School Psychology Program

Doctor of Philosophy Degree

The program of study leading to the Ph.D. is accredited or approved by the Tennessee State Department of Education, APA, NASP, and NCATE for preparation of school psychologists. The School Psychology program trains students by providing a solid foundation of core knowledge and skills across psychology, education, and research. Students receive applied field-based training in assessment, consultation, intervention, and research. Our training model is a Data-Based, Problem-Solving Model, a variant of the Scientist-Practitioner Model. Students are encouraged to view practice and science as similar endeavors and apply the same general problem-solving steps. The similarities and relationship between practice and research, as traditionally characterized, are emphasized.

The curriculum describes the coursework requirements for Ph.D. School Psychology students. A "typical track" requires approximately 116 semester hours above the B.A. or B.S. degree, including an internship (a full year, 2000 hours, completed in the last year of training, with a minimum of 600 hours in school settings) and a dissertation. The program is designed for full-time students, includes summer courses, and is designed to be completed in 5 years, with the last year allocated for internship. Full-time enrollment is a minimum of 9 credit hours. The program is not designed for part-time students; however, in exceptional circumstances, part-time students may successfully complete the Ph.D. program.

Every School Psychology student is expected to meet the School Psychology program's knowledge and skill requirements. Opportunities for students to meet these requirements will occur in the classroom and during field experiences. The School Psychology faculty, along with current and previous students, practica and internship supervisors, and various other groups who help ensure quality control within our training programs have contributed to the development of our curricula. Various accrediting and curricula oversight agencies (e.g., APA, NASP, SDE-Tennessee; and the University of Tennessee) have their own specific goals and objectives. The School Psychology Handbook, published by the Educational Psychology and Counseling Department, describes how the School Psychology training programs meet the goals and objectives of these various training groups. The program is designed to provide graded, sequential, and hierarchical training across the following areas: professional school psychology, consultation and intervention, assessment, research and statistics, psychoeducational core, and field experience and professional practice.

 

Updated 04/05/2006

 

Contact EPC

525 Jane & David Bailey Education Complex
1122 Volunteer Boulevard
Knoxville, Tennessee 37996-3452

Phone: 865-974-8145
Fax: 865-974-0135