The pressures and demands of educating students have never been greater. Providing effective instruction for all students may be the single greatest challenge facing educators today. This article examines the impact of No Child Left Behind and the Individuals with Disabilities Act on assessment, accountability and instruction for all students,…

High stakes testing puts considerable pressure on schools, teachers, and students to achieve at high levels. Therefore, how schools and individuals cope with this major source of stress may have important implications for the success of high stakes testing. This article reviews relevant theory and research on stress as they relate to public…

This study examined the efficacy of an after-school program, the Challenging Horizons Program (CHP), that met four days a week and focused on improving organization, academic skills, and classroom behavior. The CHP was compared with a community control that included involvement in a district-run after-school program that met one to three days a…

We explored how a progress monitoring and instructional management system can be used to help educators differentiate instruction and meet the wide-ranging learning needs of their increasingly diverse classrooms. We compared classrooms in 24 states that used a curriculum-based progress monitoring and instructional management system, Accelerated…

An essential task of diagnosticians is the accurate assessment of behavioral skills. Traditionally, deficit-based behavioral assessments have underscored student social skill deficits. Strength-based assessments delineate student competencies and are useful for individualized education program (IEP) and behavioral intervention plan (BIP)…

Performance feedback and checklists were used to improve the degree to which middle-school teams adhered to elements of systematic problem solving as described in the Instructional Consultation literature (Bartels & Mortenson, 2002; Rosenfield, 1987). Direct observations of problem-solving meetings were conducted to determine levels of adherence…

School psychologists are increasingly being confronted with a wide spectrum of psychological, psychosocial, familial, and home-school issues impacting child development. With one in six children raised in alcoholic families, with divorce impacting approximately 60% of families, and with such issues as teenage pregnancy, parental neglect, as well…

Recognizing barriers to academic success and full student development, some of which are medical in nature, is a primary task of school psychologists. Expanding biomedical information compels school-based psychologists to collaborate with medical professionals when their input can clarify diagnostic issues and expand treatment choices. This…

Assessing, consulting, and intervening with students being treated with psychotropic medications is an increasingly common activity for school psychologists. This article reviews some of the literature providing evidence for the greater need for training in school psychopharmacology. A legal and ethical case study is presented that highlights the…

This study focused on strategies school psychologists and special education teachers report they would use to resist administrative pressures to practice unethically. Data came from a national sample of 141 school psychologists and 130 special education teachers who responded to a survey by predicting how they and others would respond to four…

School psychologists' attitudes and feelings toward gay and lesbian parents were surveyed in relation to their training and exposure, and professional services offered to gay and lesbian parents and their children. The relationship between attitudes, feelings, training, exposure, and demographic characteristics was explored as well. A stratified…

There is a great deal of research revealing how asthma is influenced by psychological variables such as symptom perception and negative emotions. Psychologically based treatments including biofeedback, yoga, hypnosis, stress management, relaxation and guided imagery, and written-emotional expression have all been effective in improving pulmonary…

Once thought of largely as a sideline issue, multiculturalism is fast becoming a major topic on the central stage of psychology and practice. That cultural factors permeate the whole of psychological foundations and influence the manner in which the very scope of practice is shaped is undeniable. The rapidly changing face of the U.S. population…

English language learners (ELL) are typically instructed in general education programs that do not have bilingual instructional support (Zehler et al., 2003). Teachers instructing those students must focus on strengthening the students' English language skills because language is such a primary component for learning and achieving. Instructional…

The purpose of this article is to address various issues concerning multicultural interventions at a system level. Diversity is presented through a different conceptual approach and specific implications for school psychological practice are addressed. In this theoretical context an alternative model of school psychological services that was…