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Divisions Invited to Create PowerPoint for 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.
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.
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