The Missouri Association of School Psychologists

https://mocase.wildapricot.org/resources/Documents/Dyslexia%20Discussion%20Document%20final.pdf

A professional development opportunity on Cultural Competence and PBIS offered by Webster Univeristy's School of Education

Come hear Dr. Jennifer Rose give an amazing keynote presentation at Webster University's School of Education Conference on April 16th! This conference will help you in the work you do now and in the long-term systems change work you seek to do in your schools. This will be a dynamic learning event where we think together about becoming true change agents in the field! Registration is now open! $5 for Webster students and $25 for all others.

http://www.webster.edu/education/newsevents/education_conference.html

Thank you to Andrea (Andie) Hemmersmeier for contacting Governor Nixon's office and getting this wonderful proclamation!

It's School Psychology Awareness Week next week! It's time to let the people you know and work with know about the great things you can do! Check out these resources from NASP and MASP.

What is a School Psychologist?

Promote the Profession

Resources:

NASP has developed resources to help school psychologists reach out to parent, educators, administrators and community members to make them aware of their efforts during School Psychology Awareness Week and around the year to help students and schools thrive. Check out the “Sample Letter to Districts” and “Sample Parent Newsletter Article” on NASP’s website! 

http://bit.ly/1N7SY65

 #ConnectTheDots

The MASP Fall 2015 Newsletter is out!

The MASP 2015 Fall election is open! We have a great nomination for president elect and the ability to write in your vote. We love to hear your voice:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/WWQNGCC

From Charlotte Smith, NCSP, NASP Delegate

My term as your Missouri Delegate to the National Association of School Psychologists ends June 30^th, 2016. This concludes eight wonderful years I’ve served as your delegate. Being in this role has given me the opportunity to talk with many NASP members across the state. You have shared your ideas and given me valuable input to take back to the NASP Leadership Assembly. Thank you for your involvement and commitment to delivering high quality school psychological services to children and their families.

Those NASP members interested in running for the Missouri NASP Delegate position should contact NASP Nominations and Elections Chair, Charlie Deupree at cdeupree@voyager.net to indicate their interest in running. The deadline to indicate candidacy is September 30.  Others may not nominate a candidate; each candidate must inform the Chair directly. This is a three year term, July 1, 2016 through June 30, 2019. 

As a NASP Delegate you represent and support school psychology through leadership to enhance the mental health and educational competence of all children. Professional competencies include:  Provide leadership, information about the profession, and endorsement of professional competency, including the acquisition and maintenance of the Nationally Certified School Psychologist (NCSP) credential; Notify/liaise with state leadership regarding available leadership training at Convention, regional meetings, and at the state level through the NASP Speakers’ Bureau. 

For additional responsibilities of the NASP Delegate in the areas of Advocacy, Member Support, Diversity, Operational Excellence and External Relations and Communication, please contact me  Casmith4327@embarqmail.com  I will scan and send relevant documents.

Estimated time commitments

Delegates are required to attend Leadership Assembly meetings at the annual NASP Convention.  This is a two day commitment plus travel days to and from the site.  Delegates also attend Regional Meetings at Convention. This is also a two day commitment. Many of those days are scheduled before or after the convention itself.  Some of the meeting times may overlap with convention sessions, meaning that you would not be able to attend workshops or other sessions during that time.  You do not have to register for the convention in order to attend the Leadership Assembly meetings; however, you can’t attend any convention sessions without being registered. Delegates are invited to attend the Assistance to States meeting along with other state leaders.  This meeting is part of the convention schedule and you must register for the convention in order to attend Assistance to States. Although Delegates are not required to attend Assistance to States, it is very informative.

Delegates are reimbursed for travel, per diem on days you are required to attend meetings, unless meals are provided, and half of the hotel room rate for time during required NASP leadership meetings.

NASP Delegates are expected to participate in several virtual meetings throughout the year. Each virtual meeting lasts about an hour.

Delegates are expected to attend their state association meetings in their entirety in order to share information from NASP as well as to get information and suggestions from state association members to share with NASP.

NASP Delegates are expected to attend state association board meetings four times a year.  Two of the meetings may be virtual which eliminates travel time.

Each Delegate sends a monthly letter to all NASP members in the state. This takes about 20-30 minutes each month.  NASP staffers provide much of the content.

For additional information about the NASP Delegate role and responsibilities, please contact Charlotte Smith  casmith4327@embarqmail.com

Look for a great article on collaboration between school counselors and school psychologists in the next Guidance Digest. Or just check it out on our site ;). Thank you to Kristy Warmbold, Melissa Maras and the MU school and counseling psych department!

There have been questions recently about the changing goals of MASP. This document attempts to sort facts from rumors and ensure our school psychological examiner colleagues know we value and support them.

Facts and Myths: School Psychological Examiner

Myth: A School Psychological Examiner cannot be a member of MASP

Fact: School Psychological Examiners are valued members of MASP and continue to have full voting rights and can hold leadership positions in the organization. MASP encourages all professionals in the state of Missouri who engage in consultation, assessment and identification of children with disabilities to participate in the professional development offered by MASP to ensure best practices for all Missouri children and families. 

Myth: Missouri no longer recognizes the School Psychological Examiner Certificate

Fact:  The Department of Secondary and Elementary Education currently does offer the certification of School Psychological Examiner.  http://dese.mo.gov/sites/default/files/26%20SchoolPsychologicalExaminer04%201-08.pdf

Myth: The Missouri Association of School Psychologists (MASP) organization does not support or recognize the School Psychological Examiner role.

 

Fact: MASP recognizes the current need for School Psychological Examiners in the state of Missouri and supports the hiring and use of School Psychological Examiners to practice within the ethical boundaries of this certification. However, MASP is working to ensure that the State Department of Education, Local Education Agency’s, and Families recognize that School Psychological Examiners and School Psychologists refer to different degrees and areas of competency. It has been brought to the attention of MASP leadership, as well as the National Association of School Psychologists, that some Missouri schools are using these terms interchangeably and are unethically allowing people to use the professional title of School Psychologist when they do not have this certification from DESE.   http://www.maspweb.org/What-is-a-School-Psychologist

Myth: The School Psychological Examiner degree is being discontinued at Universities and will no longer be a degree option.

 

Fact: MASP has always and will continue to first and foremost support and encourage institutions of higher education to offer Education Specialist and/or Doctoral level School Psychology degree programs, and we are actively promoting the development of additional state training programs for school psychologists.  However, the MASP board recently voted to recommend to DESE to consider sunsetting the School Psychological Examiner certification within the next few years for the following reasons:

1. The current Missouri SPE training programs do not have any National Standards to guide institutions of higher education in terms of coursework content.  Hence there is no unified set of national or even state level principles that guide coursework content, credentialing, professional practices, and ethical behavior expected of school psychological examiners. In addition, the current DESE training standards for the SPE certification are not sufficient to meet the current and future needs in our state for highly trained professionals. There is a strong national movement towards Multi-Tiered Systems of Supports (MTSS) and Response to Intervention initiatives. Currently in Missouri, both MO-CASE and MSBA are leading an initiative to advocate for the state-wide adoption of MTSS.  The current SPE training competencies do not provide sufficient training to meet the needs for implementing MTSS and RTI efforts. Instead, the current SPE competencies focus narrowly on assessment for special education eligibility and do not include training in curriculum-based assessment, functional behavioral assessment, use of research based academic and behavioral interventions, consultation or crisis intervention. 

2. The current SPE program requirements include only 150 hours of field experience and do not specify the professional qualifications required for the person designated to provide supervision to the candidate during this field experience. In contrast, to obtain a degree in school psychology, numerous school based practicum experiences are required during the 2 years of coursework and a minimum 1200 hour internship is required, which must be supervised by a certified school psychologist.

3. Of greatest concern with the current SPE certification is that there is no competency exam that the candidate must pass in order to obtain certification. This is the only DESE Educator Certification area that does NOT have a required competency exam with a set passing score, which is not in line with DESE’s stated goal to produce only “highly qualified educators”.  While our MASP members who are certified as SPE’s certainly demonstrate high levels of competence, and we recognize that they continue to seek to improve their professional skills by attending MASP conferences and other in-service trainings, this is not the case with every certified SPE. Our concern with the current SPE certification is the fact that in many rural areas, the SPE is often a practicing (or retired) school counselor who received their SPE certification many years ago and has not received any additional training for several years.  This results in inaccurate and outdated assessment practices and inaccurate eligibility determinations for special education. Professionally, we consider this to be an unethical practice that hurts many of the children in our state.

4. Missouri is the last state to offer the SPE certification, which makes this an impractical certification to obtain should a person move to another state and want to continue to practice in this field.  The few states that previously had the SPE certification have already sunsetted it.

As part of our formal request to DESE, MASP also recommended that all currently certified SPE’s should continue to hold this certification and should continue to practice as SPE’s in our Missouri schools.  If DESE does not accept our proposed recommendation to sunset the SPE certification, then MASP leadership will work to improve and update the professional training competencies and field experience requirements for the SPE certification, as well as to recommend that DESE develop a required competency exam with a set passing score for the SPE certification as soon as possible.

The MASP 2015 Fall Conference online registration is open!

Check out the MASP 2015 Fall Conference Brochure for more information and mail-in registration!

“We were incredibly impressed with the NCSP credentialing requirements and internal quality assurance procedures described by the NASP staff,” notes Morgan T. Sammons, PhD, ABPP, Executive Officer of the National Register of Health Service Psychologists. “It is clear that the NCSP credential is a highly credible mechanism for identifying qualified school psychologists to consumers, and we believe that highlighting psychologists who hold this distinction will add value to the information presented on our FindaPsychologist.org website. We are delighted to list the NCSP alongside our other recognized credentials offered by the American Board of Professional Psychology, the American Board of Professional Neuropsychology, and the American Psychological Association’s College of Professional Psychology.”

Link