The California School Psychologist as a Quintessential Resource

Abstract

The California School Psychologist is a quintessential resource providing valuable information to promote the academic success and facilitate the developmental trajectories of diverse students. Articles published in The California School Psychologist enhance knowledge, science, and practice related to school psychology. Each year over 4,000 volumes of The California School Psychologist journal are distributed directly to school psychologists and other educational professionals. In addition, many professionals seek out manuscripts published in The California School Psychologist upon revealing articles of interest in searches of international electronic literature databases (e.g., ERIC, developed by the US Department of Education and PsycINFO, developed by the American Psychological Association). Other professionals access the contents of The California School Psychologist on the world-wide-web at www.education.ucsb.edu/school-psychology. Articles in this volume provide important information addressing an assortment of important is- sues in the field, including: the translation and validation of four nonverbal subtests of the Differential Abilities Scales (DAS) for use with Spanish speaking students; applied research examining family- centered practices in an ethnically diverse elementary school; consultation, collaboration, and support for new teachers; a longitudinal study providing further insights regarding the association between grade retention and school dropout; a synthesis of best practices in assessing kindergarten readiness; and the use of a formative program portfolio process to enhance graduate school psychology training. The following highlights from each article provide an overview of the topics addressed in this volume. The first article (Sandoval, Antunez-Bellatin, & Lewis, 2002) provides a summary of the transla- tion and validation of the (DAS) nonverbal scales for use with Spanish-speaking children. The exi- gency of appropriate assessments of cognitive skills for Spanish speaking children is increasing as individuals of Latino descent has grown by sixty percent nationally. Moreover, in States such as California and Texas, Latino youth are emerging as the majority, growing sixteen percent faster than any other group during the past decade. This article begins by describing procedures that may be used to translate test directions of a test from one language to another. This study includes administration of the Spanish translation version of the four nonverbal DAS subtests to a referred population of 97 Spanish speaking children. In addition, students were assessed with the Test of Nonverbal Intelligence (TONI), the Comprehensive Test of Nonverbal Intelligence (CTONI), and the Woodcock-Munoz Lan- guage Survey. The analyses yield preliminary evidence of internal validity, concurrent validity, and construct validity. The authors suggest that the Spanish translation of the DAS nonverbal subtests may provide a more standard administration of this assessment to Spanish-speaking students. Finally, the authors encourage further research exploring the Spanish translation of the DAS nonverbal subtests. The second article (Ho, Robinette, & Gonzales, 2002) examines family-centered practices in an ethnically diverse elementary school. Considering the current context of education policies advocat-