422 School Psychology
The therapeutic expansion spilled over into the practice of
school psychology, albeit on a much narrower scale than the
traditional psychoeducational assessment role for special ed-
ucation eligibility. However, even the traditional role was
broadened by the influx of new scales, such as the Wechsler
intelligence scales; numerous personality assessment mea-
sures, including projective techniques; psychomotor and psy-
cholinguistic scales; and the Binet scales, which were revised
to a single form (L-M.). Their use was enhanced by the offi-
cial recognition of learning disability as a special education
category in the late 1960s.
The approach to practice was also expanding. The latter
portion of the Hybrid Years was characterized by renewed in-
terest in environmental influences on development and edu-
cation. Child study expanded from its traditional focus on the
child to a broader conceptualization of factors including
the ecology of the school and family variables. School failure
and child social and emotional problems were no longer
viewed simply as failures of the child. Rather, such problems
were also being attributed to teacher, classroom, family, and
environmental factors.
The post–World War II baby boom quickly raised school
enrollments and heightened the need for psychological assis-
tance in developing special educational programs. Special
education enrollments grew from 310,000 to 2 million during
this period, increasing the demand for school psychologists.
By 1950, there were about 1,000 practitioners, but by the end
of the period the number had grown to 5,000. Practitioners
worked primarily in school settings (public, private, residen-
tial), with only a fraction working in nonschool settings or in-
dependent private practice. With baby boom enrollments and
mothers increasingly working out of their homes, day care
and Head Start programs were established. As schools ex-
panded kindergarten and other preschool programs, school
psychology practice spread to those settings. School psychol-
ogists continued to be in demand because they were per-
ceived as specialists employed to assist the school system in
sorting children into more appropriate educational programs
and services and providing interventions and consultation to
children, their families, and educators.
Overview
The historical origins of school psychology from both psy-
chology and education were clearly observable in the struc-
ture of the field by the end of the Hybrid Years. Two separate
associations were now representing school psychologists at
the national level. Separate state-level organizations affiliated
with the NASP were established, whereas the state psycholog-
ical associations affiliated with the APA. School psychology
had achieved a literature distinct from mainstream psychol-
ogy’s literature, reflecting its need to have information and an
identity that focused on psychological applications to schools
and the problems of schooling.
Training programs were developing in psychology depart-
ments in colleges of arts and sciences but more rapidly in var-
ious departments of colleges of education. To the extent that
program accreditation was discernible, it was emerging at the
doctoral level from the APA and at the master’s and doctoral
levels from the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher
Education (NCATE). Two systems of credentialing in school
psychology were in place, one regulated by state departments
of education and the other by state boards of examiners in
psychology.
The prototypical developments of the early Hybrid Years
had evolved into a distinct structure of school psychology by
the end of the period. This structure would grow in strength
and complexity during the Thoroughbred Years, but the two
worlds of school psychology (education and psychology) and
the two levels of training, titles, and practice would haunt the
field for the remainder of the century and into the next.THE THOROUGHBRED YEARS (1970–PRESENT)The past 30 years of school psychology’s development are
characterized by strengthened identity, consolidation of na-
tional and state-level organizations, and acquisition of the
symbols of full professionalization. Significant influencing
factors include external and internal regulation of training
and practice. Among the most influential has been the enact-
ment of federal legislation regarding the management of in-
formation and the rights of persons with disabilities. Public
Law 93-380, the Federal Educational Rights and Privacy Act
of 1974, substantially changed the manner in which public
and private agencies collected, maintained, and disseminated
information, including school psychological records. Public
Law 94-142, the Education for All Handicapped Children Act
of 1975, mandated a special education in the least restrictive
environment, including psychological services for all eligible
children of school age. Subsequent amendments to this law
broadened the age range of eligible children and the cate-
gories of special education. The most recent amendment was
Public Law 105-17, the Individuals with Disabilities Educa-
tion Act of 1997. These laws and their subsequent national
and state-level regulations reflected a growing influence of
the federal government in public education, an arena previ-
ously left largely up to state and local governments. The rip-
ple effect of such external regulation on school psychology is
observable in the content of training curricula, credentialing