Recruitment and retention of bilingual graduate students in school psychology: Efforts and challenges in increasing professional diversity

Abstract

The main goal of this paper is to illustrate recruitment efforts, strategies, and challenges in the process of training bilingual school psychologists to serve diverse schools. First, we address the acute and chronic shortage of bilingual school psychologists in the United States, particularly in urban schools where student populations are increasingly diverse. Then we provide a review of strategies and efforts to recruit and retain bilingual graduate-level learners in one school psychology program in an urban university. Quantitative data regarding recruitment and retention efforts are discussed. We identify challenges and future directions to increase diversity in the field of school psychology.

Keywords

recruitment retention bilingual school psychologists culturally and linguistically diverse efforts challenges

Introduction

In the US, a long-lasting challenge has been the underrepresentation of culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) individuals in the profession of school psychology.¹ Despite some regional growth in the number of school psychologists from CLD backgrounds (e.g., the metropolitan area of New York City), a national survey conducted by Goforth et al. (2021) suggested that the vast majority of school psychologists in the US are White (85%) and monolingual (92%). Nevertheless, 20% of US residents speak a language other than English at home (US Census Bureau, 2019), and racial and ethnic minoritized individuals make up 52.4% of the overall public school student population (Hussar et al., 2020). Currently, the field of school psychology does not reflect the racial, ethnic, or linguistic diversity of the students and families served. As a result, the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP, 2016) has called for an increased emphasis on the recruitment and retention of CLD graduate students in school psychology training programs.

A recent US Census Bureau projection estimated that by 2045, the majority of the US population will no longer be non-Hispanic White (Vespa et al., 2020). By 2060, 55.7% of the US population will be individuals from CLD backgrounds (i.e., 27.5% Latinx, 15% African American, 9.1% Asian, 6.2% two or more races, 1.4% American Indian and Alaska Native, and 0.3% Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islanders; Vespa et al., 2020). As a result, individuals from racial and ethnic minoritized backgrounds will continue to contribute to the main growth of the US population and become the majority in the next 20 to 30 years. In contrast, findings from the 2010, 2015, and 2020 surveys of NASP members (Curtis et al., 2012; Goforth et al., 2021; Walcott et al., 2016) have indicated minimal change in the representation of racial and ethnic minoritized school psychologists over a ten-year period. The composition of NASP’s membership reflects a slowly changing trend and a disproportionate representation of school psychologists in comparison to the student populations they serve. Clearly, there has been an acute shortage of school psychologists from racially, ethnically, and linguistically diverse backgrounds, and this shortage is projected to continue well into the future.

In this article, we begin by elaborating on the need for professional diversity in the field of school psychology and discuss general challenges in the process of recruitment and retention. We then share recruitment and retention strategies utilized by the Bilingual School Psychology Program at Fordham University as well as examine the program’s admissions data from 2016–2020. We conclude by discussing continuing challenges and offering suggestions for future practice.

Need for increasing diversity in the profession

The importance of increasing professional diversity in the field of school psychology can be justified on various levels. On the societal level, a diverse workforce has been associated with positive economic outcomes; heterogeneity in groups fosters diverse perspectives, which in turn enhance creativity and efficacy in problem solving (Crosby et al., 2003). Further, increasing cultural and linguistic diversity within the profession of school psychology provides a platform for further dialogue regarding unmet needs, the development of new knowledge and skills, and the provision of culturally and linguistically responsive services to diverse client populations (Rogers & Molina, 2006).

On the professional level, increasing workforce diversity is aligned with the overall mission of social justice in the profession of school psychology. On one hand, efforts are needed to promote social justice for minoritized children and adolescents in school settings (Proctor & Truscott, 2012). On the other hand, fostering social justice within the profession requires the inclusion and empowerment of traditionally underrepresented individuals (e.g., graduate students, professionals, and faculty members from minoritized backgrounds) whose talents might be untapped (Bocanegra, 2012). Moreover, Vega et al. (2015) and Stathatos et al. (2020) highlighted the importance of increasing the number of bilingual school psychologists for improving teaching and learning and ensuring the competent assessment of bilingual learners. Vega et al. (2015) also suggested that problems of over-identification or under-identification for special education could be mitigated by increasing the availability of competent bilingual school psychologists who could promote collaboration between CLD families and educators.

In highly diverse metropolitan areas of the US such as New York City (NYC), the need for bilingual school psychologists is urgent and critical. For example, during the 2020–2021 school year, the NYC school system served approximately 1,126,501 students and comprised the largest school district in the US (NYC Department of Education, 2020). More than 40% of NYC public school children spoke a language other than English at home. Of the total number of NYC students, 13.2% were bilingual learners, 20.2% were students with disabilities, and 72.8% were from economically disadvantaged families. In terms of demographic makeup, 15.1% identified as White, 16.2% as Asian, 25.5% as Black, and 40.6% as Latinx.

Diversity of language use among youth and families presents critical challenges for providing culturally and linguistically responsive services. Students must be served by school psychologists who have the cultural awareness, competence, and language skills to amplify their linguistic and cultural assets and talents. However, according to NASP (2021), there are only eight school psychology programs with a bilingual specialization nationwide (i.e., six are specialist degree programs, and two are doctoral and specialist degree programs). Existing data provide strong evidence for the importance of increasing diversity among school psychologists and providing training that is culturally and linguistically sensitive and responsive.

Challenges in recruitment and retention

There are many systemic challenges and structural barriers to recruiting and retaining CLD students in school psychology programs. First, in comparison to other fields in psychology, such as educational psychology or counseling psychology, the profession of school psychology is largely underrepresented in undergraduate psychology department career fairs and in the public (Proctor et al., 2014). Many undergraduate psychology students have limited knowledge of and exposure to the profession of school psychology and what school psychologists do on a daily basis (Bocanegra et al., 2015).

Second, some graduate students from CLD backgrounds come from economically marginalized families, which may increase their reliance on burdensome student loans to finance their education (Ding et al., 2019). Since 1980, income inequality in the US has increased by 20% and is greater than in other G7 countries, including UK, Italy, Japan, Canada, Germany, and France (Horowitz et al., 2020). Due to ongoing structural discrimination, such inequality is also reflected in higher education. Additionally, the immigration status of some international students might disqualify them from governmental financial aid and restrict their ability to work off campus (Sherry et al., 2010; Thomas et al., 2019). Thus, scholars have suggested that school psychology programs actively recruit minoritized individuals by offering financial support (Goforth et al., 2016; Proctor et al., 2014; Proctor & Romano, 2016). Empirical studies show that training programs that include minority-based financial aid in their recruitment processes are more successful in enrolling CLD students (Bidell et al., 2002).

Third, students from CLD backgrounds often encounter microaggressions and hostile environments in their universities and field-based training, which in turn impact retention (Proctor et al., 2016). As a result, students from CLD backgrounds might experience unique barriers to social (e.g., isolation and psychological distress; Clark et al., 2012), academic (Vasquez et al., 2006), personal and emotional adjustment (e.g., feeling disconnected from program peers and faculty, experiences of racial discrimination; Proctor & Truscott, 2012). They may also feel less attachment to their institutions (e.g., lack of sense of belongingness at a particular university; Pittman & Richmond, 2008). Numerous other systemic barriers may prevent CLD students from entering and completing graduate school (Goforth et al., 2016), including institutional bias and a lack of exposure to culturally relevant and affirming curricula (McCarty & Lee, 2014). Collectively, these barriers present difficulties for recruiting and retaining CLD graduate students.

Recruitment and retention efforts at Fordham University

In this section (see Figure 1), we review recruitment and retention strategies at Fordham University, which houses one of the first bilingual school psychology programs in the US (Ding et al., 2019). This particular program is located in the metropolitan area of NYC. The Advanced Certificate Bilingual School Psychology Program at Fordham University was originally established in the 1980s to serve linguistically minoritized children (Rosenfield & Esquivel, 1985), and it mainly recruits graduate students from CLD backgrounds. Its mission is to prepare school psychologists to work with bilingual/bicultural children. All students graduating from the Advanced Certificate Bilingual School Psychology Program need to pass a Bilingual Education Assessment mandated by the State of New York in order to obtain a bilingual extension in addition to the certificate for school psychologists. Thus, all students who apply to the program must demonstrate an intermediate to proficient level of language acquisition in a language other than English.

Figure 1.

Recruitment and retention strategies to increase bilingual graduate students in a school psychology program.

The Advanced Certificate Bilingual School Psychology Program is offered alongside a PhD School Psychology Program (accredited by the American Psychological Association; APA) and a specialist-level Advanced Certificate Program in School Psychology, all of which are NASP-approved. Each program has a separate state registration code. Although bilingual doctoral students can choose to pursue the bilingual advanced certificates on their way to graduation, we focus specifically on recruitment and retention data for specialist-level students in this paper.

The Advanced Certificate Bilingual School Psychology Program shares all courses with the regular Advanced Certificate School Psychology Program, with the exception of four courses that are designated for bilingual school psychology students. On average, Fordham University enrolls approximately 20 Advanced Certificate graduate students (i.e., including both Advanced Certificate and Advanced Certificate Bilingual students), 60% of whom self-identified as CLD individuals in 2020. Using data from the university’s admissions office, summary data from our annual division retreat, and admissions data kept by the program for accreditation purposes, we describe the program’s recruitment and retention strategies and outcomes. Specifically, we present four recruitment and six retention strategies.

Strategies to promote the recruitment of bilingual school psychology students

Multiple modalities to disseminate program information

Program faculty members work in close collaboration with our school’s admissions office. A school-level open house is offered at least four times each year when on-ground service is available. Prospective applicants are invited for on-site information sessions, with opportunities to meet the dean, admissions director, financial officers, and program directors. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we moved all open houses to our online platform and offered them on a monthly basis. Before each open house, our admissions office provides program faculty members with a registration sheet, through which students can indicate the programs in which they are interested (e.g., bilingual program). Thus, faculty members attending the open house can identify prospective applicants who may be bilingual learners. When we offer open houses, a special session is provided to those who are bilingual and may have particular questions pertaining to the practice of bilingual school psychology. Through the interaction of faculty and prospective bilingual students during the open house, these students are informed about the program before applying.

Our program websites are updated on a monthly basis, and important information, such as scholarship opportunities or APA outcome data, is updated periodically. The Graduate School of Education also has very active social media sites to disseminate faculty and student news, such as student accomplishments and faculty-student collaborative publications. Printed materials, along with website information, are provided to prospective applicants, and follow-up emails generated by program faculty are sent after each open house. Such follow-up emails include information such as program websites and scholarship opportunities. Our program faculty also keep in close contact with our alumni and often receive inquiries from prospective applicants through alumni connections. Many of our alumni are bilingual school psychologists, and through their networks, we are able to reach prospective bilingual applicants. Additionally, to promote awareness and knowledge of the profession of school psychology, our faculty members serve as volunteers at undergraduate career fairs to disseminate program information and answer questions about the field for undergraduate psychology students.

Flexible admission criteria

Multifaceted admission standards have been applied systematically in our program. Applicants are encouraged to submit a wide range of application materials, including both their undergraduate and graduate (if available) grade point averages (GPAs), standardized test results (if applicable; the Graduate Record Exam General Test is not required for advanced certificate programs), letters of recommendation, personal statement, curriculum vitae, and other materials they may choose to provide. A weighted scoring rubric system is utilized by program faculty members. This approach, which deemphasizes standardized scores and emphasizes letters of recommendations, personal statements, writing samples, and admission interviews, is consistent with the suggestions of Bleske-Rechek and Browne (2014). All applicants who submit a complete set of materials by the application deadline are invited for on-site interviews; virtual interviews are provided for those who cannot attend on-site interviews. The purpose of our interviews is to provide applicants with: (a) an in-depth understanding of our faculty team, in-house consultation center, and facilities; (b) opportunities to pose questions in both large and small groups and to interact with faculty; (c) campus tours to foster a sense of belonging; and (d) opportunities to interact with current graduate students, who serve as student assistants during interview days.

Following a systematic review of applicant files and face-to-face interviews, faculty members meet as a team to discuss each candidate’s fit with the program, strengths, and areas for growth. Admissions decisions are made based on group consensus. If candidates have relatively low performance in a specific domain (e.g., low undergraduate GPA), we discuss the application on a case-by-case basis (i.e., cutoff scores are not used) and consider variables that may have limited the applicant’s opportunity to demonstrate their full potential (e.g., structural barriers in educational environments for bilingual learners). We evaluate a prospective student’s academic readiness by viewing the student as a “whole person.” All program faculty members participate in the interview process, so each faculty member has good knowledge of each candidate. Ratings generated using the program’s admission scoring rubric are used as a reference rather than an absolute standard. We closely monitor our admissions decisions by examining parameters of gender, race, ethnicity, language use, disability, and other facets of diversity. To address potential biases that faculty members might have during the admissions process, we often have separate program meetings to discuss challenges and possible solutions.

Financial support

At the school level, scholarships and graduate assistantships are available to provide partial financial support for our students. Also, some students are eligible for NYC Department of Education scholarships that are designed for bilingual pupil service personnel; these scholarships are often associated with a service obligation in which students agree to be employed by the NYC public schools for a period of time after graduation. In recent years, a federal grant focused on preparing bilingual pupil service personnel has been available through collaboration with the Special Education program in the Graduate School of Education. Through this federal grant, students receive substantial tuition support coupled with a service obligation; for example, students agree to work in the school systems as bilingual school psychologists for at least two years upon graduation. Information regarding this type of scholarship is disseminated through our websites, open houses, admissions interviews, and printed fliers.

Recruitment of CLD individuals to become program faculty

According to Rogers and Molina (2006), CLD students are better represented in graduate programs in which at least one faculty member is identified with a racial, ethnic, cultural, or linguistic minoritized group. Moreover, empirical findings have indicated that CLD minoritized faculty and students tend to form supportive relationships through their involvement in program activities (Muñoz-Dunbar & Stanton, 1999). Institution-wide efforts should be made to recruit and retain CLD minoritized faculty as well as faculty with multicultural research interests (Ponterotto et al., 1995). At the university level, we have a designated Chief Diversity Officer who plays an active role in new faculty recruitment with a focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion issues. At the school level, members of multicultural committees serve as active representatives and strong advocates for faculty candidates from CLD backgrounds. At the program level, we highly value faculty members from CLD backgrounds with a strong commitment to research topics centering on multiculturalism and/or with strong bilingual or multilingual skills. Our program currently has seven full-time faculty members, including two who identify as White, two as African American, and three as Asian. Five of the seven are fluent in a language other than English. Among five active adjunct instructors, two are from CLD backgrounds, including one who identifies as African American and one as Latinx. Our efforts to achieve diverse faculty representation provide opportunities for CLD students to interact with and receive mentoring from CLD faculty members as well as to engage in research projects with a focus on multiculturalism and diversity. Diverse faculty representation also facilitates dialogue on unmet needs unique to underrepresented students.

Strategies to promote retention of bilingual school psychology students

A position statement by NASP (2016) underscores the importance of taking additional steps to foster student success and retain CLD students to ensure that they successfully complete graduate-level training and enter the workforce (Grapin et al., 2015; Rogers & Molina, 2006). We use a multipronged approach to providing support to CLD students throughout the training process. In the following section, we review retention strategies that reflect efforts at the individual level, faculty-student level, program level, and the institutional level.

Training of bilingual school psychologists based on the integration model

Training in the Bilingual School Psychology program at Fordham University is rooted in the integration model, in which multicultural competencies are addressed at all levels of training curricula, field placements, and comprehensive examinations (Ding et al., 2019). The core features of the integration model are its incorporation of multiculturalism in all aspects of training and its emphasis on assessment, counseling, consultation, and instructional practices that are culturally and linguistically sensitive and responsive (Newell et al., 2010). Two practicum courses require students to present bilingual cases, and the internship portfolio also integrates assignments that reflect trainees’ work with bilingual learners in the K-12 school systems. In addition, the NYC Department of Education has a Psychologist-In-Training internship program that attracts bilingual school psychology interns and provides decent salaries and benefits. Thus, students are highly encouraged by the program and local public school systems to work in schools that enroll a large number of CLD children in order to practice relevant skills, engage in research projects with a focus on multiculturalism and diversity, and seek professional development opportunities related to multicultural competence. All bilingual trainees who receive the NYC Department of Education scholarship, participate in the NYC Department of Education Psychologist-In-Training internship program, or receive federal grant support for bilingual learners are required to work for schools that serve a large number of students from CLD backgrounds for a designated period of time after graduation. Bilingual graduate students who self-finance their education also are encouraged to work for schools with diverse student populations; however, they do not have the same service obligations.

Faculty mentoring and peer mentoring

All bilingual graduate students are assigned advisors who provide advising, mentoring, and guidance throughout their training in the program. Moreover, all students enrolled in the advanced certificate program are required to complete a year-long proseminar focused on the professional practice of school psychology. Students meet as a cohort with the coordinator of field placements every other week for at least one hour to address all aspects related to professional practice, including the application of professional codes of conduct, preparation for practicum, micro-level survival skills for navigating graduate school, available resources (e.g., practicum or internship opportunities), preparation for job interviews, and individualized support for students with unique needs. Information regarding local, state, and national professional development opportunities is frequently shared with students through advising and mentoring relationships. When faculty mentors care about students’ situations outside academics, such as financial restrictions or family responsibilities, they are able to build authentic relationships and make students feel valued, which may ultimately facilitate academic performance (Luedke, 2017). Recently, efforts have also been made to match first-year graduate students with more advanced graduate student mentors to support socialization in the training program and the profession.

Structured cohort model

The Bilingual School Psychology Program at Fordham University primarily enrolls full-time school psychology graduate students. At the program level, we utilize a structured cohort model for course enrollment, field placement, and graduation to foster close relationships between students, facilitate a collaborative learning environment, and ensure a smooth learning experience during training. Each year, there are students who choose to take courses on a part-time basis. Extra attention is paid to these part-time students, who tend to have less communication with their full-time cohort peers. Annual reviews of each student are conducted toward the end of the spring semester to ensure students are making adequate progress toward graduation. If a student is unable to register for courses due to unusual circumstances (e.g., financial challenges, health conditions), the school permits the student to take up to one year of leave.

Flexible strategies for students who need more time for preparation

A number of graduate students in the bilingual program benefit from early and supplemental training through courses that boost subject matter knowledge and provide early exposure to graduate-level courses without the pressure of a full course load. Students from CLD backgrounds bring a range of talents and assets to their learning; however, many have also encountered structural barriers in educational and other settings, which in turn can limit their access to opportunities to prepare for graduate school. The Graduate School of Education provides opportunities for prospective students to receive faculty advising before formal admission, and these students can voluntarily enroll in up to four non-matriculation courses. These courses give students opportunities to hone their writing, analytical, and other skills; they also allow students to receive additional faculty support and guidance related to preparing for graduate education. Admitted students from non-psychology majors are often advised to complete at least four prerequisite courses (e.g., educational psychology, developmental psychology, and abnormal psychology) to build strong foundational knowledge in psychology and to facilitate their success in the program.

Promote awareness and prevention of racial and ethnic discrimination

According to Sue et al. (2019), most people associate racial and ethnic discrimination with overt acts of discrimination that are characterized by White supremacy and hate crimes. Sue (2015) suggested that more subtle and ambiguous forms of racial and ethnic discrimination are just as detrimental as overt expressions and are often daily occurrences for people of color. The manifestations of racial and ethnic discrimination are multifaceted and may include microaggressions (i.e., brief and common daily verbal or behavioral indignities that communicate hostile and negative racial slights and insults), microassaults (i.e., blunt verbal, nonverbal or environmental attacks intended to convey biased and discriminatory sentiments), microinsults (i.e., unintentional behaviors or verbal comments that convey insensitivity or rudeness that might be related to one’s race and ethnicity), and microinvalidations (i.e., verbal comments or behaviors that exclude, negate, or dismiss the thoughts, feelings, and experiences of a target group; Sue et al., 2019). Many CLD graduate students, particularly students of color, are frequently targeted by racial and ethnic discrimination, which can reduce their sense of belonging in graduate training programs. Since the outbreak of COVID-19, xenophobic and anti-Asian attitudes and racial discrimination have exponentially increased both in the media and in daily life interactions (Margolin, 2020; Mochizuki, 2020). Following the killing of George Floyd and subsequent protests against systemic racism, entities such as the American Educational Research Association (AERA, 2020) have taken a strong stance against racial injustice.

In Fordham University’s program, faculty take concrete steps to fight racism in academia and throughout program training. Specific actions include hosting faculty-led or student-led open forums to address student concerns about discrimination and racism, implementing program-level remediation to address racist behaviors and attitudes, and providing anti-racism education through different program courses and training opportunities.

If a student incident is identified by a program faculty member or a course instructor as involving racist behavior, the program faculty members meet as a group and develop a plan for intervention. The graduate students who were involved would meet with program faculty members or their academic advisors separately, and solutions would be discussed. Depending on the incident’s severity, it might be addressed through an informal intervention (e.g., informal discussion) or a formal program remediation plan. The program curriculum has multiple courses related to multiculturalism such as Race and Multicultural Education, Proseminar in Psychology of Bilingual Students, and Non-Biased Assessment, in which our faculty members specifically discuss theories and practice related to racism, discrimination, and anti-racism. Our faculty members also have related specialization areas (e.g., multicultural consultation, bilingual reading), and topics related to anti-racism are tackled in the context of assessment, consultation, therapy, and counseling.

Promote institutional support for international students and bilingual students

Some bilingual students who hold international student visas must meet academic demands while also following immigration guidelines during their studies in the US. During the regular semesters, the unique needs of international students need to be addressed by program faculty members and supported by administrators and staff associated with each university’s Office for International Students. While not all program faculty members are equipped with the knowledge and skills to address unique issues encountered by international students, all faculty members should be cognizant of these students’ unique challenges. For example, on July 6, 2020, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) proposed guidance requiring international college and university students to leave the country if their institution was providing fully virtual instruction in Fall 2020 due to the COVID-19 global pandemic. Only nonimmigrant F-1 and M-1 students taking an entirely in-person course load, or no more than one class or three credit hours online, could remain in or return to the country. All others who wished to stay would need to transfer to schools with in-person instruction. The Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) made a cooperative announcement regarding the ICE guidance with modifications to temporarily exempt nonimmigrant students who were taking online classes during the pandemic for the Fall 2020 term; however, solutions for future semesters remain unclear. ICE and SEVP directives created additional logistical problems for international students during a highly uncertain and stressful time, as mandating in-person courses places international students at higher risk of COVID-19 infection and transmission. To respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, school-wide support groups (e.g., open forums, focus groups) were formed at Fordham University to provide additional guidance for international students. Institutional-level support from the Office of International Students was provided, and frequent faculty-student communication occurred to provide time-sensitive advising and mentoring.

Moreover, to obtain a bilingual extension issued by the Department of Education in the State of New York, all bilingual students are required to pass a language proficiency test (Bilingual Education Assessment) at the state level (New York State Teacher Certification Examinations [NYSTCE], 2018). Although none of Fordham University’s program courses focus on enhancing proficiency in a particular language, resources for examination preparation and registration are provided to ensure bilingual students are well prepared for such examinations. In NASP-approved programs, students are often required to take the Praxis School Psychologist test before graduation. Students who are bilingual learners or foreign language learners might be at a disadvantage when taking such a time-based standardized test; therefore, they often benefit from additional preparation and tutoring from the program faculty.

Analysis of enrollment trends in the past five years

During 2010–2015, the Advanced Certificate Program in Bilingual School Psychology at Fordham University enrolled a small group of bilingual students, with only three to five students per cohort. However, we observed an increase in enrollment in the last five years after we systematically implemented the above recruitment and retention strategies. Thus, we provide admissions and retention data from the past 5 years (2015-2020) to reflect recent enrollment trends (Table 1). From the perspective of admission and retention, PhD students are monitored separately. Thus, the admissions data in this article focused on bilingual advanced certificate (specialist-level) graduate students, without counting PhD students who might also pursue bilingual advanced certificates.

Table 1.

Enrollment data regarding bilingual school psychology students during 2016–2020.

ADV CER BIL	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	Mean
Number Applied	14	10	16	15	14	15.0
Number Deposited by 4/15	3	6	9	14	11	8.6
Number Registered	3	5	10	15	10	9.2
% Yield	21.4%	50%	62.5%	100.%	71.4%	61.1%
Number Remained	2	4	10	13	10	7.8
Retention Rate	66.7%	80%	100%	86.7%	100%	86.7%

ADV CER BIL: advanced certificate bilingual school psychology; Retention rate: number remained/number registered (indicating retention to date; some students’ training is still in progress).

The Graduate School of Education at Fordham University provided admissions data to each program during an annual division retreat. Moreover, our program faculty members closely facilitated and managed our admissions reviews, interviews, and decision-making process; thus, such data were kept as information related to program development. After each student officially enrolls in the program, the admissions office no longer keeps track of them. Subsequently, it becomes the program director’s responsibility to update students’ statuses in regard to matriculation, medical leave, and/or dropout. Thus, Table 1 includes data provided by the admissions office as well as the program director’s student directory (updated monthly) for each cohort. There are no missing data up to this point. Notably, students in the 2019 and 2020 cohorts are in the process of completing program coursework; thus, retention data do not reflect the totality of their training (i.e., some of these individuals could still leave the program due to unforeseeable circumstances).

Specifically, Table 1 presents data regarding the number of applicants, the number of applicants who sent in deposits to the admission office, the number of registered new students, the yield rate, the number of students who remained in the program, and the retention rate during the past five years. First, the total number of students who completed the application process remained in the range of 10 to 16 applicants per cohort. In other words, the total number of bilingual applicants did not substantially increase over the five-year period, which may indicate that more efforts are warranted to increase the pool of bilingual applicants. The number of deposited applicants showed an overall increasing trend, from 3 in 2016 to 11 in 2020; 2019 had the highest number of deposits.

Starting in 2018, the registered number of bilingual students reached double digits. Notably, data for the Fall 2020 semester were likely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the total number of registered students was lower than for Fall 2019. The yield rate increased from 21.4% in 2016 to 62.5% and 100% in 2018 and 2019, respectively. Overall, retention rates across the five-year period ranged from 66.67% to 100%. In other words, on average, the program lost one to two bilingual students per cohort. Table 2 provides information regarding different types of financial packages available to admitted students. Table 3 indicates the frequency of languages spoken by these bilingual students, with Spanish being the most frequently spoken language.

Table 2.

Distribution of scholarship or graduate assistantship support.

ADV CER BIL	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	Total n (%)
Number enrolled	2	4	10	13	10	39 (100%)
Financial support
NYC DOE Scholarship	1		1	2		4 (10.3%)
PACTS scholarship			8		8	16 (41.0%)
GSE Graduate Assistantship	1	4	1	11	2	19 (48.7%)

Note: Graduate School of Education provides partial graduate assistantships to all students, based on the assumption that the graduate students could work for 100 hours per semester in exchange for the graduate assistantship. Such assistantship is based on voluntary participation. Preparing Affirmative Collaborative Teachers and School Psychologists (PACTS) scholarship is sponsored by a federal grant that lasts from 2018–2023.

GSE: Graduate School of Education; NYC DOE: New York City Department of Education.

Table 3.

Demographics regarding enrolled bilingual school psychology students during 2016–2020.

ADV CER BIL	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	Totaln (%)
Number enrolled	2	4	10	13	10	39 (100%)
Race/ethnicity
White (non-Latinx)			2		1	3 (7.7%)
Latinx	1	2	7	12	5	27 (69.2%)
Black	1	1			1	3 (7.7%)
Asian					3	3 (7.7%)
International		1	1	1		3 (7.7%)
Languages spoken
Spanish	2	3	8	12	6	31 (79.5%)
Chinese		1	1	1	1	4 (10.3%)
Romanian			1			1 (2.6%)
Urdu					1	1 (2.6%)
Albanian					1	1 (2.6%)
Korean					1	1 (2.6%)

ADV CERT BIL: Advanced Certificate Bilingual School Psychology Program.

Enrollment and retention data are used continuously by our program faculty members and the Graduate School of Education’s admissions office as a way of tracking admissions trends, and relevant data analysis is often conducted during our annual division retreat. However, such data do not necessarily imply a causal relationship between the program’s recruitment and retention strategies and its subsequent enrollment. Limitations of such data and recommendations for future recruitment and retention efforts are discussed below.

Continuing challenges, recommendations, and conclusions

Continuing challenges

Although we have observed an increasing trend in the enrollment and retention of bilingual school psychology students, there are numerous continuing challenges in the recruitment and retention process. First, limited financial support has been and will continue to be a salient factor affecting the successful recruitment of bilingual students. On a yearly basis, there have been occasions when admitted bilingual students make their final decision based on whether they will receive a tuition scholarship. Some bilingual students decided not to enroll in the program because the tuition scholarship only covers partial tuition.

Second, there are restrictions on existing scholarship programs. For example, some US tuition scholarships are designed for individuals who speak high-frequency/high-need languages, such as Spanish. Thus, not all bilingual students benefit equally from these scholarship programs, and students speaking low-frequency languages (e.g., Romanian) might be at a disadvantage. In addition, government-based tuition scholarship programs have specific requirements regarding citizenship or residency that make international students ineligible for such financial support.

Third, the shortage of bilingual school psychology trainers has been a chronic challenge for training programs, as suggested by Stathatos et al. (2020) and Vega et al. (2019). Bilingual school psychology students often encounter challenges that are unique to their respective backgrounds, such as registering for a language proficiency test for a low-frequency language. However, not all school psychology faculty members are well equipped with the knowledge and skills to support bilingual students. Without more bilingual trainers, we cannot prepare more bilingual graduate students. Subsequently, without more bilingual graduates, we cannot recruit and prepare more bilingual trainers. It is urgent to recruit school psychology supervisors and faculty members with bilingual and/or bicultural backgrounds (Harris et al., 2020).

Finally, since the outbreak of COVID-19, xenophobic and anti-Asian, specifically anti-Chinese, attitudes and racial discrimination have exponentially increased both in the media and in daily life interactions (Margolin, 2020; Mochizuki, 2020). The nationwide anti-racism protests in the summer of 2020 in the US were a response to and a reflection of long-lasting systemic injustices that disproportionately affect and target the Black community (NASP, 2020). People of color as well as people who represent nationalities outside of the US have encountered additional systemic challenges during the highly uncertain COVID-19 pandemic and within the current sociopolitical climate. Among many other types of support, universities provide workshops and resources to students, especially those from CLD and/or international backgrounds to support their mental health and address stress related to current sociopolitical conditions.

Recommendations

Efforts to recruit and retain bilingual school psychology students warrant a systematic and programmatic approach. First, efforts should be made at multiple levels. For example, at the federal level, more personnel preparation grant programs should be awarded to training programs to create scholarship opportunities to support bilingual students in school psychology. At the state or city government level, more scholarship programs should be made available to attract bilingual students to graduate programs and eventually to the workforce as bilingual school psychologists. At the program level, financial support and faculty support should be made available to bilingual students.

Second, there is an urgent call for the development of more university programs to prepare bilingual school psychologists. Nationwide, two states, including New York and Illinois, provide certificates for a bilingual extension at the state level; however, the state of Illinois does not have a bilingual school psychology program. The lack of bilingual school psychology training programs takes a toll on the training of bilingual school psychologists. Third, a major challenge in the training process is the difficulty locating bilingual supervisors who have the bilingual and multicultural competencies to direct students in training. Thus, additional efforts to recruit faculty members and psychologists from CLD backgrounds will play a critical role in the training of the next generation of bilingual school psychologists.

Conclusions

This article reviewed the recruitment and retention strategies of a bilingual school psychology program located in one of the most culturally and linguistically diverse regions of the US. It is our hope that this article underscored the importance of strategies and efforts for recruiting and retaining bilingual students as well as highlighted chronic challenges in the process of training bilingual school psychologists. Notably, there are some limitations of our experiences. First, the training model utilized by this particular program is largely based on a Western framework for training school psychologists. We encourage future researchers to share training models and experiences that might be considered feasible and practical for other countries and cultures. Second, the recruitment and retention strategies are targeting a specific, though heterogenous, population of bilingual trainees in a large metropolitan area of the US. Such strategies may not apply to all student populations or training programs that are located in very different geographic areas. Third, our data do not necessarily indicate a causal relationship between the strategies applied and admission and retention outcomes. Additional data, such as measures of students’ self-reported satisfaction with their training experiences, should be considered. Focus groups or individual interviews with trainees could be considered to gather qualitative data regarding potential obstacles that students encounter (e.g., feeling of being isolated, racial discrimination, and lack of guidance in pursuing financial support). Both formative and summative data should be collected to provide insights for future practice in the processes of admission and retention. Overall, we strongly advocate that recruitment and retention efforts be reflected at the institutional, program, and individual levels.

Footnotes

Acknowledgement

Thanks to Agnes DeRaad for editorial support. Thanks to Katherine Lantier for help with literature. Thanks to Qian Wang for help with flowchart. Thanks to the anonymous reviewers for their helpful and constructive comments.

Institutional review board approval

This study was approved by Institutional Review Board at Fordham University (proposal #1822).

Declaration of conflicting interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

ORCID iD

Yi Ding

Note

Author biographies

Yi Ding, Ph.D., NCSP, LP, is a Professor of School Psychology at Fordham University in the United States. Her research interests include reading disabilities, mathematics learning disabilities, developmental disabilities, STEM learning, and special education and school psychology issues based on a multicultural perspective.

Tamique Ridgard, Ph.D., LP, is an Assistant Professor of School Psychology at Fordham University in the United States. Her research interests include evidence-based, culturally responsive service delivery for children and families from low socioeconomic backgrounds and racial/ethnic minority backgrounds.

Su-Je Cho, Ph.D., is a Professor of Special Education at Fordham University in the United States. Her research interests include academic and social development of students with diverse cultural backgrounds, cross-cultural issues in children with disabilities, and positive behavioral support.

Jiayi Wang, M.S., is a Doctoral Candidate at North Carolina State University. Her research interests include reading and mathematics intervention with children with learning difficulties, coaching practices to improve intervention fidelity, internationalization of school psychology, and training of school psychologists based on a multicultural perspective.

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