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National Standards for High School Psychology
Curricula
APA welcomes feedback on the National Standards for High School Psychology Curricula,
a document created for policy makers, educational administrators, and teachers. These standards outline
what high school psychology students should be taught in the introductory psychology course. The
standards emphasize the importance of the scientific foundations and applications of psychology and
demonstrate the breadth of the field of psychology in the high school curriculum. The document is available
online at
http://www.apa.org/ed/natlstandards.html.
The second revision of the standards will begin in 2007, and recommendations for revision are currently
being solicited. Comments and recommendations will be accepted via an online submission form, available
online at www.apa.org/ed/natlstandards.html.
Recommendations must be submitted by May 1, 2007.
For more information contact: Emily Leary, Precollege Psychology Programs Officer, at (+1/202)
572-3013 or via Email.
APA Divisions Invited to Create PowerPoint
Demonstrations for Use in High School Classrooms
The APA Teachers of Psychology in Secondary Schools (TOPSS) has created a PowerPoint template
to encourage APA Divisions to create PowerPoint demonstrations on each Division’s content area. The
template outlines the following topics: history, main topics and theories, current issues, careers, and
resources. Once created, these demonstrations will be linked to the TOPSS web site to be accessed and
used by high school teachers in their classrooms for instructional purposes. Created demonstrations
should be about 8-12 slides in length. The template can be found online at www.apa.org/ed/div_template.html.
Templates can be submitted to Emily Leary via Email. Questions? Contact Emily via email or phone (+1/202)
572-3013.
Call for National Conference Site
Proposals
The American Psychological Association Board of Educational Affairs (BEA) is developing plans to
convene a National Conference on Undergraduate Education in Psychology in June 2008. Through the
efforts of a new BEA Steering Committee, a proposal for the conference has been drafted that includes a
conference framework and preliminary recommendations for major issues and topics for the conference,
presenters, participants, funding sources, and a conference format. Members of the BEA Steering
Committee include Diane Halpern, PhD, Chair, Bernard Beins, PhD, Ludy Benjamin, Jr., PhD, William
Buskist, PhD, Ladonna Lewis, PhD, and Valerie Whittlesey, PhD. Charlie Blair-Broeker serves as a liaison
for precollege psychology and Courtney Rocheleau serves as a liaison representing the early teaching
career perspective. Charles Brewer, PhD, and Barry Anton, PhD, are liaisons from the APA Board of
Educational Affairs and the APA Board of Directors, respectively.
The Steering Committee invites applications from universities or colleges that would like to host the 4-5
day national conference at their institution. The committee is considering the week of June 21-June 28, 2008
as the tentative date.
Support as the host for the National Conference would include such items as: room and board for
approximately 75 to 80 participants, administrative assistance with the production of materials developed on
site (computers and photocopying facilities), availability of large rooms for plenary sessions and smaller
discussion rooms, accessibility to major airports and/or shuttle transportation, and the identification of a
conference site manager at the institution to be responsible for coordination of the meeting rooms and
meals, etc. Prior institutional experience in hosting such an event would be a desirable asset.
All applications and inquiries must be received by April 30, 2007 and sent to: BEA Steering Committee
for the National Conference on Undergraduate Education in Psychology, c/o Martha Boenau, Education Directorate, at the APA Address.
APA Coalition for Psychology in Schools and
Education
APA’s Coalition for Psychology in Schools and Education, focused on improving PK-12 education,
convened for its biannual meeting on December 1-3, 2006 in Washington DC to advance several initiatives.
Representatives from several divisions were presented including divisions 12 (Society of Clinical
Psychology), 15 (Educational Psychology), 16 (School Psychology), 17 (Society of Counseling
Psychology), 25 (Behavior Analysis), 27 (Society for Community Research and Action), 35 (Society for the
Psychology of Women) and affiliated groups, including the Committee on Psychological Tests and
Assessment (CPTA), APA’s Board of Scientific Affairs (BSA) and APA’s Board of Educational Affairs
(BEA).
The Coalition’s initiatives include projects committed to designing and improving professional
development around the needs of teachers identified by the Coalition’s Teachers’ Needs Survey
(the survey asked PK-12 teachers how psychologists could assist with their professional development
needs and in what format, there were over 2300 respondents).
One such initiative which the Coalition reviewed and further advanced during its December meeting was
the Coalition’s development of an Online Academy professional development module entitled “Practical
Classroom Management: Class-wide and Individual Strategies.” This was in response to the Coalition’s
Teachers’ Needs Survey which indicated a large majority of teachers wanted professional
development activities related to instructional skills and classroom management. The module is being
developed by Dr. Russell Skiba and Dr. Jack Cummings from Indiana University and presents an
introduction to identifying and understanding Pre-K-12 classroom management problems while providing
educators with the necessary skills needed to implement various effective management strategies.
The Coalition also reviewed the Board of Educational Affair’s Task Force on Applying Psychological
Science to Teaching and Learning’s developed teaching strategies. These teaching strategies were based
on the Task Force’s expertise, the available psychological literature, and recent findings from the Coalition’s
Teacher Needs Survey. These teaching strategies will be posted on APA’s website, facilitating
the communication of psychological science related to teaching and learning in ways that are accessible to
teachers. This information will be of special use to federal agencies, education and psychology
researchers. The Task Force plans to complete its work in 2007.
At the December meeting, the Coalition also discussed its recommendations for the reauthorization of
the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) and furthered their agreement on legislative language amending NCLB.
The Coalition focused on promoting greater accountability, teaching and learning assessment, teacher
quality and student achievement through scientifically based educational practices and policy.
Request for Public Comment on Accreditation
Policies
The CoA is proposing a new Implementing Regulation defining “the equivalent thereof” for residency
requirements in Domain A.4 of the Guidelines and Principles for Accreditation of Programs in
Professional Psychology for doctoral graduate programs. This proposal is available for comments
from November 14, 2006 until May 14, 2007.
The full text of the potential change to Section 6 of the Accreditation Operating Procedures,
as well as the proposed Implementing Regulation that defines “the equivalent thereof” for
residency requirements in Domain A.4 of the Guidelines and Principles for doctoral graduate
programs, is available on the Accreditation website www.apa.org/ed/accreditation and comments and reactions
from all interested individuals and organizations are requested. In an effort to promote thoughtful discussion,
the CoA is providing an electronic-based comment form for public review and submission of all comments. If
you wish to participate in this process, please visit our website to post and view all comments on both
proposals at apaoutside.apa.org/accredsurvey/public/.
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