Definition of Best school psychology graduate programs
The responsibility of shaping the future of a nation in terms of nurturing its children and guiding the youth comes in the province of a school psychologist who is professionally trained to work and collaborate with tripartite stakeholders-students, teachers and families.
The School Psychologists work in a variety of settings like elementary schools, secondary schools, high schools, colleges, universities and educational institutes in order to positively influence the life of youth by focusing on their physical, mental, emotional and behavioral health. They are trained to work with children and youth throughout their academic lives and help in improving their academic performance.
Besides, they are the experts who effectively deal with issues, of school-going and college-going students, like bullying, smoking, drug abuse, alcoholism, family trauma etc. that might impact the physical and mental health of children.
Working with teachers and school administrators, they create a safe, learning and supportive academic environment. They screen students through psychological testing for learning disabilities, memory lapses, emotional worries and behavioral problems. A school psychologist is a trained professional to execute ability testing, aptitude testing and personality assessments for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes. They also work with families, parents and siblings to help students struggling with family and parental discord issues. In short, their role is to strengthen the links between home, school and society in order to enhance the student’s ability to excel in academics.
| Roles and Responsibilities of a School Psychologist |
|---|
| Psychological Assessments |
| Counseling Therapies |
| Crisis Intervention |
| Screening for Mental Health Problems |
| Research and Planning for Academic Excellence |
Requirements for school psychology graduate programs or master programs
To become a school psychologist, one should earn a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in school psychology programs. Advanced doctorate level education in forms of PhD and PsyD are essential to do research work in the domain.
To start with, students intending to pursue a career as school psychologist should take up a school psychology bachelor’s degree program as their major. Apart from school psychology, students majoring in counselling psychology, general psychology, health psychology, sociology, educational psychology, developmental psychology and clinical psychology are also eligible for pursuing school psychology specialization in their higher studies. Thus, in contrast to a discipline like forensic psychology where a student needs to undergo specialized subject training from the beginning, an aspirant of school psychology as a career may come from diverse backgrounds. After pursuing psychology major with school psychology as an elementary subject, a student can go for entry-level positions in schools.
License requirements to work as a school psychologist
They can also take up short-term internships to have experience about the workings of professionals in school settings. However, majoring does not give an undergraduate psychology major ‘license’ to be legally called as a school psychologist. Every state has its own norms to issue the license or certificate approved by NASP (National Association of School Psychologists) to a school psychologist for doing practice. In lieu of earning a license to practice, a student must undergo graduate level master’s program or a specialist degree called EdS in school psychology with counselling as one of the elementary subject. During the master’s coursework, education and psychology are taught simultaneously. Students are rigorously trained to assess, evaluate and provide appropriate interventions to issues related to school and college-going pupils. On completion of graduate master’s school program, one can apply for issue of license to practice as a school psychologist. Norms to issue license for a professional vary from state to state. Some states ask for a compulsory fixed hour internship before issuing a license. Student should check up with the local regulatory authority and fulfill the prescribed norms for the issue of license. Thus, as an actual fact, a total of 6-7 years, including 4 year undergraduate bachelor’s degree, 1-2 years master’s program and 1-2 years of internship, is required to become a professional school psychologist.
Must have skills to make a successful school psychologist career
School Psychologists have a great future in the coming times. The key competency of an effective school psychologist lies in his ability to connect to people of diverse age groups ranging from elementary and middle level school children to high school and college going youth. They should have good counseling skills to understand the problems and solve them. Active listening, interpersonal skills, decision making and crisis interventions are some of the other arenas in which a social psychologist should excel.
The career promises a good start-up salary for the beginners and fixed working hours which makes it a rewarding and attractive career for many.
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