASP Today - Mission Statement

• "Our mission is to provide high quality
  educational and leadership programs, which
  establish standards of practice for school
  psychologists through legislative advocacy,
  professional development, communications,
  publications, ethics guidelines, and direct
  services to members, resulting in the growth and
  development of the profession, and successful
  outcomes for the children, schools and
  communities we serve."

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CASP Today

1. Service Services
2. People
3. Leadership (Relationships)

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CASP is Member Service

• Expertise - Practitioners and Trainers
• Crisis prevention and intervention
• Consultation
• Grade Retention
• Behavior Analysis and Intervention
• Publications
• CASP Today
• California School Psychologist
• Certification
• CATS Functional Analysis
• CATS School Crisis Response

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CASP is Highly Qualified and Incredibly
Dedicated People

• Suzanne Fisher, CASP Staff (Heidi Holmblad)
• Betty Connolly
• Mike Furlong
• Shane Jimerson
• Diane DiBari
• Rose DuMond
• Lee Huff
• Rich Lieberman and Steve Brock
• Jim Russell and Chris Kahn
• (P.S. Come to Tomorrows Awards Luncheon to meet
  the Best in School Psychology and Celebrate your
  Colleagues!)

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CASP is Leadership and Advocacy (Relationships)

• Strong relationships with CDE, legislators, and
  others
• Pupil Services Coalition
• Board Position Regarding IDEA Reauthorization
• Redesigned Webpage - Access to Information and
  Services
• Day to Day Support for members by CASP Staff and
  Board
• IDEA Summit

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IDEA Summit Member Organizations California
Association of School Psychologists
Association of California School
Administrators SELPA

• Association of Educational Therapists
• California Advisory Commission on Special
  Education
• California Association of Licensed Educational
  Psychologists
• California Association of Private Special
  Education Schools
• California Association of Resource Specialists
• California Association of School Counselors
• California County Superintendents
• Education Services Association
• California Department of Education- Special
  Education Division
• California Association of Professors of Special
  Education
• California School Boards Association
• California School Nurses Organization

• California Special Education Hearing Office
• California Speech-Language-Hearing Association
• California State University, Sacramento
• California Teachers Association
• Commission on Teacher Credentialing
• Council for Exceptional Children
• Developmental Disabilities Area Boards - State
  Council
• Family Empowerment Centers
• Family Resource Centers
• Learning Disabilities Association - California
• Parent Resource Centers
• Parent Teachers Association
• Protection and Advocacy, Inc
• Special Education Administrators of County
  Offices

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The Political and Ecological Context of Schooling
in 2003

1. Fiscal Climate
2. ESEA (NCLB)
3. IDEA Reauthorization

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Its the Perfect StormC. Kahn, Fall 2001
"The Perfect Storm" Conditions at the Time of the
Image

• Energy Crisis
• Economy
• Election

The Perfect Storm October 1991
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Political Context 1 Elementary and Secondary
Education Act of 2001
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• a healthy start
• a head start
• a fair start
• a safe start
• a moral start
• in life, and successful passage to adulthood
  with the help of families and caring communities.

Leave no child behind? is not a one time speech
or a winsome song, but a lifelong struggle to
save child lives (Marion Wright Edelman, 2003)
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Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 2001
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ESEA (2001) Promises

• Stronger Accountability for Results
• Record Flexibility for States and Communities
• Concentrating Resources on Proven Education
  Methods
• More Choices for Parents

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ESEA (2001) Has the Potential to Deliver

• High-Stakes Testing - One Accountability System,
  (AYP) Designed by the Federal Government
• Flexibility - To move money between categorical
  programs
• Curriculum decisions made by the Federal
  Government (What Works Clearinghouse)
• Parental Choice - To move their children out of
  failing schools (Non AYP Compliant Schools)

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• Under No Child Left Behind, the federal
  government will only invest in educational
  practices that work-that research evidence has
  shown to be effective in improving student
  performance.
• What Works does leave some things out. It simply
  tells part of the story - maybe the most
  important part.
• William J. Bennett (1987)

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(No Transcript)
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Competitive State GrantsPaige Announces 17
Million in Grants to Help States Develop
Assessments under NCLB (2/12/03)

• Colorado 1.7 Improve alternative assessments for
  students with complex disabilities
• Minnesota 2.0 New tools to measure progress of
  ELL's using technology
• Nevada 2.2 Annual growth of English language
  development in speaking, listening, reading and
  writing.
• Oklahoma 1.4 Alignment of ELL assessments with
  content standards

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Paige Announces 17 Million in Grants to Help
States

• Pennsylvania 1.8 Assess ELLs by analyzing state
  standards, establishing content benchmarks and
  developing standards-based assessments drawn from
  scientific research
• Rhode Island 1.8 Impact of computer-based
  testing accommodations
• South Carolina 1.7 Information about ELLs'
  academic knowledge and skills accommodations
• Utah  1.8 Assessments of English language
  proficiency at four levels (K-3 4-6 7-9 10-12)
• Wisconsin 2.3 Measure ELLs' performance and
  progress in English proficiency and literacy
  skills based on state standards

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Political Context 2 IDEACommission on
Excellence in Special Education

• Summary lists
• 9 major findings
• 3 major recommendations
• Report contains
• 7 sections
• 32 additional findings
• 33 general recommendations
• Numerous additional (specific) recommendations
  (47)

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Complementary context for Reauthorization

• No Child Left Behind Act (accountability with
  consequences)
• Emerging consensus on shift from processes to
  results ( focused monitoring)
• Promising research on early intervention (WH
  Conference)
• Shift in assessment and instruction practices
  (NRC Report, LD Summit, etc.)

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The Commissions strategies

• Examined special education broadly (not just
  I.D.E.A.)
• Held 13 public hearings
• Obtained expert testimony and public input (100
  witnesses)
• Received and analyzed white papers and external
  documents
• Drafted and approved a report to the President by
  7/1/02

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Major recommendations

• Major recommendation 1
• Focus on results not on process.
• Major recommendation 2
• Embrace a model of prevention, not a model of
  failure.
• Major recommendation 3
• Consider children with disabilities as general
  education children first. 

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In summary Commission themes

• Increase accountability
• Emphasize results
• Provide flexibility
• Empower parents and their choices

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ESEA/NCLB IDEA

• Stronger Accountability for Results
• Record Flexibility
• Concentrating Resources on Proven Methods
• More Choices for Parents

• Increase accountability
• Emphasize results
• Provide flexibility
• Empower parents and their choices

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Myths about the Commission

• The Report was written before the Commission
  began.
• Commissioners have their minds made up.
• This is a hatchet job on special education.
• Everything in Florida is going national.

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Really big myth

• The Commission did NOT endorse full funding of
  the federal share of special education costs.

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California IDEA Summit Statement on Funding
(2/28/03)

• There are those who believe that additional
  funding for IDEA should be put on hold until
  policy reforms can be put in place to address
  shortfalls in the delivery of special education
  services. That argument is extremely troubling
  for local educators, service providers and
  parents. Federal special education requirements
  are some of the largest un-funded mandates of
  federal education statutesThe shortfall in
  special education funding impacts the quality of
  services for both special and regular education
  programs.

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A specific recommendation

• The Commission recommends that the U.S.
  Secretary of Education ensure all federal
  requirements for accountability be integrated
  into a unified system of accountability
  throughout the Department. (p. 16)

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Poor outcomes

• Parents want an education system that is results
  oriented and focused on the childs needs in
  school and beyond.

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Exiting with a regular diploma

• Ages 14 - 21

Note There are no currently uniform standards
guiding standards for diplomas for students with
disabilities. Considerable differences exist
across states.
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Toward a Psychology of Helpfulness
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Whenever possible, we should try to be helpful

• Although school psychologists
• usually want to be helpful,
• our interventions sometimes
• do more harm than good
• (Iatrogenic harm)
• (Caplan Caplan, 2001)

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Whenever possible, we should try to be helpful

• Not all psychological theories are useful or
  helpful for developing interventions
• Whenever possible, do no harm, and attend to
  possible iatrogenic effects of your work

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In order to be helpful, one needs...

• A genuine and committed desire to be helpful
• A theoretical perspective (Good intentions,
  though essential, are not enough)
• Knowledge of development and developmental
  psychopathology appropriate to support the design
  and implementation of interventions
• An understanding of how the social system in
  which you are working operates

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Obstacles to a Psychology of Helpfulness

• Categorical Thinking
• Designing Interventions based on a Between
  Subjects Design
• Legalistic Thinking
• Doing Whats Right Instead of Doing the Right
  Thing

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Obstacle 1Categorical Thinking

• If we are primarily concerned with labeling,
  naming, diagnosing, or deciding whether a
  particular behavior or problem fits within a
  category, our chances of being truly helpful is
  diminished.
• Also known as Abnormal psychology,
  between-subjects design, traditional scientific
  or medical model

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Whats in a name?

• Whats the use of their having names, the Gnat
  said, if they won t answer to them?
• No use to them, said Alice, but it is useful
  to people who name them I suppose. If not, why
  do things have names at all? Lewis Carrol,
  Through The Looking-Glass as quoted on page 15
  in Adelman Taylor, 1994.

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What is Wrong with Categorical Thinking?

• In psychology, the categories often lack
  sufficient specificity to design interventions
• When applied to understanding an individuals
  behavior, using group data (categorical) fails to
  take into account significant variation within a
  category (e.g. within versus between group
  variance)

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Examples of Troubled or Troubling Categories in
School Psychology

• Emotional Disturbance (under IDEA)
• Social Maladjustment exclusion
• (or BD Vs. ED)
• Learning Disabilities
• Severe discrepancy between ability achievement
  
• ADHD

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• Under No Child Left Behind, the federal
  government will invest in educational practices
  that work-that research evidence has shown to be
  effective in improving student performance
• If What Works is defined as what works for a
  statistically significant number of children, it
  will still NOT WORK for all children
• What happens then? Blame the Patient
• (State, School, Teacher, Child, Parent)

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To be helpful

• Approach your task as an attempt to understand
  this child, in this family, in this classroom,
  with this unique set of developmental strengths
  and challenges
• Pay attention to risk and protective factors,
  risk and protective processes, and pathways in
  development
• Appreciate the importance of
• Co-morbidity
• Resilience

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Learning Disability Roundtable http//www.ld.org/
advocacy/LDroundtable.cfm
In keeping with the first federal special
education legislation in 1975, the tenets of this
approach are not grounded solely in research.
They also emanate from the ideals of the society
in which policy changes are advocated. The
willingness to challenge the status quo in the
face of this daunting reality demands not only
cooperation and trust among stakeholders but also
a commitment to using both clinical judgment and
data in decision making about models for
identification, eligibility, and intervention.
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Obstacle 2Legalistic Thinking

• If we are primarily concerned with following the
  legally prescribed mandates or rules that have
  been established, our chances of being truly
  helpful is diminished
• Also known as Confidentiality, timelines, state
  prescribed eligibility guidelines and definitions
  for handicapping conditions. Sheer mass of
  regulatory requirements

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The dangers of legalistic thinking...

• What may be legally correct may be wrong
  (useless/unhelpful) in every other regard
• Confidentiality belongs to the client, not the
  agency (Dont use confidentiality as a way to
  assert power in a relationship with another
  professional)
• As psychologists, we are responsible for the
  psychological truth and integrity of our work

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An attitude of helpfulness as an antidote to
legalistic thinking

• Try to achieve a balance between the legal
  mandates and the desire to be helpful
• Whenever possible, ask whether your legally
  prescribed course of action is really
• 1. Helpful, and
• 2. Necessary

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Consultee-Centered Consultation Improving
Professional Services in Schools and Community
Organizations (August 2003)

• Nadine M. Lambert (ed.), Jonathan H. Sandoval
  (ed.), and Ingrid Hylander (ed.)
• Primary Subject Special Education
• A Volume in the Consultation and Intervention in
  School Psychology Series
• Six Chapters by CASP School Psychologists Nadine
  Lambert, Jonathon Sandoval, Margaret Garcia,
  Colette Ingraham, Brent Duncan
• Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, August 2003

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Process Consultation

• Consultee-centered or Process Consultation is a
  theory and a methodology for being genuinely
  helpful
• Process consultation is concerned with the
  psychological and social processes that are
  involved when one person tries to help another
  person. Schein, E.H., p. 3 (1999).

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Process or Consultee-Centered Consultation as
Distinguished from Expert Consultation

• Being helpful is not equivalent to having all the
  answers. When someone needs help, a difficult
  dynamic is set up between the helper and the
  client because the helper is automatically
  invited to adopt an expert role. (Schein, 1999,
  p. xii).

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To help others

• you have to know what they need, and the only way
  to find out what they need is for them to tell
  you. And they wont tell you unless they think
  you will listen...carefully. And the way to
  convince them that you will listen carefully is
  to listen carefully. (David Nyberg, as quoted
  on page 123 in Adelman Taylor, 1994.)

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Ten Principles of Process Consultation Modified
slightly from Schein, E.H. (1999)

1. Always, always, always try to be helpful
2. Always stay in touch with the current reality
3. Access your ignorance and your bias
4. Everything you do is an intervention
5. It is the (client/consultee/helpee) who owns the
   problem and the solution
6. Go with the flow

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Ten Principles of Process Consultation Modified
slightly from Schein, E.H. (1999)

1. Timing is crucial - take advantage of openings
   when they are presented
2. Be positively, constructively and cautiously
   opportunistic with confrontive interventions
3. Everything is a source of data errors are
   inevitable - learn from them
4. When in doubt share the problem

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For whose children are we preparing school
psychologists?

• Public Education is the only institution with the
  mandate and the ability to affect all children
• School professionals, including school
  psychologists, must be Highly Qualified, well
  trained, well paid, and continually renewed
• Leave no child behind doesnt mean just your
  child or mine, a few, some, or most children.
  (Marion Wright Edelman, 2003)

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As school psychologists, perhaps the goal of of
our work is not to assure that no child is left
behindIn fact, According to the Education Code
of the State of California, Each child is a
unique person, with unique needs, and the purpose
of the education system of this state is to
enable each child to develop all of his or her
own potential. CA ED Code Section 33080 -
Purpose of the educational system
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Our job is to make certain that this child - with
her own set of individual strengths and
vulnerabilities, with her own family, and her
own culture is not left behind.
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These are all our children. School Psychologists
have a critical role to play in their success
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References

• Adelman, H. S. Taylor, L. (1994) On
  understanding intervention in psychology and
  education. Westport, CT Praeger.
• Caplan, G., Caplan, R.B. (2001). Helping the
  Helpers not to Harm. Philadelphia, PA
  Bruner-Routledge, Publishers.
• Lambert, N. M., Sandoval, J. H., Hylander, I.
  (2003) Consultee-Centered Consultation Improving
  Professional Services in Schools and Community
  Organizations. Mahwah, NJ Lawrence Erlbaun
  Associates, Inc.
• Schein, E. H. (1999). Process Consultation
  Revisited Building the Helping Relationship.
  Reading, MA Addison-Wesley.