Application of the school psychologist's skills in schools and other work-related issues led to an investigation of relationships among Morale (M) of school psychologists, perceptions of Administrators' Leadership Style (ALS), Role Expectations for school psychologists (RE) and Self-Role Perceptions (S-RP). Twenty-one school psychologists in three equal groups responded to a 48-item original "School Psychology Survey." Strong positive relationships (Pearson r = .78, .77 & .69) between Morale and Administrators' Leadership Style existed for Groups II, III and the Total Group. For Group I, an average (.40) relationship was found. Correlations were critical at p
School psychologists attributed the narrow tester or psychometrician role perception to administrators' expectations for them to give priority to individual stUdent assessments. According to the 1987-1988 annual reports of school psychology services in Georgia and in the targeted school district, stUdent assessment activities consumed upwards of 65% and 75% respectively of the schon I psychologist's time (Appendix C). From these data, it would appear that teachers and other school based personnel rarely got a chance to see school psychologists pp.rform in roles other than test related roles--conducting evaluations, reporting, and consulting. Therefore, the researcher posits that the number of school based persons with first hand knowledge of the extent nf the school pSYCl10logist's expertise is small.
Psychologists generally agree that testing begets testing and that other approaches are more preventive (Zins, 19B1; Gutkin, 1980; Ritter, 1978; and Jason & Ferone, 1978). However, judging from the annual data, almost all stUdents referred are still tested. Best practices (Gerken, 1985) indicate that the routineness of individual testing alone is not in the hest interest of stUdents. Testing alone aSSIJmes except Group I (r = .11); no M/S-RP relationships were critical. Morale of school"psychologists could be predicted from Administrators' Leadreship Style and Role Expectations 47% to 49% of the time at p
1. It is recommended that the dynamics surrounding the variables investigated in this study (i.e., role expectations, self-role perceptions, leadership style. and morale) be scrutinized for their effect, if any, on the performance of school psychologists.
2. It is recommended that school psychologists make school administrators more aware of what constitutes best-practices in the field of School Psychology.
3. It is recommended that school psychologists and school administrators institute an ecological approach to the evaluation of School Psychology Programs.
Conditions with potential to retard services to students should be identified, understood, and manipulated to the benefit of students where possible.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:auctr.edu/oai:digitalcommons.auctr.edu:dissertations-3218 |
| Date | 01 June 1989 |
| Creators | Stinson, Emily Davis |
| Publisher | DigitalCommons@Robert W. Woodruff Library, Atlanta University Center |
| Source Sets | Atlanta University Center |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | ETD Collection for Robert W. Woodruff Library, Atlanta University Center |
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