NASP’s Position Statement on Prevention and Intervention Research in the Schools

1. NASP’s Position Statement on Prevention and Intervention Research in the Schools Training School Psychologists to be Experts in Evidence Based Practices for Tertiary Students with Serious Emotional Disturbance/Behavior Disorders James Knorr 12.13.2009 US Office of Education 84.325K H325K080308

2. Needs • Evidence-based prevention and intervention practices • Well-controlled experimental studies • Systematic monitoring and evaluation of interventions in schools • Partnerships

3. Evidence-Based Prevention and Intervention • To address: • Student learning • Social-emotional development • Behavioral performance • Instructional methodology • School practices • Classroom management • Other areas salient to school-based services and improving student outcomes

4. Well-controlled Experimental Studies • Address issues such as systematic, cultural, and contextual variations across individuals, classrooms, and schools • Address not only efficacy and effectiveness, but also the feasibility (given resources), social validity, integrity or fidelity, and sustainability

5. Systematic Monitoring and Evaluation • Determine the effectiveness across settings and individuals • Research should address strategies for ongoing evaluation and monitoring of school-based practices

6. Partnerships • Collaboration between school psychology researchers and practitioners and key stakeholders • Teachers, administrators, community leaders, parents, and students • More effectively address questions related to feasibility, acceptability, social validity, and sustainability

7. Need cont’d • Need for systematic and rigorous research to determine the effects of school organizational and contextual variables on implementation of EBPs • Selecting research designs and methods based on specific questions related to school-based interventions

8. Need cont’d • To accommodate specific questions researchers need to expand its repertoire of accepted research designs to include: • Randomized control, quasi-experimental, single participant, ethnographic case study, and participatory action research • Research needs to use both quantitative and qualitative methods and consideration of a mixed method approach

9. Need cont’d • NASP calls for efforts to conceptualize and to advance research as a process that incorporates: • Design • Implementation • Evaluation • Analysis • These need to be sensitive to the specific contexts of practice

10. Roles of School Psychologists in Prevention and Intervention Research • They have unique, practical expertise in EBI, data-based decision making, and research and evaluation • They have knowledge and expertise related to critical questions and issues facing practitioners in field settings • Allows for opportunities to shape intervention-based research questions and agendas

11. Roles of School Psychologists in Prevention and Intervention Research • They can contribute to the identification of critical systematic and contextual features of school settings that influence: • Acceptability • Use • Effectiveness • Important in the implementation of scientifically based prevention and intervention strategies