Annotated Bibliography:**______
Topic: The first topic I wanted to research was the correlation between music programs in schools and academic performance. I believe students who are involved in music programs end up with better overall grades, and perhaps, better SAT scores. I hope to find research that supports this idea.
Search Terms: When using the thesauraus, I was able to expand my research terms drastically. Here is what I came up with...
Search Term: Terms Given by Thesauraus:
- school performance - school readiness
- science achievement
- school grading - school learning
- Scholastic Achievement Test - academic achievement
- academic aptitude
- college entrance examination board Scholastic Aptitude Test
- academic achievement -academic achievement motivation
- academic achievement prediction
- academic failure
- academic overachievement
- academic underachievement
- music performance - music ability
- music academics - music education
Hopefully these search terms will aid me in finding excellent articles to use for my paper.
New Topic:
When attempting to find articles for my first topic, I put in every combination of search terms I found. However, I did not find one article that had to do with my topic. I did, however, find some articles about African American students and their SAT scores. I became very interested in the topic, and decided to try new search terms. Since I already had some search terms, I used ones I had found with my own. My first entry was:
"race differences"
and" Academic Acheivement"
or "Scholastic Aptitude Test"
I got 78 articles when putting in these terms. I used some of the articles, then put in a new combination of terms:
"race and ethnic discrimination"
and"academic acheivement"
or "Scholastic Aptitude Test"
After using these terms, i found 1,088 articles. I finally found my ten by looking at any article that said anything about SAT scores and discrimination. I easily found ten articles to research.
Experience:
I never meant to send in my paper late. I have never once turned a paper in late before in college. However, this paper took so much longer than I ever could have expected. To just type my paper, it took about 15-20 hours. In order to just read my articles, it took about 10-15 hours. Every article was so compact with empirical information, and half of it was well beyond what we did in Statistics class. I had a very hard time understanding and following some of the information in the articles. I also believe that the overwhelming statistics made my reviews of the articles not as good as they could have been. However, how can I write well about something I don't understand. Although I understood the concepts behind the empirical information, I often did not understand all of the empirical information. This made the writing process take so much longer than expected.
Although I had a more difficult time understanding some of the information, I found the information I did understand to be very interesting and useful, especially because I am interested in becoming a teacher. I learned a great deal about the score gap between African American students and WHite students. I learned that many of the questions on the SAT are directed towards middle-class White America, and an easy question for me could be a very difficult one for them. However, I also learned that although the SAT is thought to be unfair towards African American students, it actually has shown to over-predict GPA in college, rather than under-predict. I also learned, however, that when spliting up African American students between those who go to White colleges and those who go to Black colleges, the students who go to Black colleges have a higher correlation between SAT scores and GPA, meaning they ultimately do better academically. This could be due to better social adjustment, or a better sense of identity in a Black college. Overall, there is a great deal of information out there that is not always supported by empirical information. Although many people believe that the SAT under-predict GPA for African American students, it is actually the opposite. By researching this information, I was able to see real results of real studies.
Overall, I am very glad we were assigned this assignment. Although I underestimated the amount of time it would take, I learned a great deal of information that is very relevent today. The fact alone that I live in Buffalo makes this topic very relevent. I strongly believe that we need to do something about our Buffalo schools. By learning information about this, and by researchers doing further research on the topic, it seems possible to come up with a solution for our majority-minority problems in schools
My questions for our school psych interview:
I would like to interview Mark Warner 626-9820
105 Casey Rd
East Amherst, NY 14051
626-8060
Dr. Bayer's questions
- Which providers of services in the community do you use for outside referrals?
- What special intervention services do you offer in your building(s) that you think are particularly effective?
- What outside agency educational programs does the district use?
- Any impressions on their strengths/weaknessess
My questions
- what courses would you recommend taking in college besides the required classes that either helped you or would have been helpful?
- do you suggest getting a doctorate or a specialist degree?
- What are your normal tasks ou do day to day?
- what issues do you normally deal with when dealing with t he students?
- How often do you interact with parents and what do you normally do with them? Are parents normally cooperative?
- What cultural differences/barriers do you encounter?
- What age group do enjoy working with most and why?
- What are some psychological effects on school psychologists if any?
- What type of assessment tools do you use?
- How do you deal with out of control students?
- Do you often work with other school psychologists?
- What is a general starting salary for school psychologists?
- How difficult was it to find a school psych job?
These are the answers from my interview of Mark Warner:
1) * often uses East Amherst Psych group- its close by
* Uses Dr. Lisa Jackson- neuropsychologist
* Children's hospital
* UB center for children and families- for ADHD
* Williamsville Counseling center on Main Street
2) Reading Recovery- used for 1st graders- a 12 week program where a child behind in reading gets 30 minutes a day/ five days a week/for 2-3 months of one on one reading intervention.
3) Summit educational resources- staff training on autistic children
Terret Syndrome Association
Buffalo Psychiatric Center
4) The biggest difficulty with these programs is that there is not enough follow up or on going support
5) Statistics
Test administration
Interpersonal Communication
Child Psychology
Developmental
6) Mark Warner has a specalist degree and believes it has been enough. With a doctorate, he wouldn't get paid any more, and the time and money saved not getting the doctorate is better. In some areas, it may be better to have a doctorate, but for a school psychologist there is no real advantage.
7) Mark Warner does a lot of testing for social emotional problems and intelligence. His work day consists of activities such as evaluations for special ed, a lot of meetings including ones with parents and teachers, observing classrooms to observe specific children, dealing with attention and learning difficulties, paper work, scoring tests, writing reports, and some counseling with the kids.
8) When dealing with the students, he mostly deals with learning development, bvehavioral problems, emotional problems, and learning disabilities.
9) Mark Warner has to deal with parents when he needs permission to observe and evaluate a child. He does have to interact with parents on a regular basis to share information about the child being assessed. Ver often the parents are co-operative. However, some parents do not want to accept that their child has a problem, and some parents insist their child has a problem when they really don't.
10) In the Williamsville district, there is not as many cultural differences as in an urban area, although it is becoming a growing issue. There are more religious differences that teachers and faculty must be sensitive about. It is dealt with mostky when the parents do not speak english or it is not their first language.
11) Mark Warner overall prefers working with elementary children. He was once working with k-12. The middle schoolers and high schoolers are less willing to talk and participate, while the younger children are a little more open. Also, he feels as though he has a greater effect now because he can prevent future problems. Because they are younger, expectations for counseling is a little different. There is less talk therapy and it is harder to get them actively involved.
12) stress- varies from week to week
busy job
deadlines
time constraints
not as much follow up as would like
not always sense of seeing end
stress with parents
emotional
learn to leave things at work
13) Wexler intelligence scales for children
Woodcock Johnson Cognitive test
Wexler for preschoolers
Ramal wide range memory
ABAS- mental retardation
Connors rating scale
14) When a child has a problem, it is dealt with the teachers and the parents. Observations will be done, tests will be administered, and parents come in to talk about whether they see similar kind of behavior at home. The child may be refered to an outside psychologist. Other times, the child must be removed and put in alternative placement. There is also places like Bosses- a program that groups all of the special needs children from the district into special ed classes.
15) Mark Warner does not have a lot of contact with other school psychologists in other districts. He may need to speak to a school psych at another school if a child is transfering, or he may contact a school psych he knows for a second opinion on something. There are also workshops and Western NY bi-monthly meetings which he tries to attend.
16) in Williamsville- beginning salary is upper 30,000 to lower 40,000. Schools in Buffalo may pay more.
17) Mark Warner got his first job through his graduate school internship. Although you may need to take a not-so-good job before a really good one comes along, it is not very difficult to find a school psych job.
CategoryUsers
The following 2 pages belong to AnnieRoll:
Psy395Fall2005
Psy370Spring2006
