Evidence Based Interventions

The way school systems develop effective teachers is to provide them with the supports and professional development needed to enable them to embrace the needs of their diverse students. School psychologists can be a lead collaborator to assist teachers in successful implementation of EBP’s. School psychologists can assist with evaluating the data, providing resources to utilize data informed decisions and interventions. Moreover, they can help evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention and adjust as needed to maximize the positive impact on student achievement.
Improvements in schools can be made just by using meaningful data to inform decisions. A reasonable question is why then is data not embraced? Archbals (2001), supports it is not a lack of data, but the lack of staff in each school with the needed expertise, initiative, and tools to turn data into “actionable” information. Teachers may lack the understanding and professional training to fully utilize data to guide instruction, planning, and evaluation. In addition, everyone may not have the same access to data or the time allotted

School psychologists are trained and specialize in data collection and analysis. They utilize data collected in meaningful ways to inform the problem solving process. In turn, they synthesize the data to inform evidence based interventions. These interventions can impact school wide initiatives or individual students. School Psychologists have the expertise to excel as leaders in the data informed society that has emerged in our current time. Whether the need has arisen from legislation and laws or from the need for better informed practices in the schools, they are trained to share information in a collaborative manner between administration, school, child, and