ABPP School Psychology key terms

Framework describing development as shaped by nested, interacting contexts-microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem, and chronosystem-so school psychologists assess student behavior within environments rather than in isolation.

Training and practice orientation requiring school psychologists to consume and produce research, select interventions supported by evidence, and evaluate their own outcomes with data rather than tradition or marketing.

A lifelong stance of self-reflection, openness to correction, and recognition of one's limited cultural knowledge, paired with genuine curiosity about each student's and family's identity, values, and context.

Professional commitment to identify and redress inequities in access, opportunity, and outcomes through advocacy and systems change, rather than locating problems solely within students or families.

Set of self-regulatory processes-planning, inhibition, cognitive flexibility, organization, and self-monitoring-that support goal-directed learning and behavior; assessed with rating scales, interviews, and performance tasks.

Limited-capacity system for holding and manipulating information during thinking; weaknesses affect following directions, mental math, and reading comprehension and are often misread as inattention or low motivation.

Standardized measure scored by comparing a student's performance with a representative same-age or same-grade sample, yielding standard scores, percentile ranks, and confidence intervals for interpretation.

Index of how much an obtained score would probably vary across repeated testing; used to build confidence intervals and to avoid overinterpreting small score differences as meaningful.

Extent to which test scores meaningfully represent the intended attribute and support proposed interpretations and uses, established through convergent, discriminant, developmental, and factor evidence.

Systematic error in which scores carry different meaning across groups because items, norms, language demands, or administration procedures favor one cultural or linguistic background; not merely any group mean difference.

Brief, repeatable probes of basic academic skills scored for accuracy and fluency, used to screen students, set goals, and judge response to instruction across time.

Frequent, graphed measurement of a target skill during intervention, compared with a goal line, to decide whether to continue, intensify, or change support.

Brief, periodic assessment of every student to flag those whose academic, behavioral, or social-emotional risk warrants closer examination, balancing sensitivity, specificity, cost, and instructional time.

Proportion of students in a given population who display a condition or outcome; essential for interpreting screening results and judging whether an intervention improves on ordinary expectancy.

Standardized index of intervention magnitude-such as Cohen's d or percent of nonoverlapping data-used to judge practical importance beyond statistical significance and to compare outcomes across cases.

Structured process using record review, interviews, and direct observation to identify antecedents, consequences, and likely functions maintaining problem behavior, which then guides a function-based support plan.

Written individualized plan derived from functional assessment that specifies antecedent adjustments, replacement skills to teach, reinforcement procedures, crisis steps, and monitoring and review dates.

Stage model of skill development-acquisition, fluency, generalization, and adaptation-that helps psychologists match goals, practice formats, and feedback to a learner's current performance level.

Structured collaborative process moving through problem identification, problem analysis, plan implementation, and evaluation, intended to improve a student's functioning and strengthen the consultee's capacity.

Consultative model bringing parents and teachers together with the school psychologist to jointly define concerns, design consistent supports, and monitor outcomes across home and school settings.

Teacher-psychologist collaboration focused on classroom instruction, curriculum, and learning environment, using assessment to tailor teaching before attributing difficulties to deficits within the child.

Consultation aimed at the consultee's knowledge, skills, confidence, or objectivity rather than a single student case, with the goal of generalizing improved practice to future situations.

Degree to which an intervention is delivered as designed-including content, dose, and quality-which is necessary for interpreting outcomes and distinguishing an ineffective plan from poor implementation.

Judgments by students, families, and staff about whether intervention goals matter, procedures are acceptable, and outcomes are meaningful; these judgments influence adoption, engagement, and maintenance.

Multi-tier prevention framework in which universal instruction is checked, at-risk students receive increasingly intensive evidence-based supports, and progress data guide decisions before special education referral.

Integrated continuum of universal, targeted, and intensive academic, behavioral, and social-emotional supports, with data-based movement across tiers and deliberate family and community involvement.

Tiered framework that teaches and reinforces expected behaviors schoolwide, using data to adjust systems, practices, and environments rather than relying mainly on punishment.

IDEA requirement that students with disabilities be educated with nondisabled peers to the maximum extent appropriate, with supplementary aids and services used to remove unnecessary segregation.

Legal obligation of states and districts to identify, locate, and evaluate all children suspected of having disabilities, including children who are homeless, private-school enrolled, or not yet enrolled.

Over- or underrepresentation of racial, ethnic, linguistic, or economic groups in special education identification, discipline, or advanced programs, examined for policy, referral, and bias contributors.

Extent to which a program's core components are delivered consistently across staff, settings, and time; weak fidelity can produce misleading null findings and wasted resources.

Intentional, two-way collaboration among educators and caregivers, built on trust, respect, and shared decision-making, to support student learning, behavior, and well-being across home and school.

Voluntary agreement by a legally authorized person, given adequate information, capacity, and freedom to decline, to assessment or services; for minors, parent consent is paired with student assent when appropriate.

A minor's affirmative agreement to participate, sought through developmentally appropriate explanation even when parental consent is legally required; dissent should be taken seriously.

Ethical and legal duty to limit disclosure of student information to persons with legitimate educational need, subject to exceptions such as imminent danger, suspected abuse, and court orders.

Federal law protecting education records, giving parents and eligible students rights to inspect, seek amendment, and consent to most disclosures, with limited exceptions for school officials.

Legal duty of school psychologists to report reasonable suspicion of child abuse or neglect to designated authorities, with good-faith immunity and without needing proof or supervisor approval.

Safeguards preventing unauthorized access, reproduction, or coaching on copyrighted test materials, preserving item validity, fairness, and the integrity of score interpretations.

Situation in which a psychologist holds another role with a student, family, or colleague-such as coach, friend, or employer-that may impair objectivity or exploit power differences.

Structured approach to dilemmas: clarify facts and stakeholders, consult law and ethics codes, weigh principles, seek consultation, document reasoning, and monitor the chosen action's consequences.