My journey at PCOM started with the MS School Psychology
program. After completing my MS degree
and one year of the Ed.S. School Psychology program, here I am at year two of
Ed.S. This is the last year of
coursework before the final year, internship year!
So our courses this semester include practicum seminar with a
concentration on law and ethics, consultation and collaboration in schools, and
health psychology and behavioral medicine.
We meet every Wednesday for consultation and collaboration and either seminar or health psychology afterwards. I’m excited for the consultation class
because this is major part of any school psychologist’s job that we have only briefly reviewed up until this point in the program. During the consultation process, the school psychologist and teacher work
together to develop an intervention plan for struggling students in need of
behavioral, emotional, or academic support in order to prevent more serious
issues from developing. Or at least, that's how I understand the process so far...
We also had our seminar class and discussed the
practicum requirements and deadlines for this semester as well as educational
law. I start the first week in September
and plan on going on Fridays throughout the semester in addition to working as a PCA (Personal Care Assistant) Monday through Thursday in another school district. In current education news, we discussed
No Child Left Behind (NCLB). On August
20, the U.S. Department of Education approved Pennsylvania’s NCLB waiver request. Applying to all public
schools and local education agencies, this waiver allows the state to implement
its own plans for preparing students and improving teachers and come up short
on the AYP (Annual Yearly Progress) requirements for 2014 instead of following
the strict guidelines set by NCLB. NCLB’s AYP
required all students in schools receiving Title I funds to reach a proficient
level on state tests in reading/language arts and math by the 2013-2014 school
year. Expecting 100% of the student
population to reach proficiency on state testing is a very ambitious, if not
impossible goal, so many states applied for waivers and were granted them
provided they created acceptable replacement accountability measures. The link below is a map of state waiver
status.
I have also included a link to an article on the
Pennsylvania Department of Education’s website that further explains the
process and includes a helpful overview pdf about the NCLB waiver in
Pennsylvania.
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