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Collette Keith
Issue date: 2/24/10 Section: Campus News
Kendall Dawkins is a first year graduate student with a concentration in school psychology. Therefore, she will have to go on to get her specialist degree in her third year. Dawkins came to college with high expectations for the graduate program, and now she is being short changed.
The state has decided that in order to save money, the specialist degree for school psychology will be cut from the University of Louisiana at Monroe. Without a specialist degree, a Masters in School Psychology must be completed elsewhere.
"You can't do anything with a master's in school psychology," Dawkins said. "The specialist degree is 36 more hours and then a year of internship. The classes are about testing children with disabilities and learning about the ethics of school law.
"The specialist part of the program allows us to go directly into our jobs. We can be nationally certified, where most psychologists have to get their licenses for each state," said Dawkins. "It amazes me that our government would take away a program in higher education that plans its future around providing services to education and helping students all around the U.S."
Current students like Dawkins who are currently in the master's program and are looking to get their specialist degree will be allowed to finish it, but it will not be available to any incoming freshman.
While the state continues to dish out salaries, students who would have come to ULM for the specialist program will now spend their money at other universities that know how to better accommodate the program.
"It would maybe make sense to cut the program if it was not turning out enough graduate students each year, but we have doubled the number of students graduating from the master's program," said psychology professor Veronica Lewis.
There are three schools in the state of Louisiana that offer the specialist degree in school psychology: Louisiana State University at Shreveport, Nichols State University and ULM. ULM's program is getting cut because it is seen as unnecessary, since the northern and the southern regions are both covered by LSUS and NSU.
The state has decided that in order to save money, the specialist degree for school psychology will be cut from the University of Louisiana at Monroe. Without a specialist degree, a Masters in School Psychology must be completed elsewhere.
"You can't do anything with a master's in school psychology," Dawkins said. "The specialist degree is 36 more hours and then a year of internship. The classes are about testing children with disabilities and learning about the ethics of school law.
"The specialist part of the program allows us to go directly into our jobs. We can be nationally certified, where most psychologists have to get their licenses for each state," said Dawkins. "It amazes me that our government would take away a program in higher education that plans its future around providing services to education and helping students all around the U.S."
Current students like Dawkins who are currently in the master's program and are looking to get their specialist degree will be allowed to finish it, but it will not be available to any incoming freshman.
While the state continues to dish out salaries, students who would have come to ULM for the specialist program will now spend their money at other universities that know how to better accommodate the program.
"It would maybe make sense to cut the program if it was not turning out enough graduate students each year, but we have doubled the number of students graduating from the master's program," said psychology professor Veronica Lewis.
There are three schools in the state of Louisiana that offer the specialist degree in school psychology: Louisiana State University at Shreveport, Nichols State University and ULM. ULM's program is getting cut because it is seen as unnecessary, since the northern and the southern regions are both covered by LSUS and NSU.
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Gigi
posted 2/27/10 @ 11:18 AM CST
Very informative article, I like it!
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