Candidate Outcome for a Limited Residence School Psychology Program

Abstract

Distance Education (DE) has achieved limited acceptance within school psychology graduate programs. Part of the reluctance appears related to the belief of faculty that DE may not be appropriate for training school psychologists. This article provides a brief review of current knowledge of DE generally and school psychology training specifically, followed by data on performance outcome measures for one school psychology program that transitioned from a traditional model of online and weekly in-person classes prior to internship to a model of limited residency combined with online instruction prior to internship. Five years of completer data demonstrated good Praxis® School Psychology Test scores and strong final internship ratings. We discuss considerations and implications of moving to a limited residence model and directions for future research of DE in school psychology training.