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The Hybrid Years 417

knowledge and practices of these fields into school psycho-
logical services. Most notable among these disciples was
Arnold Gesell, the first person to work with the title “school
psychologist” within a part-time practice under the supervi-
sion of the state of Connecticut. His efforts built upon those of
Witmer and Hall and helped to establish school psychology’s
connection to the individual psychoeducational diagnosis
of children with school problems and their placement in
special education. His practice from 1915 to 1919 bore
numerous similarities to contemporary school psychology
(Fagan, 1987).

Professional Developments (1890–1920)

In addition to the factors that led to the emergence of school
psychology, several other professional developments between
1890 and 1920 contributed to the discipline’s development.

Spread of Clinics

Witmer’s clinical psychology and Hall’s child study stimu-
lated the rise of clinics in hospital, residential care, college
and university, juvenile courts, and public school settings
(Wallin, 1914). The first school-based clinic, the Department
of Scientific Pedagogy and Child Study, was founded in 1899
in the Chicago public schools (Slater, 1980). Over time, this
agency shifted from a nomothetic to a more idiographic
clinical approach and still operates as the district’s Bureau of
Child Study. Cincinnati, Cleveland, Detroit, Los Angeles,
New Orleans, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Rochester,
Seattle, St. Louis, and several other urban, and a few rural,
school systems had clinics by the end of this period. The
orientations of the school-based clinics were often nomo-
thetic and idiographic; some carried names such as “bureau
of educational research,” while others were specifically clini-
cal and referred to as psychological services. Thus, school
psychological services developed from both idiographic
clinical and nomothetic orientations. Contemporary school
psychology continues to reflect both orientations as seen
in the emphases on work with individuals and groups and
the use of normative data and instruments within a clinical
child study model. By the end of the period, several individ-
ual school districts had hired school psychologists to facili-
tate special educational placement of children, whether or not
the district had a formal clinic.

Test Development

Perhaps no other factor contributed more to the early role and
function of psychologists in schools than the development,

publication, and rapid popularity of normatively referenced

psychological and educational tests. Emerging from proce-

dures developed in laboratory settings, the use of tests gained

ascendancy from the work of Alfred Binet, whose scales were

widely used in this country following their modification and

norming by Louis Terman in 1916. The Stanford Revision of

the Binet-Simon Scales helped to define the segmentation

of children for special education and was the hallmark of

school psychology services for decades to come. Test devel-

opment also occurred in academic achievement, vocational

development, motor and sensory skills, and other areas. The

testing movement was given additional impetus by the Army

Alpha tests developed to select and classify recruits in World

War I. These tests led to further development of group and in-

dividual tests in numerous skill areas, many of which were

used with schoolchildren. The Binet scales were frequently

used by Gesell and other school psychologists of the period.

Psychoeducational tests, developed without the need for

expensive and cumbersome laboratory instruments and pro-

cedures, provided a portability to psychological services that

enhanced their development in several settings, especially in

schools throughout the country (Fagan, 2000).

Organizational Development

Although founded in 1892, the APA had a small, predomi-

nantly doctoral level, membership, and avoided for several

decades involvement in professional and applied psychology.

Few school psychologists belonged to the APA, but per-

haps some belonged to the National Education Association

founded in 1870 (which added a section on child study in

1894). Of the 100 to 200 practitioners who provided psycho-

logical services in school settings during this period, most

held no national membership, and few if any state-level or

local organizations represented their interests. The American

Association of Clinical Psychologists (AACP) was formed in

1917 to serve the interests of clinicians in various settings,

but it was short-lived, disbanding in 1919 to become the

clinical section of the APA, the first APA division.

Training and Credentialing

Formal programs of training and regulation through accredi-

tation and state-level credentialing (licensing or certification)

are among the major symbols of professionalization. At least

for school psychology, and most of applied and clinical psy-

chology, such symbols were absent in this period. Although

there were a few clinical psychology training programs, in-

cluding one developed by Lightner Witmer, no programs were

specifically titled “school psychology.” Child-study-related