The current shortage of school psychologists indicates that the ratio gap between school psychologists and students will only continue to become larger and larger, according to Richard Allen, PsyD, NCSP, BCBA-D.
“In addition, post-pandemic children's mental health and educational needs have risen,” Allen added. “This shortage of current school psychologists also presents an opportunity for newly minted professionals to improve service delivery and support for our students.”
Allen, an associate professor and director of the Educational Specialist Program (EdS) at PCOM, is working to attract more people to the profession. As an educator and school psychologist, Allen is keenly aware of the influence school psychologists can have.
“I entered this profession because I wanted to be able to have the most impact on the whole child in regards to social-emotional health and academic achievement,” he said.
Allen acknowledges the challenges of working as a school psychologist but listed several rewarding aspects including:
Allen hopes these benefits will persuade individuals who might be considering a career in school psychology to pursue an educational specialist degree.
While many individuals who choose to pursue a career in school psychology come from traditional undergraduate backgrounds including psychology, counseling, education or related fields, some of Allen’s best students have had diverse backgrounds with degrees in fields such as sociology, behavior analysis and criminal justice.
“In addition, we have had students who have decided to change careers,” he said. These students, he explained, may have degrees in areas such as the hard sciences or business who have completed psychology coursework as part of their studies. Others, he added, go back to school to complete psychology coursework in order to change careers and enter PCOM’s EdS program.
While personal experiences and background may provide unique motivations for entering the field, Allen and his team look at several factors in assessing candidates.
“First and foremost, we're really looking for folks who want to work with children in school settings and are interested in learning performance-based skills as practitioners,” Allen said.”In addition, we are looking for folks who are enthusiastic about the field and can talk about examples and experiences they have had that attest to this interest.”
According to Allen, certain soft skills are also particularly useful for school psychologists.
“Being open in regard to overall learning, differences in others, and receiving feedback positively are critical skills for school psychologists,” he said. “It's also important to be able to take a thoughtful problem-solving approach to most situations as well as having good communication and interpersonal skills.”
For individuals who meet these criteria, the next challenge is completing a degree program that will allow them to practice as a school psychologist. PCOM’s EdS program is designed to be completed in three years. While three years is a significant commitment, Allen and his fellow educators work to keep students engaged and motivated with an emphasis on real-world skills.
“As mentors and instructors we spend a good amount of classroom and field experience time working on many different types of cases,” he said. “In addition, we encourage students to set their own professional goals above and beyond the basic goals of the program so that we can tailor their training to specific interests and passions that they have.”
These interests and passions may include working with young students, bilingual students or students who have experienced trauma.
“Through advisement in mentorship, we help these students flesh out exactly the experiences and skills they want to build in order to accomplish these goals,” Allen explained. “We find that this approach helps keep students intrinsically motivated throughout the program.”
This faculty support is one of the factors that sets PCOM’s EdS program apart from others.
“All instructors are very accessible outside the classroom and our faculty provide a variety of different specialties with which students may further engage,” Allen said. “In addition, our EdS and PsyD programs include a strong emphasis in applied behavior analysis allowing our practitioners to pursue board certification (BCBA) if they so choose.”
PCOM’s various partnerships provide opportunities for field experiences throughout the Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey areas.
“As such we are in a unique position to be able to work closely with students and assist them to obtain placements that meet their individualized goals for training and experience,” Allen explained. “Our focus is providing students with the highest quality training experience that meets the very highest standards of the field as well as their own individualized goals.”
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