Keywords

school psychologists, employment shortage, teacher recruitment, teacher retention, school districts, school district, school administration, education management, school principals

Abstract

A shortage of school psychologists has been evident since the profession was initially recognized as a distinct field, and there is insufficient research on what current administrative supervisors are doing to address this problem. This qualitative study examined the perceptions of district level administrative supervisors regarding recruitment and retention of school psychologists. Participants reported the following: (a) school psychology graduate programs not producing enough school psychologists, (b) challenges of finding school psychologists to hire, (c) competing with neighboring school districts, and (d) trying to recruit and retain in a worker’s market that favors the school psychologist. These administrative supervisors also communicated a sense that they had little influence over the shortage. Actions within the administrators control included developing close relationships with graduate programs for successful recruiting, creating appealing workloads that matched salaries, being responsive to the needs of their current school psychologists, and offering job flexibility.

Original Publication Citation

Young, E. Y., Butler, R., Smith, T. B., Hilton, S., & Smith, A. (2021). Recruiting and retaining school psychologists: The experiences of district level administrative supervisors. Psychology in the Schools, 58, 1501–1517. https://doi.org/10.1002/pits.22506

Document Type

Peer-Reviewed Article

Publication Date

2021

Publisher

Wiley

Language

English

College

David O. McKay School of Education

Department

Counseling Psychology and Special Education

University Standing at Time of Publication

Full Professor

Download

Share

COinS