López Verónica, Cárdenas Karen, González Luis
School of Psychology, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Valparaíso, Chile.
Center for Research in Inclusive Education, Viña del Mar, Chile.
Front Psychol. 2021 Feb 23;12:639089. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.639089. eCollection 2021.
School achievement and failure have become growing political and social concerns due to the negative consequences of school failure for individuals and society. The inclusive educational movement, which calls for equal access, permanence, participation, and promotion of all students worldwide, poses many challenges for schools and school systems. As a public policy strategy, some countries have provided additional funds for incorporating non-teaching professionals such as school psychologists and social workers in regular K-12 schools. However, there is lack of research on the effects of these psychosocial professionals on student outcomes. This national multilevel study explored the effect of psychologists ( = 8,469) and social workers ( = 3,524) on indicators of eighth-grade ( = 147,531) and 10th-grade ( = 106,347) students' academic achievement and dropout in Chile. A multilevel secondary analysis was performed using national records of non-teaching professionals working as school staff members, achievement scores on the national SIMCE test, and dropout rates based on official records. Results showed that after controlling for individual and school variables known to affect achievement and dropout, schools with psychologists and social workers working as staff members had lower short- and long-term dropout rates. The presence and higher number of school psychologists per school was positively associated with higher math achievement, with a reduced effect in low-SES schools. Lower-SES schools with more social workers had higher math scores. These results support policies that increase funding for school psychologists and social workers, since their incorporation partly explains better school achievement and less school failure when controlling for individual and school characteristics, but emphasize the need to further explore the mechanisms through which school achievement and failure are developed with the support of psychologists and social workers in schools. We discuss the need to regulate the type of prevention and intervention strategies from a whole-school, evidence-based approach, as well as to incorporate psychosocial training modules and comprehensive guidelines as part of professional training programs and as certified requisites for working in schools.
由于学业失败对个人和社会会产生负面影响，学业成就和学业失败已日益成为政治和社会关注的问题。全纳教育运动呼吁全球所有学生都能享有平等的入学机会、持续接受教育、参与学习并获得升学机会，这给学校和学校系统带来了诸多挑战。作为一项公共政策战略，一些国家已提供额外资金，以便将学校心理学家和社会工作者等非教学专业人员纳入普通的幼儿园至12年级学校。然而，关于这些心理社会专业人员对学生学业成果影响的研究却很匮乏。这项全国性多层次研究探讨了心理学家（n = 8469）和社会工作者（n = 3524）对智利八年级（n = 147531）和十年级（n = 106347）学生学业成绩和辍学指标的影响。我们使用了担任学校工作人员的非教学专业人员的国家记录、全国SIMCE测试的成绩分数以及基于官方记录的辍学率进行了多层次二次分析。结果表明，在控制了已知会影响学业成绩和辍学情况的个人及学校变量之后，有心理学家和社会工作者担任工作人员的学校，其短期和长期辍学率较低。每所学校中心理学家的存在及数量较多与较高的数学成绩呈正相关，在低社会经济地位学校中这种影响会减弱。社会工作者较多的低社会经济地位学校数学成绩较高。这些结果支持增加对学校心理学家和社会工作者资金投入的政策，因为在控制了个人和学校特征后，他们的加入在一定程度上解释了更好的学业成就和更少的学业失败情况，但同时强调需要进一步探索在学校心理学家和社会工作者的支持下学业成就和学业失败产生的机制。我们讨论了从全校基于证据的方法来规范预防和干预策略类型的必要性，以及将心理社会培训模块和综合指南纳入专业培训项目并作为在学校工作的认证必备条件的必要性。
