School psychology program cited for outstanding research

The College of Education’s school psychology program was ranked among the nation’s elite for research productivity in a report recently published in The Chronicle of Higher Education.

The program was recognized for the scholarly activity of its faculty, finishing third among all school psychology programs in the United States. The data were compiled by Academic Analytics for its 2006-2007 Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index.

The news is the latest to highlight the scholarly research of school psychology faculty. In the past two years, both Ed Shapiro and George DuPaul—both professors in the program—have been named among the country’s most prolific researchers by such journals as Psychology in the Schools.

The results of the FSP Index are more comprehensive, however, and represent the program as a whole. The productivity of every faculty member in the school psychology program was measured, each being judged on five factors: the amount of published books as well as journal entries, the number of citations of journal articles, the amount federal-grant dollars earned, and the total number of honors and awards.

“All of us here at the College of Education continue to be inspired by the hard work—and quality work—in which the faculty and students of the school psychology program are engaged,” says Gary Lutz, interim dean of the College of Education. “Their reputation for groundbreaking research is well earned.”

Successful alumni are another important measure of the program’s success, according to DuPaul. “It doesn’t take long for our graduate students to find their own footing when they leave Lehigh,” he says, citing the contributions of recent graduate Jessica Blom-Hoffman to the field of pediatric school psychology.

With five faculty members, Lehigh has a relatively small program. Every professor has been published in a peer-reviewed journal, averaging over four publications per faculty member for the year. Among the top 10 programs in the report, Lehigh ranked first in the percentage of faculty whose research has been cited in other articles.

Lehigh finished with an overall index score of 1.65. The University of Oregon (1.97) and University of California at Berkeley (1.69) captured the first two spots.

--Tom Yencho