Office of Public Affairs

Community Relations

JMU School Psychology Graduates Leading Change in Field

 By Dan Armstrong, JMU Public Affairs


Steve Feifer
Steve Feifer ('86, '91S) recently was named the 2009 School Psychologist of the Year by the National Association of School Psychologists and is the third alumnus of JMU to receive the honor since 2002.


Dr. Patti Warner, director of school psychology, talks about the program's beginning.


Internships provide valuable experience.


2002 School Psychologist of the Year Deb Ward discusses her experience in the JMU graduate psychology program.


2005 School Psychologist of the Year Susan Prout says variety of faculty viewpoints strengthens the JMU graduate psychology program.


Visit the Graduate Psychology Web site:
Grad Psych promo


National Association of School Psychologists

Do you remember if your elementary or high school had a school psychologist?     

"Most of us don't," says Patti Warner, Director of JMU's Graduate Program in School Psychology.

If you do, chances are that image in your mind is outdated.

"Many times, that's the way people view us-we come in, we carry one of our test kits to do an intelligence test, and that's all that we do," Warner says. "We call ourselves 'stealth psychologists.' We are needed for special education, but we do a whole lot more."


Seeing The Change

What once was a profession pigeonholed for dealing with ill-labeled "problem children" now requires specialized training and a holistic knowledge of mental health, education and assessment.

Students in JMU's three-year program receive a master's en route to the educational specialist degree, now the field's professional standard.

The profession's profile rose in the aftermath of school shootings in the 1990s. More recently, educational reforms such as No Child Left Behind have created a void at schools for testing experts, and earlier interventions are unearthing mental health issues in youth at younger ages. The person now relied on to handle those issues is the school psychologist, Warner says.

According to Warner, a professional entering the field now must be equipped in, among other areas, testing and assessment, family consultation, behavioral and crisis intervention, social and emotional needs, child development issues, neurological conditions including traumatic brain injuries, gifted student education, depression,  autism and research on youth from pre-kindergarten to age 21.

 

Being The Change

"The philosophy is that we train comprehensively. We are very committed to developing the interpersonal and intrapersonal skills of our students and generally maximizing the potential of all the children we work with," Warner says. "Certainly there's a lot of similarity and consistency in [ours and other] training programs, but then there are some things we think are unique to JMU."

Preparation for school psych students at JMU begins before they're even admitted to the program. Piles of paper applications are reviewed before about 40 candidates are invited to JMU for a day-long interview with faculty and current students.

About 10 students are admitted yearly, creating a group of about 30 in the program at all levels.

"We purposely keep the program at the size it is so that we can give the students the personal attention that they need," Warner says. "That's the nice thing. We have the same students in class semester to semester. Their group stays together, and that's where they learn a lot from each other."

Courses and practicum experiences are carefully sequenced to ensure what students learn in class can immediately be practiced in the field. By the time students enter the program's innovative required third-year internship, they've logged at least 400 hours in real-world experience in school and clinical settings.

"The training at JMU was outstanding," says Steve Feifer ('86, '91S), who recently was named the 2009 School Psychologist of the Year by the National Association of School Psychologists. "We had real training with real people in real situations."

In recent years, JMU also has implemented mandatory suicide prevention certification and a Culturally Competent Practitioner Initiative to address the growing demands of the field.

More work for students and faculty? Yes. But the benefits are apparent.

"During 9/11, we happened to have a student who was doing her internship in New York City. That was in the first two weeks she was there," Warner says. "But she called us later and she said, 'You know, I was ready."

 

A Tradition of Excellence

Though the schools employing its interns and graduates have long realized the quality of JMU's program, in recent years, the proof's been in three people.

Feifer, of Frederick, Md., joins fellow alumni Deb Ward ('85S) and Susan Prout ('96S) as winners of National School Psychologist of the Year since 2002. The award began in 1990.

Feifer received the 2009 NASP award at the association's national conference in Boston in February.

"This is unprecedented, to have JMU produce three winners in the last six or seven years," Feifer says. "But the answer is pretty simple. It's a great program."