Retrospect and prospect regarding school psychology scholarship: Reflections of Lightner Witmer award winners.

This article provides reflections on several key elements important for establishing and sustaining successful research trajectories and scholarship within the field. Developed by several Lightner Witmer Award recipients, the article highlights several of Lightner Witmer's experiences and pioneering contributions, including the importance of his own mentors, collaborations with interdisciplinary professionals, and his emphasis on the relevance of scientific research programs and the practical implications for helping children. In an effort to move the field forward, we discuss important elements relevant to developing and sustaining successful research programs in school psychology including the importance of mentorship, collaboration, research methodologies, replicability, extramural funding, and dissemination. Throughout, we emphasize the importance of conducting research within the school context, which is consistent with the important influence of ecological systems articulated by Conoley, Powers, and Gutkin (2020), and reflects the hallmark of school psychology scholarship as an applied science. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Examining the validity of the Homework Performance Questionnaire: Multi-informant assessment in elementary and middle school.

Methods for measuring homework performance have been limited primarily to parent reports of homework deficits. The Homework Performance Questionnaire (HPQ) was developed to assess the homework functioning of students in Grades 1 to 8 from the perspective of both teachers and parents. The purpose of this study was to examine the factorial validity of teacher and parent versions of this scale, and to evaluate gender and grade-level differences in factor scores. The HPQ was administered in 4 states from varying regions of the United States. The validation sample consisted of students (n = 511) for whom both parent and teacher ratings were obtained (52% female, mean of 9.5 years of age, 79% non-Hispanic, and 78% White). The cross-validation sample included 1,450 parent ratings and 166 teacher ratings with similar demographic characteristics. The results of confirmatory factor analyses demonstrated that the best-fitting model for teachers was a bifactor solution including a general factor and 2 orthogonal factors, referring to student self-regulation and competence. The best-fitting model for parents was also a bifactor solution, including a general factor and 3 orthogonal factors, referring to student self-regulation, student competence, and teacher support of homework. Gender differences were identified for the general and self-regulation factors of both versions. Overall, the findings provide strong support for the HPQ as a multi-informant, multidimensional measure of homework performance that has utility for the assessment of elementary and middle school students.

A contextual approach to social skills assessment in the peer group: who is the best judge?

Using a contextual approach to social skills assessment in the peer group, this study examined the criterion-related validity of contextually relevant social skills and the incremental validity of peers and teachers as judges of children's social skills. Study participants included 342 (180 male and 162 female) students and their classroom teachers (N = 22) from rural communities. As expected, contextually relevant social skills were significantly related to a variety of social status indicators (i.e., likability, peer- and teacher-assessed popularity, reciprocated friendships, clique centrality) and positive school functioning (i.e., school liking and academic competence). Peer-assessed social skills, not teacher-assessed social skills, demonstrated consistent incremental validity in predicting various indicators of social status outcomes; peer- and teacher-assessed social skills alike showed incremental validity in predicting positive school functioning. The relation between contextually relevant social skills and study outcomes did not vary by child gender. Findings are discussed in terms of the significance of peers in the assessment of children's social skills in the peer group as well as the usefulness of a contextual approach to social skills assessment.