School Psychology Candidates’ Professional Dispositions and Work Characteristics: establishing content validity for rating scale

Year: 2022

Issue: Vol. 39 Issue. 1

Journal Name: School Psychology Training and Pedagogy

Title: School Psychology Candidates’ Professional Dispositions and Work Characteristics: Establishing Content Validity for a Rating Scale

Citation: Hall, J. D., Medley, M. B., Johnson, K. N., & Wilkinson, W. W. (2022) School Psychology Candidates’ Professional Dispositions and Work Characteristics: Establishing Content Validity for a Rating Scale. School Psychology Training and Pedagogy, 39 (1), 25-36. 

Abstract:  The assessment of candidates’ professional dispositions and work characteristics has recently become an important requirement for advanced programs accredited by the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP) and is also necessary for program approval by the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) which is a Specialized Professional Association (SPA) for CAEP. CAEP not only requires the assessment of professional dispositions for candidates but also calls for the measure to have established content validity and reliability. The authors address the establishment of content validity for a measure designed to assess school psychology candidates’ professional dispositions and work characteristics. Content validity was based on items from previously developed informal school psychology measures and by surveying school psychology program coordinators of NASP approved or accredited programs across the U.S. (N = 168). Program coordinators rated the importance of each item on the measure according to one of four responses (i.e., Not Relevant = 1, Somewhat Relevant = 2, Relevant = 3 , Very Relevant = 4). Data analysis consisting of a single series of single-sample Wilcoxon signed rank tests, p-values, and effect sizes with the initial 40- item measure consisting of nine professional dispositions and 31 professional work characteristics resulted in a revised 32-item measure composed of seven professional dispositions and 25 work characteristics. The revised rating scale is presented in addition to results of the analysis, discussion of limitations and future research, and implications for school psychology training programs.

Keywords:   accreditation, dispositions, work characteristics, content validity, measure, rating scale, school psychology candidates

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