Program History

History of the School Psychology Program

The School Psychology Program at the University of Arizona was first located in the Department of Educational Psychology and began admitting Ph.D. students in the middle 1960s. The program was developed in response to the expanding need for school psychological services during the 1960s in the state of Arizona as well as across the nation. During its early years, the curriculum of the School Psychology Program was shaped by four faculty members: Drs. John R. Bergan, Dal Curry, Shitala Mishra, and Daniel J. Reschly. All four had a strong commitment to a consultation model incorporating applied behavior analysis procedures. They shared a common concern that school psychological services were too strongly weighted towards the assessment and diagnosis of children’s learning and social-emotional problems and not sufficiently committed to the development of intervention programs to solve these problems.

Consultation was seen as a vehicle for focusing school psychological services into a problem-solving process that would eventuate in beneficial changes in children’s educational, cognitive and social-emotional development. Each of the first four school psychology faculty members also had a strong commitment to the cultural context associated with the delivery of psychological services. This commitment, for example, was manifested in research programs initiated by Drs. Mishra and Reschly on problems related to minority assessment. A similar level of dedication to minority issues was also shown by Dr. Mishra when he was awarded in the late 1990s an 8 year federally funded grant to establish a nondoctoral-level degree program that focused exclusively on the training of bilingual students who were interested in becoming school psychologists. Interest in cultural issues in regard to youth was also shown by other faculty members in the program as a result of them living in a geographical region of the country that manifests a rich history of cultural diversity.

Intellectual History of the Program

The history of any training program is often integrally tied to the faculty that comprise the program, the physical and cultural aspects of the environment in which the university is located, the intellectual climate within the university and departmental unit in which the program is found, and the funding available that supports the research and teaching activities within the program. It is for this reason that this section describes the intellectual climate and environment that contributed significantly to the development of School Psychology Program at the University of Arizona.

The School Psychology Program evolved during a period of unprecedented progress in the early-to-mid 1960s in applied psychological research that emanated largely from the rapidly expanding behavioral psychology movement. It was during this period that the intervention procedures associated with the area of applied behavior analysis began to crystalize (e.g., see, for example, Baer, Wolf & Risley, 1968; Ullmann & Krasner, 1965, Ulrich, Stachnik, & Mabry, 1966). It was also during this period that the first attempts to develop behavioral psychology consultation models emerged in the literature (e.g., Bergan, 1977; Bergan & Cadwell, 1967; Tharp & Wetzel, 1969).

The publication in 1969 of the classic work, Behavior Modification in the Natural Environment by Drs. Roland Tharp and Ralph Wetzel also had a strong influence on the development of the School Psychology Program. These investigators, who were both professors in the Psychology Department at the University of Arizona, began investigating in the early-to-mid 1960s the use of applied behavior analysis during their staff consultation work at the Southern Arizona Mental Health Center in Tucson. In this work, they detailed a tripartite model of behavior change involving a psychologist serving as a consultant to a behavior analyst in the mental health center who, in turn, worked directly with a client receiving mental health services at the center.

At about the same time that Tharp and Wetzel were beginning their work at the mental health center, Drs. John Bergan and Dal Curry, who were faculty members in the Department of Educational Psychology’s School Psychology Program, initiated a psychological services program in the schools in Tucson utilizing a tripartite behavior change model. The program was initially funded by the U.S. Office of Education as part of the National Follow Through Program. Federal funding provided the opportunity to conduct research on the effectiveness of consultation methods in educational settings in diverse locations around the nation. This research eventuated in the construction of a four-stage problem-solving model, which served as the guiding framework for the consultation approach used in the School Psychology Program for more than 40 years. 

In 1974, Dr. Thomas R. Kratochwill joined the program faculty. Dr. Kratochwill added new dimensions to the program in behavioral assessment and single-case research. Moreover, he developed standardized procedures for the implementation of consultation. This systematized approach to consultation permitted for the effects of consultation to be amenable to scientific study. In 1976, Dr. Anthony A. Cancelli joined the faculty. He contributed significantly to advancing the research areas of psychological assessment and children’s cognitive development.

Tenured and Tenure-Track Faculty Members Affiliated with the University of Arizona’s School Psychology Program, 1966 to present.

In 1983, Dr. Richard J. Morris joined the faculty after transferring his faculty position at the University of Arizona from the Department of Special Education to the Department of Educational Psychology and the School Psychology Program.  Prior to joining the university, Dr. Morris was a faculty member in the Clinical Psychology Program at Syracuse University. He introduced new curriculum and programmatic initiatives in the School Psychology Program, including emphases on classroom behavior modification, special education, child psychotherapy, and ethics and professional practice issues. In 1984, Dr. John E. Obrzut joined the faculty as a Professor from his previous position in the School Psychology Program at the University of Northern Colorado.  He added a major contribution to the School Psychology Program in the area of developmental neuropsychology and neuropsychological approaches to children’s learning problems. Dr. Obrzut also introduced into the school psychology curriculum a course on neuropsychological bases of learning and behavior problems in children, and introduced a neuropsychological research emphasis in the program.

The hiring of Dr. Obrzut was followed in more recent years by the addition of a pediatric school psychology research emphasis through the hiring of two faculty members, Drs. Michelle M. Perfect and David L. Wodrich. Dr. Perfect was hired in 2006 as an Assistant Professor, and she introduced our students to research on diabetes and sleep disorders in children as well as an emphasis on school-based mental health services.  Dr. Perfect also introduced a new course into the school psychology curriculum on early childhood assessment and intervention--reflecting the movement in the fields of school psychology and special education towards early childhood diagnosis and intervention of children’s learning and behavioral difficulties. Dr. Wodrich, joined the School Psychology Program in 2011 as a Professor. Prior to joining the program, he was a faculty member in the School Psychology Program at Arizona State University, a staff psychologist at Phoenix Children’s Hospital in Phoenix, Arizona, and a faculty member in the School Psychology Program at Illinois State University.  Dr. Wodrich introduced our students to research on the impact of chronic medical conditions on children’s learning and behavior in the schools. In 2012, Dr. Wodrich became the Director of the School Psychology Program following the retirement of Dr. Morris.

A new research emphasis in the area of mental health services within the schools was added to the School Psychology Program in 2012 with the hiring of Drs. Katie R. Eklund and Michael L. Sulkowski. Dr. Eklund was trained as both a social worker and school psychologist, and her research and scholarly interests include early identification and intervention for childhood behavioral and emotional concerns, positive psychology, school climate, support for military children and families, and Response to Intervention. Dr. Sulkowski’s research and related scholarship focuses on novel approaches to addressing the needs of children who are affected by peer aggression and violence as well as highly at-risk or vulnerable youth.

The School Psychology Program faculty is proud of the scholarly contributions of our respective faculty members over the past 47 years and proud of their dedication to the education and training of our graduate students.  Our current school psychology faculty is also committed to continuing the excellent tradition of scholarship in our program and committed to continuing the longstanding dedication of our faculty to educating and training school psychology students.