Expanding the Role of School Psychologists to Support Early Career Teachers: A Mixed-Method Study

Abstract

.School psychologists have training and expertise in consultation and evidence-based interventions that position them well to support early career teachers (ECTs). The current study involved iterative development and pilot testing of an intervention to help ECTs become more effective in classroom management and engaging learners, as well as more connected to colleagues. The intervention included group seminars, professional learning communities, and coaching. The sample included 15 ECTs and 57 school personnel in three high-poverty, urban schools. Feasibility and initial promise of the intervention were examined using a mixed-method design, which yielded promising trends in ECTs' effectiveness and connectedness. ECTs described facilitators to effectiveness and connectedness associated with the intervention and barriers associated with the structural realities of schools and gaps in their training. ECTs described effectiveness as neither static nor global and perceived meaningful progress, leveraging individual relationships and group formats to receive instrumental and emotional support.