What is Unique or Special About the CSULB School Psychology Program?

We understand that there are many school psychology programs to choose from in our geographical area. We share many characteristics with other NASP approved programs, including high-quality instruction, faculty who are engaged in research, supervised practica and fieldwork experiences, and adherence to NASP standards for training and practice.

However, some unique aspects of our program include:

Community Clinic for Counseling and Educational Services

Students conduct psychoeducational evaluations and provide interventions to children and youth from the community in our clinic under the direct supervision of program faculty. The clinic contains 19 client observation rooms that allow faculty to unobtrusively observe students and provide immediate, formative feedback. Few programs have the facilities to offer such training experiences. To learn more about the clinic, visit https://www.ced.csulb.edu/asec/clinic/

Early Childhood Assessment

Advanced graduate students complete an advanced assessment linked to intervention course that addresses specific populations, such as preschool-age children and children with moderate to severe disabilities. As part of this course, students complete a developmental assessment of a child age 3-6 in the clinic.

Response to Intervention (RtI) Focus

Long before IDEIA 2004 codified RtI as an alternative and preferred method of identifying and intervening with students experiencing learning difficulties, our students were taught RtI-related skills (i.e., problem-solving, idiographic assessment, goal-setting, progress monitoring, identifying and implementing empirically-based interventions). Our three major capstone assignments require the application of RtI processes to address student behavioral or achievement problems in clinic and school settings.

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Consortium to Advance School Psychology in Vietnam (CASP-V)

Faculty, students and alumni are actively involved in this international effort to establish school psychology as a training program and profession in Vietnam, including collaborating on delivering two international conferences (Hanoi in August, 2009, and Hue in January, 2011). The third international CASP-V conference will be in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) August, 2012. A description of our project was published in NASP's March/April 2011 Communique.  

Diverse Students

Because our classes are offered in the afternoons and evenings, we attract applicants who have a variety of work and life experiences. Because we are affordable, we have students who are economically diverse, including many who are the first in their family to attend college. In addition, we receive many more applicants than we can accept thus, can we select students whose background or second language skills are likely to make a significant contribution to class discussions, and increase students' efficacy in working with culturally and linguistically diverse students.

Research Opportunities

Program faculty are actively engaged in conducting research that directly impacts PreK-12 students, teachers, and families. Graduate students are encouraged to contribute to these efforts, and use faculty research resources to fulfill theses requirements. Students also have opportunities to present research at state and national conferences with faculty, and contribute to manuscripts published in peer reviewed journals.

Post Graduate School Outcomes

Most of our graduates pursue careers in school psychology after graduating from our program. Increasingly, our alumni are pursuing doctoral degrees. Students who conduct thesis projects are well positioned for a doctoral program. Alumni who are mentored by program faculty while pursuing a doctoral degree at another university may be eligible for the CSU Chancellor's Doctoral Incentive/Loan Forgiveness program.  For more information, please go to:  http://www.calstate.edu/hr/cdip/

Given students' high pass rate on the national school psychology test (Praxis) most are eligible for the National Certification in School Psychology (NCSP) after graduation. Students are required to take the Praxis test during their final semester in the program. The results from the past few years are:

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