EXAMINING DIVERSITY RESEARCH LITERATURE IN SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGY FROM 2004 TO 2010

Transcription

1 , Vol. 51(5), 2014 View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/pits C 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc EXAMINING DIVERSITY RESEARCH LITERATURE IN SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGY FROM 2004 TO 2010 STEPHANIE GRUNEWALD AND DAVID SHRIBERG Loyola University Chicago ANITRA S. WHEELER AND ANTOINETTE HALSELL MIRANDA The Ohio State University ELISABETH C. O BRYON AND MARGARET R. ROGERS University of Rhode Island One indicator of school psychology s capacity to provide culturally responsive practice is the percentage of articles in leading school psychology journals that have a significant diversity focus. To date, there have been three published empirical studies (Brown, Shriberg, & Wang, 2007; Miranda & Gutter, 2002; Rogers Wiese, 1992) that have defined and examined this construct. These three articles collectively provide empirical data on the percentage of articles appearing in leading school psychology journals that met criteria from a time period spanning This manuscript provides the results of the most recent iteration of this study, covering the years In this study, 15.5% of articles met criteria, up from figures found from , but a decline from the figure of 16.9%. Several potential implications of this ongoing lack of empirical and theoretical scholarship are offered. C 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. The demographics of the United States are changing at a rapid pace. As of 2009, minority students comprised 45.2% of the school-age population, surpassing estimated population projections (U.S. Census Bureau, 2010). By the year 2020, enrollment in public elementary and secondary schools is projected to increase by 1% for African American students, 17% for American Indian/Alaskan Native students, 25% for Hispanic/Latino students, and 36% for Asian/Pacific Islander students (National Center for Education Statistics, 2011). Issues related to cultural diversity in school psychology have become increasingly important, given the continuous shift in student demographics. However, research highlights demographic disparities between school psychologists and the populations they serve. In fact, results from a nationwide survey of school psychologists from 2009 to 2010 estimated that 90% of school psychologists are Caucasian and 78% are female (Castillo, Curtis, Chappel, & Cunningham, 2011). Over the past decade, the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP, 2010) has revised professional standards and training to include more topics related to diversity and learning. The amount of material in the NASP resource library that is devoted to diversity-related topics has steadily expanded over the years. Similarly, the American Psychological Association (APA, 2003) and the International School Psychology Association call for a greater commitment to cultural diversity and provide resources for training on topics such as cultural competency, bilingualism, and multiculturalism. However, limited research within school psychology has reflected these demographic shifts and organizational emphases. To date, three studies have examined trends in the publication of diversity-focused literature in major school psychology journals. In 1992, a foundational study was Please cite as Grunewald, S., Wheeler, A. S., O Bryon, E. C., Shriberg, D., Halsell Miranda, A., & Rogers, M. R. (2014). Examining diversity research literature in school psychology from 2004 to 2010., 51(5), doi: /pits Correspondence to: Stephanie Grunewald, Rush University Medical Center, 2150 W. Harrison Street, Chicago, IL stephanie_grunewald@rush.edu 421

2 422 Grunewald et al. published by Rogers Wiese investigating the presence of articles on minority topics from 1975 to 1990 in three major school psychology journals: Journal of School Psychology (JSP),Psychology in the Schools (PIS), and School Psychology Review (SPR). Rogers Wiese (1992) defined a minority topic article as any investigation in which persons from diverse racial/ethnic, linguistic, or cultural groups within the U.S. were the main focus (p. 268). This researcher found an increase over time of published articles in these journals that met this definition. Specifically, 7.6% of all articles published in these journals from 1975 to1979, 8.9% of articles published between 1980 and 1984, and 9.2% of articles published between 1985 and1990 met the criteria, yielding a total figure of 9.1%. An extension of the Rogers Wiese (1992) study was conducted by Miranda and Gutter (2002) examining the number of diversity-related articles published from 1990 to This study included the original three school psychology journals used in Rogers Wiese s study (JSP, PIS, and SPR) and added School Psychology Quarterly (SPQ), which had been established in Reflecting evolving research, Miranda and Gutter expanded on the Rogers Wiese definition to include articles that addressed socioeconomic status (SES) and sexual orientation. In the review of these four school psychology journals, 10.6% of all articles were diversity related; an increase from the reported 9.1% found by Rogers Wiese (Miranda & Gutter, 2002). Brown, Shriberg, and Wang (2007) conducted an extension of the Miranda and Gutter (2002) study. In addition to the four journals reviewed by Miranda and Gutter, they also reviewed the Journal of Applied School Psychology (JASP) a journal that had been titled Special Services in the Schools but was renamed in 2002 due to a shift in focus to the application of psychology in the schools (Maher, 2002). The Brown et al. study applied identical criteria used by Miranda and Gutter to determine whether an article was diversity related. In an analysis of the articles published in these five journals between 2000 and 2003 (JASP issues were reviewed from the first issue with the new title in 2002), the results revealed that 16.9% of the total articles were diversity related, representing an increase of 6.3% from the Miranda and Gutter (2002) study and a 7.8% increase from the Rogers Wiese (1992) study. In addition to overall numbers of diversity-related articles, each of these studies tracked the characteristics of these articles. For example, Rogers Wiese (1992) tracked race/ethnicity of article participants, article focus (e.g., assessment, intervention, and training), geographic location of research, type of school, and grade level of participants. The subsequent two studies tracked these same categories, adding the categories of SES and sexual orientation in recognition of the expanded definition of diversity-related article initiated with the Miranda and Gutter (2002) study and continued in the Brown et al. (2007) study. Similar to the data indicating changes in percentage and total number of diversity-related articles over time, a longitudinal view of school psychology journals has also shown changes in the nature of these articles. Viewed by race/ethnicity, all three studies identified African American populations as the minority group most frequently represented in diversity-related articles, followed by Hispanic/Latino populations. Over time, however, there has been a substantial increase in articles focusing on Hispanic/Latino populations, with an average of 2.6 articles per year focusing on Hispanics/Latinos during the 1975 to 1990 period and 6.5 articles per year from 2000 to This increased representation parallels shifting demographics in the United States during this period (Durand, Telles, & Flashman, 2006). In terms of article content, 77% of the empirical articles that met diversity-related criteria from 1975 to 1990 were coded to be Assessment articles far and away the most common topic. However, in the 2000 to 2003 journal sample, Assessment was down to only 20.4% of the empirical diversityrelated articles, and this category was overtaken by Intervention/Prevention (22.3%) as the most common topic. Although there is no known research that tracks the content of school psychology journals over time in this same manner, these data suggest that the diversity-related articles are

3 Diversity Research Literature 423 following trends similar to the broader school psychology literature in terms of the gradual decrease of the percentage of articles focused on Assessment and a gradual increase in articles focused on Intervention/Prevention. In other article characteristics, variability across geographic regions has been demonstrated; however, the northeastern region consistently has held the highest representation in samples of diversity-related articles. In the majority of the investigated articles, elementary school-age and public-school settings have been the leading sampling populations. Although the total number and percentage of diversity-related articles has increased over the years and the focus of these articles appears to be following broader school psychology trends in terms of content, the total number remains well below a quarter of the articles published in school psychology journals. In response to the increasing cultural diversity in the schools, relevant diversity-related literature is essential for school psychologists to provide culturally responsive services. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to expand on the studies conducted by Rogers Wiese (1992), Miranda and Gutter (2002), and Brown et al. (2007) to determine whether there continues to be an increase in the percentage of diversity-related articles published in leading school psychology journals. Additionally, pertinent information related to the primary characteristics (e.g., study content, participant demographics, study methodology, and location of study) of the identified diversity-related articles were analyzed and compared with the previous examinations. METHOD The current study involved a content analysis of all articles appearing in seven major school psychology journals between 2004 and 2010: JASP, Journal of Educational and Psychological Consultation (JEPC), JSP, PIS, School Psychology Forum (SPF), SPQ, and SPR. Two of these journals (JEPC and SPF) are new to this line of research. SPF was launched in November 2006 as a NASP publication specifically aimed at school psychology practitioners (Christner & Riley- Tillman, 2006). JEPC was founded in 1990, but increasingly has become a hub for school psychology consultation research and specifically caters to a school psychology readership. All journal articles were manually reviewed to determine whether they were related to diverse populations, topics, or issues. The criteria used to determine whether an article focused on diverse populations, topics, or issues was identical to that used by Miranda and Gutter (2002) and Brown et al. (2007). Specifically, diversity-related articles were operationally defined as any investigation in which individuals from diverse racial/ethnic, linguistic, socioeconomic, sexual orientation, and/or cultural groups were the main focus (Brown et al., p. 641). As with the three previous studies, articles with an international focus were excluded, as were book reviews and articles that were introductions to special-topic issues. Also, articles that briefly mentioned cultural content but did not focus on it or those that used a minority sample without mentioning diversity were also excluded. For example, an article that utilized African American students as participants, but did not reference race or any other element of cultural diversity as a significant focus of inquiry (e.g., a research question that related to race/ethnicity, a substantive section of the introduction, or a section of the discussion emphasizing how race related to the primary variables of interest) was deemed to be not diversity related because it failed to meet the main focus criteria. All articles judged to be diversity related were also coded on several other dimensions. These dimensions were topical content (assessment, counseling, consultation, training/professional practices, mental health, intervention/prevention, general education, special education, and other), population studied (African American, Native American, Latino/a, Asian American or Pacific Islander, Caucasian, combination, international population, not specified, or other if the population was not previously mentioned), geographic region (Northeast, Southeast, Midwest, Northwest, Southwest, National, Regional, West, combination, or not specified), SES (low, middle, high, not specified,

4 424 Grunewald et al. or combination), empirical versus nonempirical methodology, type of school (private, public, combination, or not specified), age of population studied (preschool, primary, secondary, college, not specified, or other if another category or combination was used), location (rural, urban, suburban, combination, or not specified), sexual orientation (gay/lesbian, bisexual, heterosexual, combination, or not specified) and gender. Each article was also tracked for whether or not it focused on linguistic or second-language issues. Finally, authors and the university (or other) affiliation of all authors listed in each diversity-related article were recorded to better understand the leading authors of diversity-related research today. To pilot the coding process and establish initial inter-rater reliability, the six study authors three graduate students and three university professors with experience in qualitative research independently reviewed an initial group of 32 articles using a coding form that included the major categories (see Appendix). Afterward, all six raters came together to discuss the review process. In addition to discussing whether this independent review identified the same articles as diversity related, each article descriptor listed on the coding form was discussed and the number of disagreements was recorded for every article. Inter-rater reliability was established as the number of agreements divided by agreements plus disagreements. Of the initial 32 articles examined by the six raters, the combined inter-rater reliability for coding as a diversity-related article was After achieving this high initial reliability, the raters split into three dyads (one student and one faculty member from each of three universities) and dispersed all remaining articles among the dyads, such that each article was independently reviewed by one of the dyads. All articles appearing between 2004 and 2010 in JASP, JEPC, JSP, PIS, SPF, SPQ, and SPR were counted and each dyad was assigned an approximately equal number of articles to review and code using the appended form (see Appendix). After these assignments were made, each researcher in the dyads coded articles individually and then compared coding with each other to establish reliability within each dyad. As such, every article in these seven journals across this seven-year period (minus the 32 articles in the pilot phase that were independently reviewed by all six research team members) was independently reviewed by two raters. These pairs then came together to establish reliability, with the whole group meeting at two junctures throughout this process to discuss any articles that were difficult to code to make sure that coding would not be affected. The only change made during these large group meetings was the addition of three new content categories (counseling, special education, training/professional practices) from the original list of content categories used in the Brown et al. (2007) study. This change was made after all diversityrelated articles had been identified and it was revealed that many of these articles had been coded as other in terms of content. On discussion with the entire research team, these three new content categories were created, and all articles were recoded until a high level (more than 90%) of content code reliability was reached within dyads (after which point dyad members discussed and reached a decision on the few remaining content coding disagreements). In the rare cases (less than 1% of all articles reviewed) when reviewing pairs were in disagreement at first independent review and in subsequent discussions remained unsure about whether to code an article as diversity related, the entire group of six researchers discussed the article until they came to a coding consensus. Throughout, inter-rater reliability was calculated for each dyad, with the resulting inter-rater reliability for diversity-related articles ranging from 0.92 to 0.99 across the dyads. RESULTS Analyses were conducted on all identified diversity-related articles (n = 222) to address two main aims. The first aim was to determine whether there continues to be an increase in the percentage of diversity-related articles published in the field of school psychology. The second aim was to

5 Diversity Research Literature 425 Table 1 Number of Diversity-Related Articles in Major School Psychology Journals Journal Total No. of Articles Diversity Articles (n) Diversity Articles (%) Diversity Articles (%) a Diversity Articles (%) b Diversity Articles (%) c JASP n/a n/a JEPC n/a n/a n/a JSP PIS SPF n/a n/a n/a SPQ n/a SPR Total 1, Note. JASP = Journal of Applied School Psychology; n/a = not applicable; JEPC = Journal of Educational and Psychological Consultation; JSP = Journal of School Psychology; PIS = ; SPF = School Psychology Forum; SPQ = School Psychology Quarterly; SPR = School Psychology Review. a Brown, Shriberg, and Wang (2007). b Miranda and Gutter (2002). c Rogers Wiese (1992). obtain pertinent information related to the primary characteristics (e.g., study content, participant demographics, study methodology, and location of study) of the identified diversity-related articles. Percentage of Diversity-Related Articles Between 2004 and 2010, 1,434 articles were published in the seven journals. A total of 222 articles (5.5%) were identified as diversity related. This represents an increase of 6.4% from Rogers Wiese s (1992) original study, a 4.9% increase from Miranda and Gutter s (2002) study and a decrease of 1.4% from the Brown et al. (2007) study (see Table 1). Reflecting their emergence as journals widely aimed toward and read by school psychologists, two new journals (JEPC and SPF) were added to this study from the previous version. If these two journals were removed from this analysis thus making a direct comparison with the five journals included in the Brown et al. (2007) study the revised percentage is 15.3%, an even further decline from the 16.9% reported for the 2000 to 2003 period. Similarly, as shown in Table 1, if one examines the trends of the three journals (JSP, PIS, SPR) from 1975 to 2010, in two cases (JSP and SPR) mirroring overall study findings in these periods the data indicate that these journals showed an increase in percentage of diversity-related articles from 1990 to 1999 over 1975 to 1990, an increase again from 2000 to 2003 over 1990 to 1999, but then a decrease when comparing the 2004 to 2010 figures with the 2000 to 2003 figures. In the case of PIS, there was a slight decrease from 1990 to 1999 compared with the percentage of diversity-related articles in 1975 to 1990, an increase in 2000 to 2003 compared with 1990 to 1999, and then essentially no change when comparing the percentage of diversity-related articles from 2000 to 2003 with the percentage from 2004 to If one views these trends not in terms of the percentage of diversity-related articles but instead in terms of the raw number of diversity-related articles published per year in leading school psychology journals, the data suggest growth beginning in the mid-1990s. Over the period from 1975 to 1990, an average of 14.1 diversity-related articles were published per year. From 1990 to 1994, this figure declined to 9.6, but from 1995 to 1999, the figure increased to 18.2 diversity-related articles per year. From 2000 to 2003, this figure was 25.8 per year. Finally, in this study, covering 2004 to 2010, the figure was 31.7 per year.

6 426 Grunewald et al. Table 2 Diversity-Related Articles by Year and Journal Title JASP JEPC JSP PIS SPF SPQ SPR Total Total Year (n) (n) (n) (n) (n) (n) (n) (n) (%) n/a n/a n/a Note. JASP: Journal of Applied School Psychology; JEPC: Journal of Educational and Psychological Consultation; JSP: Journal of School Psychology; PIS: ; SPF: School Psychology Forum; SPQ: School Psychology Quarterly; SPR: School Psychology Review. Concentration of Diversity-Related Articles Forty-eight articles (21.6%) of the 222 diversity-related articles came from special issues of the examined journals. Without those special issues, only 12.1% of the total articles would have been diversity related. Viewing the composite data by journal, the individual journals percentage of diversity-related articles ranged from 4.8% in SPF to 20.6% in JEPC (see Table 1). Dividing the data among years also showed some differences among the journals. As presented in Table 2, the total number of diversity-related articles published in the major school psychology journals ranged from 19 (8.6%) in 2004 to 53 (3.9%) in Topical Content An analysis of the topical content for each of the 222 identified diversity-related articles was conducted. The majority of diversity-related articles (29.7%) were coded as Assessment. Assessment articles addressed five topic areas: intellectual achievement; behavioral, mental health, and curriculum-based assessment; and scale development. The next largest category was Intervention/Prevention, which accounted for 15.3% of articles and included a focus on academic, behavioral, or social emotional intervention or prevention programs. The third most common category was Consultation. This category accounted for 12.6% of all diversity-related articles, which included such topics as parental involvement, wraparound services, and community collaboration. Mental Health was the fourth category, which accounted for 11.3% of all diversity-related articles. The Mental Health category included topics such as treatment of aggression and victimization, effects of body image, social support and competence, resilience, acculturation, student adjustment, and mental health needs of gay, lesbian, and bisexual youth. General Education issues made up 9.4% of the total articles and included topics such as effects on school achievement, school mobility, school discipline, dropping out, truancy, and research-based practices for general education classrooms. Training/Professional Practices included topics such as training in a university setting, using school psychology students/members as participants, suggesting specific training content, or describing professional ethics codes. The Training/Professional Practices category accounted for 7.2% of all diversity-related articles. Counseling articles included a specific mention of a counseling relationship and accounted for 2.3% of all diversity-related articles. Special Education, which accounted for 2.3% of diversity-related articles, discussed students with disabilities, special education placement, gifted education issues, and special populations. Finally, an other category was created to account

7 Diversity Research Literature 427 for any article that did not fit into one of the previous categories and accounted for 9.9% of all diversity-related articles. Minority Representation More than half (56.3%) of the 222 articles that met diversity-related criteria focused on more than one racial group. As in Rogers Wiese (1992), Miranda and Gutter (2002), and Brown et al. (2007), the present study also found African Americans to be the leading minority group represented as the sole focus in diversity-related articles (7.6%). Hispanic/Latino populations were the secondhighest group represented (4.4%), followed by Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders (2.3%), with Native Americans (0.9%) continuing to have the lowest representation. In terms of linguistic diversity, 10.8% of diversity-related articles 1.7% of all articles published in these journals during the period examined focused on English language learners (ELLs). Geographic Region When looking at geographic origin, the data for the 222 identified diversity-related articles were collected most commonly in the Midwest (16.6%), followed the Southeast (14.4%) and the Northeast (11.7%). Articles drawing on a national sample accounted for 10.4% of the articles, followed by the Southwest (6.3%) region (which included two articles conducted in Hawaii), the West (3.6%), and the Northwest (1.4%). A combination of several regions accounted for 3.2% of the articles. Many of the articles (32.4%) did not specify where the study took place. Socioeconomic Status The 222 diversity-related articles were also analyzed to determine how many articles included participants from various SES backgrounds. Overall, 20.3% of the identified articles solely included populations from low SES backgrounds. Only one article (0.5%) focused exclusively a population from a middle-income SES background. No articles included only participants from high SES backgrounds. Articles including a combination of SES backgrounds accounted for 24.3% of the identified articles. Empirical/Nonempirical Diversity-related articles were also classified as either empirical or nonempirical. Consistent with Miranda and Gutter (2002), nonempirical articles were defined as articles that did not have a research design (p. 601). Of the 222 analyzed, 61 (27.5%) were nonempirical and 161 (72.5%) were empirical. School Setting This study also examined the settings from which samples were drawn. The majority of the 222 diversity-related articles (54.9%) did not specify the setting. However, of those studies that specified a setting, 37.9% were conducted in public schools. The remaining studies utilized a combination of public and private settings (5.4%), with private settings utilized the least (1.8%). Age of Population Of the 222 articles, 34.7% used samples of primary-grade students, followed by secondarygrade students (13.1%), preschool-aged students (7.2%), and college-aged students (1.4%).

8 428 Grunewald et al. Community Setting The 222 articles were also broken down according to location. The majority (53.3%) did not specify the location in which the study occurred. However, of the articles that did specify location, urban settings were most frequently used (22.9%). The next largest category was some combination of rural, urban, and suburban settings (13.0%), followed by rural settings (5.9%) and suburban settings (4.9%). Sexual Orientation This study also looked at the sexual orientation of the sampled population. The majority (93.7%) did not specify the sexual orientation of the population. Of the articles that did include specific information regarding the sexual orientation of the sampled population, 4.5% included some combination of gay/lesbian, bisexual, and heterosexual youth. Gay/lesbian populations were included in 1.8% of the total diversity-related articles; no studies included bisexual youth only. Authors The 222 articles had a total of 201 different first authors. Four researchers were the first author for three different diversity-related articles, 13 researchers were the first author for two different diversity-related articles, and 184 individuals were the first author for one diversity-related article. No researcher was the first author for more than three articles that met diversity-related criteria. When secondary authors were considered, 560 researchers were an author or co-author for at least one diversity-related article. The majority of these researchers (n = 480, 85.7%) authored just one article. Sixty-six (11.9%) researchers were listed as authors in two diversity-related publications. Eight researchers were authors in three publications, one researcher was an author in four publications, three researchers were authors in five publications, and two researchers were authors in six publications. No researcher was an author in more than six diversity-related publications. Put another way, no researcher averaged one or more diversity-related publication per year in a leading school psychology journal in the 7-year span covered by this study. DISCUSSION The present investigation examined diversity-related scholarship published between 2004 and 2010 in seven leading journals for school psychology (JASP, JEPC, JSP, PIS, SPF, SPQ, and SPR). This study extended three previous investigations (i.e., Brown et al., 2007; Miranda & Gutter, 2002; Rogers Wiese, 1992) regarding the types of diversity-focused publications that appeared in major school psychology journals from 1975 to It also advanced previous work by including two additional journals one a relatively new online school psychology journal, SPF, and the second outside of the core school psychology journals but a popular outlet for school psychology consultation research, JEPC. A number of findings from the analyses are of special significance. First, although the number of published articles and the number of journals has expanded since the last analysis, 15.5% of the published articles were classified as diversity related, representing a 1.4% decrease from the last similar content analysis (i.e., Brown et al., 2007). Importantly, this finding raises the question: Is the representation of diversity-related scholarship within the major school psychology journals consistent with the mission of the profession? The decline in attention to diversity issues in school psychology literature, although slight, is surprising, as it occurs at a time when the public schools are educating growing numbers of diverse students, and multicultural competence is articulated as both a professional and an ethical responsibility by the major professional organizations in school psychology (APA, 2003, 2010; NASP, 2010; Ysseldyke et al., 2006). Although it is challenging

9 Diversity Research Literature 429 to pinpoint a specific percentage increase in diversity-related research that would be considered appropriate or ideal, a closer examination of the content of the literature shows that there are important gaps in the current diversity-related publications in school psychology that need to be filled. For example, when we look at the specific populations of study that are focused on, we see that some groups are not receiving the attention that seems warranted. After African Americans (who, similar to previous content analyses, were the most frequently studied minority group, at 7.6% of the total articles when participants were drawn from a single racial/ethnic minority group), Hispanic/Latinos were the second racial/ethnic minority group most commonly represented, but accounted for just 4.4% of the articles. This very small representation of Hispanic/Latinofocused scholarship is surprising, given the significant increase in both native and foreign-born Hispanic/Latinos in the United States over the past 10 years (Pew Hispanic Center, 2011). Unfortunately, this trend has also been observed in research published in journals from other psychology specialties. For example, a 2009 analysis of Hispanic/Latino-focused research published in seven major counseling and multicultural journals from 1970 to 2005 found that only 2% of the articles focused on Hispanic/Latino populations in non ethnic-specific journals (Liang, Salcedo, Rivera, & Lopez, 2009). Also noteworthy is the dearth of studies specifically focused on individuals who identify as gay or lesbian only 1.8% of the total articles and no articles concentrated exclusively on individuals who identify as bisexual. In their 2007 article, Brown et al. (2007) highlighted the need for additional research focused on sexual orientation; however, school psychology research over the past 7 years has not filled this gap in the literature base. This is particularly distressing, given the well-documented experiences of students who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) who report victimization in schools (Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network [GLSEN], 2010). In fact, results of the 2009 National School Climate Survey revealed that 9 of 10 LGBT students experienced harassment at school and nearly two thirds felt unsafe at school (GLSEN, 2010). As school-based professionals and student advocates, school psychologists have a critical need to understand the day-to-day experiences of LGBT students, as well as how to promote positive, safe school environments information that can and should be communicated through the major journals within the field. The current analysis also revealed few articles or studies that specifically addressed linguistic or second-language issues. In fact, a mere 24 of the 1,434 articles (just 1.6%) either fully or partially focused on linguistic issues. This minimal coverage is disconcerting given the rapidly increasing population of ELL students attending the nation s public schools a number that currently exceeds 5 million students (U.S. Department of Education, 2011). Furthermore, the scarcity of research in this area is troubling, given that ELLs are a student group who are at risk academically (Roberts, Mohammed, & Vaughn, 2010), show high retention rates (Duran, 2008), and are overrepresented in special education (Sullivan, 2011). School psychologists need high-quality research about diverse students to inform their professional practices in assessment, counseling, consultation, intervention/prevention, training, and supervision, and it is essential that available research reflect the diversity of the student bodies of the schools in which they practice. It is encouraging that 20.3% of the diversity-related articles specifically examined populations from low SES backgrounds. The volume of work about students from low-income backgrounds has more than doubled since the content analysis by Brown et al. (2007), who found that 8.9% of articles from 2000 to 2003 focused on low SES groups, and it represents significant growth from the 2.8% of articles found from 1990 to 1999 by Miranda and Gutter (2002). Given that students living below the poverty threshold are consistently outperformed in reading and mathematics by their higher SES peers (U.S. Department of Education, 2011), it is important that research is available to inform and

10 430 Grunewald et al. provide guidance to school psychologists and other school-based service providers so that they are able to effectively support the academic and social success of students from low SES backgrounds. A second finding concerns the representation of data-based versus conceptually oriented articles published in the journals. We found the majority of diversity-related articles were empirical (72.5%) rather than conceptual, whereas Rogers Wiese s (1992) content analysis identified 82% of the articles as empirical. Although the sheer volume of both empirical and conceptual articles increased overall in the present analysis, the decrease in the percentage of data-based diversity-related articles over the 20-year period since Rogers Wiese was published is noticeable. This, too, is surprising, given the current emphasis on building the scientific foundation of the profession through evidencebased practices in school psychology. Although Division 16 exhorted its membership to embrace evidence-based practices about a decade ago (Kratochwill & Stoiber, 2002) and Ingraham and Oka (2006) provided the profession with an incisive analysis and recommendations for how to integrate multicultural issues into intervention research, the current findings suggest a diminution in data-based work, which may well reflect a lack of responsiveness within the field. A third finding emerging from the data concerns the concentration of articles in either special issues of a journal or in specific years of one journal outlet. A total of 21.6% of the diversity-focused articles appeared in special issues of the seven journals. In addition, SPR published 20 diversityrelated articles in 2008, representing 40% of the total number of diversity articles that appeared in SPR over the 7-year period from 2004 to Together, these findings suggest that readers of the major school psychology journals will often find information about working with diverse clients not in general issues of the journals, but instead, set apart or clustered together, implying that such research has not yet fully entered the mainstream of the school psychology research enterprise. A fourth finding of interest concerns the major topics addressed in the diversity-related articles. The highest percentage of articles dealt with assessment (29.7%), followed by intervention/prevention (15.3%). This shares some consistency with findings from the previous related research. For example, Rogers Wiese (1992) reported that the majority of empirical school psychology research focused on assessment issues and Miranda and Gutter (2002) found that assessment was the most frequent (38%) focus of diversity-related articles, whereas Brown et al. (2007) found that intervention/prevention-focused articles were most common (22%) within the diversity-related articles, slightly outnumbering those with a focus on assessment (20%). An additional finding from the present analysis concerns the authorship of the diversity-related articles and the scarcity of researchers who authored multiple articles. Of the 222 articles, 201 (90.5%) had different first authors. In fact, 91.5% of authors were first authors for one article only, and no one researcher was listed as an author (regardless of author order) for more than six diversityrelated articles during the examined period. Although recent research has shown that several scholars in school psychology are prolific and publish regularly in the major journals in the field (Carper & Williams, 2004; Little, 1997), it seems possible that diversity researchers in school psychology are publishing frequently in journals outside of the specialty and major journal outlets. Alternatively, diversity researchers in school psychology may be publishing non diversity-related research strands within and outside of the specialty and major journal outlets. Although it is beyond the scope of this article to discuss all the potential reasons for the declines in the percentage of diversity-related literature found in seven leading school psychology journals, a few hypotheses are merited. First, as previously discussed, much of the information about working with diverse clients is found in special issues, which may suggest that such research has not yet fully been integrated into the mainstream of the school psychology research. Second, it is necessary to consider the evolving focus of the field of school psychology and the corresponding implications for the literature base. For example, the available research may reflect educational trends focused on evidence-based practices and data conveying quantifiable differences. An emphasis on accountability

11 Diversity Research Literature 431 and the quantifying of school-related issues may limit the amount of research published exclusively on diversity-related issues, given that the topic area does not always lend itself to quantitative methods of analysis. Accordingly, diversity is often incorporated into research, but has not consistently been the primary focus. Limitations One limitation of this study concerns the categories used to code each article when performing the content analyses. The categories were based on the combined wisdom of the study authors and were established a priori. By determining the categories to use before examining the data, the researchers were naturally constrained by previous assumptions regarding the data. Given some of the a priori assumptions, it was challenging to code or categorize a few of the diversity-related articles. However, consistent communication between the six researchers regarding examples and non-examples of categories ensured that a shared understanding of each code and category was maintained throughout the coding process. A second limitation relates to the fact that the current analysis only explored the diversityrelated content of articles from seven major journals. Given that school psychology researchers also publish outside of school psychology journals, it is difficult to capture a complete picture of the kinds of diversity-focused work going on within the profession. Future studies should examine other channels in which diversity-focused school psychology scholars are publishing their research, as well as why they publish in outlets outside of the major school psychology journals. Such information is important to direct practitioners and trainers to the best outlets to inform their professional behavior, training practices, and future research. A final limitation relates to the ability to compare findings from this study with previous iterations of this line of research. To be comprehensive, the researchers decided to include seven leading school psychology journals. This decision was made to explore the inclusion of diversityrelated literature across school psychology outlets rather than to explicitly explore the changes in the three original journals. In addition, the researchers across the four studies have made subtle modifications to the diversity-related criteria to reflect current best practices. As such, a direct comparison of findings across the different iterations of this study is not possible. CONCLUSION Is the representation of diversity-related scholarship within the major school psychology journals consistent with the mission of the profession? Unfortunately, the answer appears to be not yet. NASP s (2007) report on its vision, mission, and goals explicitly articulates the importance of culturally competent professional practice and notes that the school psychologist s role is meeting the learning and mental health needs of all (emphasis added) children and youth (p. 1). To meet the needs of all children and youth, school psychologists must have access to research that includes the student populations that they serve and presents their issues, needs, and concerns. We now know that nearly all (97.4%) school psychologists serve students from diverse backgrounds (Castillo et al., 2011). Much like Rogers Wiese (1992), Miranda and Gutter (2002), and Brown et al. s (2007) findings, our research reveals a critical need for additional diversity-related research in school psychology so that we can fulfill our stated mission and our fiduciary responsibility to our clients.

12 432 Grunewald et al. APPENDIX: CODING SHEET FOR DIVERSITY-RELATED ARTICLES Rater: Article Title: Author(s): University (or other) affiliation of author: Journal: JSP SPQ SPR PIS JASP SPF JEPC Date: Vol.: Pages: Content/Topic of Article: Assessment Counseling Consultation Training Mental Health Intervention/Prevention General Ed. Special Ed. Other: Population Studied Geographic Region SES African American Northeast Low Native American Indian Southeast Middle Hispanic/Latino/a Midwest High Asian American/ Pacific Islander Northwest White/Caucasian/European American Southwest Other West Not Specified () National Combination International Population Regional Combination Other Combination Methodology Type of School Sexual Orientation Empirical Private Gay/Lesbian Nonempirical Public Bisexual Combination Heterosexual Combination Age Location Gender Preschool Rural Female Primary Urban Male Secondary Suburban Combination College Combination Other Religion/Religious Issues Gender Issues REFERENCES American Psychological Association. (2003). Guidelines on multicultural education, training, research, practice, and organizational change for psychologists. American Psychologist, 58, American Psychological Association. (2010). Ethical principles of psychologists and code of conduct. Retrieved from Brown, S. L., Shriberg, D., & Wang, A. (2007). Diversity research literature on the rise? A review of school psychology journals from 2000 to 2003., 44, Carper, R. M., & Williams, R. L. (2004). Article publications, journal outlets, and article themes for current faculty in APA-accredited school psychology programs: School Psychology Quarterly, 19,

13 Diversity Research Literature 433 Castillo, J. M., Curtis, M. J., Chappel, A., & Cunningham, J. (2011, February). School Psychology 2010: Results of the national membership study. Special session conducted at the National Association of School Psychologists Annual Convention, San Francisco, CA. Christner, R., & Riley-Tillman, T. C. (2006). Introduction to School Psychology Forum: Research in practice. School Psychology Forum: Research in Practice, 1, 1 2. Duran, R. P. (2008). Assessing English-language learners achievement. Review of Research in Education, 32, Durand, J., Telles, E., & Flashman, J. (2006). The demographic foundations of the Latino population. In M. Tienda & F. Mitchell (Eds.), Hispanics and the future of America (pp ). Washington, DC: National Academies Press. Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network. (2010) National school climate survey: Nearly 9 out of 10 LGBT students experience harassment in school. Retrieved from record/2624.html?state=research&type=research Ingraham, C. L., & Oka, E. R. (2006). Multicultural issues in evidence-based interventions. Journal of Applied School Psychology, 22, Kratochwill, T. R., & Stoiber, K. C. (2002). Evidence-based interventions in school psychology: Conceptual foundations of the procedural and coding manual of division 16 and the society for the study of school psychology task force. School Psychology Quarterly, 17, Liang, C. T. H., Salcedo, J., Rivera, A. L. Y., & Lopez, M. J. (2009). A content and methodological analysis of 35 years of Latino/a-focused research. The Counseling Psychologist, 37, Little, S. G. (1997). Graduate education of the top contributors to the school psychology literature: School Psychology International, 12, Maher, C. (2002). Introduction and overview. Journal of Applied School Psychology, 19, 1 4. Miranda, A. H., & Gutter, P. B. (2002). Diversity research literature in school psychology: Psychology in the Schools, 39, National Association of School Psychologists. (2007). Vision, mission, and goals. Bethesda, MD: Author. National Association of School Psychologists. (2010). Principles for professional ethics. Retrieved from standards/2010standards.aspx National Center for Education Statistics. (2011). Actual and projected numbers for enrollment in public elementary and secondary schools, by race/ethnicity: Fall 1995 through fall Retrieved from projections/projections2020/sec1b.asp Pew Hispanic Center. (2011). Statistical portrait of Hispanics in the United States, Retrieved from Roberts, G., Mohammed, S. S., & Vaughn, S. (2010). Reading achievement across three language groups: Growth estimates for overall reading and reading subskills obtained with the early childhood longitudinal survey. Journal of Educational Psychology, 102, Rogers Wiese, M. R. (1992). Racial/ethnic minority research in school psychology., 29, Sullivan, A. L. (2011). Disproportionality in special education identification and placement of English language learners. Exceptional Children, 77(3), U.S. Census Bureau. (2010). National resident population estimates by race, Hispanic origin, and age: 2000 and Retrieved from U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. (2011). The condition of education Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing. Ysseldyke, J., Burns, M., Dawson, P., Kelley, B., Morrison, D., Ortiz, S.,... Telzrow, C. (2006). School psychology: A blueprint for training and practice III. Bethesda, MD: National Association of School Psychologists.