Supervision of School Psychologists NASP

On March 5^th, Final day at the NASP conference, I attended a session on the supervision of School Psychologists. The session was sparsely attended, so I was able to ask quite a few questions and consult with presenter Dr. Woika, Director of Clinical Training for Penn State. I was also fortunate, that same evening, to be invited to dinner by Dr. Jean Ramage. Joining us at dinner were Dr. Carol Robinson-Zanartu and Dr. Valerie Cook-Morales, both faculty at San Diego State University School Psychology and Counseling Department. Both experiences led me to consider changes to Maui District's current supervision model. My recommendations for change are described here.

I recommend that DES meet with Director Sato to review the NASP standards for supervision. I have purchased the NASP book on Supervision for us to use in our discussion and in re-thinking our methods, rubrics/standards, etc.

Our school psychologists staff deserve to have expectations for job performance that are clear, meet their organizational standards, include staying current with trends in the profession, allow for input from school level administrators in the schools that they serve, and encourage their professional growth. Both administrative supervision and clinical supervision should be provided to enable them to have the best job experience and for the district to experience the highest quality of performance from each member of the team.

Below are the recommendations from this presentation and from NASP as I interpret them:

1. Establish an objective, comprehensive and efficient way of gathering data on performance. Best practice industry standards state evaluations should include: (1) direct observation in various settings that represent the range of their job duties. Areas to observe could be – administering assessments, consulting in case conference, supporting RTI in a classroom, instructing a classroom teacher in implementation of a behavioral support plan, participating in an eligibility / IEP meeting.
   
2. Review of assessment protocols and supervisory review of reports is recommended. Anyone in a professional field benefits from supervision because "drift" from standard operating procedures and testing protocols is very common over time.
   
3. Participation in district provided professional development sessions, peer support sessions, staff meetings is recommended to be part of expectations and therefore evaluation
   
4. Focus on skill building is recommended – examples provided are - practice scoring especially for new assessments, role play steps, guide case conceptualization.
   
5. Allow for input on personal skill development – work on creating measureable goals and provide on-going specific feedback.
   
6. Use an evaluation tool that is specific to school psychologists
   
7. Separate clinical and administrative supervision to allow for honest exchange and feedback.