Training for Equity in Education and Mental Health: This project aims to examine the impact of social issue documentary film and guided discussions on psychology graduate students’ awareness and knowledge of the pushout of Black girls in the US educational system. Results from participant discussions and survey responses will be used to determine the documentary films’ impact on their understanding of the systemic inequalities and challenges faced by Black girls in schools, as well as their intentions to implement key learnings and culturally relevant mental health practices in future clinical practice with youth and families.
Anti-Racism in School Psychology:The purpose of this study is to explore the pedagogy aimed at promoting social justice, anti-racism, multicultural and diversity within NASP and/or APA-accredited school psychology training programs. Specifically, this study aims to identify how programs and individual faculty members are responding to increasing calls for racial justice and social justice in their curriculum and instruction and to identify facilitators and barriers to training and pedagogy focused on social justice, multicultural and diversity issues in graduate school psychology preparation programs.
Fidelity in School-based Behavioral Health:This cross-university project (with Dr. Shannon Holmes at University of Missouri) is a systematic review of the literature focused on fidelity in behavioral health in schools. The goal is to describe the prevalence, types, and characteristics of fidelity measurement tools and implementation supports in school-based behavioral intervention studies to inform future research and practice in this area.
Supporting the Mental Health Needs of Girls* of Color: This cross-university project (with Dr. Candice Aston at Towson University) includes a scoping review focused on the unique mental health needs of girls of color and facilitators and barriers to accessing culturally relevant mental health services in school settings. The goal is to identify gaps in the extant literature and inform next steps for expanding research focused on culturally affirming and gender responsive school-based mental health supports. *“Girls” refers to gender expansive youth (cis girls, trans girls, non-binary youth, gender non-conforming youth, gender queer youth and any girl-identified youth).
Honoring Diverse Leaders in School Psychology: The Black Excellence in School Psychology Project was started by the Trainers of School Psychologists’ (TSP) Social Justice Committee in 2021 as a way to increase awareness of Black leaders in school psychology through the dissemination of an educational flyer within school psychology graduate preparation programs. In response to feedback, we expanded the project to honor leaders from other underrepresented groups in school psychology. In 2021, we plan to create and distribute flyers at the following times: Black History Month (Feb), AAPI Heritage Month (May), Latinx/Hispanic Heritage Month (Sep 15 - Oct 15) and Native American Heritage Month (Nov). More information about this project can be found on the TSP webpage here: https://tsp.wildapricot.org/Race-&-Diversity