Improving General Education Instruction: Relevance to School Psychologists

Many school psychologists spend the majority of their time testing students with academic difficulties for special education eligibility. These assessment efforts are directed toward finding within-child disabilities presumed to cause learning problems. Tests are administered to the student to find the disability and if found, special education services are delivered to presumably solve the problem. Current school psychology services typically ignore the role of general education curriculum and instruction practices and their potential contribution to students' academic difficulties as well as the role that effective instructional practices can serve to reduce student learning difficulties. This article proposes that school psychologists direct more efforts at ensuring the implementation of effective instructional practices in general education and identifies roles that school psychologists can play in improving general education instructional practices.