Date of Award

Fall 9-5-2025

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

School Psychology

First Advisor

Ashley Mayworm

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the practices and beliefs of school psychologists working in high-performing, high-poverty (HP/HP) schools in order to make recommendations for how their practices can be replicated in other high-poverty schools to help narrow the socioeconomic opportunity gap. Results indicate that school psychologists engage in the major professional activities of school psychology practice to a similar degree as is documented in the existing literature. Despite relatively lower levels of engagement in delivering mental and behavioral health services, school psychologists view the practice to be highly impactful on students’ academic achievement. The school-wide activities commonly found in HP/HP schools that school psychologists are most involved in are those that help to understand poverty and hold students to high-expectations, and targeting supports for low-performing students. There is a significant, positive relationship between how much school psychologists engage in 12 out of the 22 activities examined and how impactful they perceive the activity is on students’ academic achievement. When asked to describe the perceived impact of their work and factors that influence students’ success, school psychologists often spoke about meeting students’ needs, administrators and staff, school culture, climate, and relationships, and special education. Examination of employment and school context variables found that school psychologists in HP/HP schools had similar ratios, slightly more years of experience, slightly lower degree attainment, come from more rural communities, and engage in fewer social justice activities compared to the most recent NASP Membership Survey (Farmer et al., 2021; Goforth et al., 2021). Implications for practice are discussed.

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