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Ed. S. School Psychology Program: Goals

The Programs in School Psychology at the University of Northern Colorado are designed to train psychologists who can apply knowledge in psychology and education to a variety of settings. The school psychologist is viewed as a behavioral scientist whose primary goal is to develop a school-community environment which optimizes the cognitive, socio-emotional, moral, and general psychoeducational growth of the child and adolescent, and minimizes the incidence and effects of learning problems and emotional and behavioral disorders. The philosophy, underlying assumptions, and program model are as follows:

1. It is acknowledged that the school psychologist, as part of an interdisciplinary team, can have a beneficial effect on the development of the child, especially in the areas of psychoeducational and psychosocial growth.

2. It is recognized that the school psychologist will be working with individuals from many backgrounds and cultures. Training is therefore provided in meeting the needs of a diversity of populations, including didactic and experiential training in working with children with special needs and/or from unique environments. Each child’s development can only be facilitated through an understanding of the contexts in which this development occurs.

3. The program is based on the scientist-practitioner model of training. Inherent in this model is the assumption that the school psychologist can most effectively facilitate the child’s well-being, not only through application of current psychological knowledge, but also through expansion of this knowledge and translation of relevant research into practice.

4. The goal of the program is to produce professional psychologists who will act as child advocates and facilitate the optimization of the psychoeducational environment of the child. This goal may be accomplished through the roles of school psychologist practitioner, university trainer, educational consultant, and psychotherapist. Our training model leads to school psychologists who serve as solution focused, empirically driven, ecological interventionists.