Top 10 Tips for New Faculty

On November 5, 2020, the ECF’s Lindsay Fallon and Bryn Harris hosted a virtual social for new faculty where they highlighted their top 10 tips from past ECF posts. See the tips below, linked to the original posts. 10. Self-Care MattersIn a year in which the election, racial justice, and a global pandemic are at the forefront, take care of yourself to help others. 

• Take breaks from watching, reading, or listening to news stories, including social media. Hearing about the pandemic repeatedly can be upsetting.
• Take care of your body by engaging in relaxation techniques (deep breathing, stretching, meditation), healthy eating, exercise, and adequate sleep. 
• Make time to unwind and connect with others. Talking with trusted friends and colleagues can help to process difficult events and feelings. 

9. It’s OK to Not Have Academic Parenthood All Figured OutIf you are caring for others, be kind to yourself. In this post, Dr. Sterett Mercer reminded us to:

• Match tasks with current capabilities. 
• Planning and initiating a major project at a “low point” may not be the best use of time. 
• Be aware of the cycles of the work week and academic year and set reasonable expectations. 
• Try to relax and stay in the game - burnout is real!

8. Recognize That Imposter Syndrome Is CommonKnow that you belong; fake it ‘til you make it. Our anonymous blogger, Dr. Ima Syke, pointed out the following steps to help deal with imposter syndrome:

• Recognize it within yourself and in others. 
• Regularly remind yourself of your accomplishments. 
• Become keenly aware of your strengths. 
• Discuss imposter syndrome with your students. 
• Seek support. 

7. Be as Efficient as Possible With Course PrepFind ways to use time wisely when prepping courses and teaching. Dr. Bryn Harris recommends that you: 

• Schedule time to prep. 
• Make revisions right away! Take notes during or immediately after class on things that went well and things that need to be improved. 
• Teach early in the week if you can. It forces you to be efficient, and leaves the rest of the week for other tasks. 
• Use the notes feature in PowerPoint to remind you what you were thinking when you made the slide a year ago. Be kind to your future self!

6. Know Who You Are As a MentorBe intentional about how you will mentor and know your limits. Drs. Bryn Harris and Amanda Sullivan advocated that we: 

• Seek support from others when stuck and to learn ideas.
• Identify strong role models, be inspired by their style. 
• Know your strengths and decide what your approach will be/is. 
• Define expectations, roles and goals. 
• Set boundaries.
• Follow through with what you say you will do. 

5. Your Research Agenda Can EvolveYou are not wedded to who you were in your cover letter. Dr. Milena A. Keller-Margulis emphasized that it’s important you: 

• Don’t think of your research agenda as static but rather inherently reflective and ongoing.
• The best way to determine (or evolve) the general topic(s) of your research agenda is to pay attention to the topics that interest you the most. You might discover this through reading the literature but these ideas may also surface through your practical or field-based experiences. 
• Do not be afraid to test drive some areas of interest by getting involved in or exploring new areas, and talking to other people with similar interests.
• These activities will help you narrow your focus to the topics and questions that are the most interesting to you. 

4. A Manuscript Rejection Is Sometimes a BlessingIt’s awful, but can also teach you a lesson. Dr. Laura Pendergast shared this story: “Are you done?” my mentor asked patiently. My beautiful manuscript had been rejected… again. My mentor had been listening to me complain for 15 minutes. I was starting a tenure-track position and needed to publish. I had conducted my analyses using the most current statistical techniques. I had painstakingly crafted my arguments and drawn careful, well-supported conclusions. Why didn’t these reviewers understand my paper?! My mentor looked at me calmly and shared a hard truth that changed the way I thought about my writing. She said, “The editor chose three reviewers who he viewed as trusted experts. These hand-picked experts didn’t understand your paper. If multiple, highly educated people didn’t understand what you wrote, whose fault is that?” She was right. Publishing manuscripts is not just about being technically correct and scientifically sound. It is about communicating with an audience… I began by making a new outline. I kept my original results section but rewrote the rest of the paper in a way that was clear and conveyed why the work was meaningful. The revised paper was quickly accepted at another journal.” 3. Start Thinking Now About Your Personal StatementIt’s never too early to start thinking about T&P. Panelists offered the following advice on crafting your materials:Dr. Jamilia Blake: “Your CV provides a quantitative account of what you have accomplished in a set amount of time. I often think of my CV as my personal reference list. However, your candidate statement is qualitative and provides the context for your work. It should not merely be a narrative recount of your CV. It is your opportunity to bring attention to themes in your work that you feel are important and will eventually have impact on the field. It is your space to discuss how your work shows promise for changing school psychology practice and research.”Dr. Amanda Sullivan: “I used my statements to explain activities and describe linkages between them - to tell the story I wanted them to take away from reviewing my materials.” 2. Be Intentional About Managing Your TimeSelf-manage or track your time devoted to research, teaching and service. Dr. Stacy-Ann January offered the following recommendations: “I use a program/app called Toggl (many other programs are available). I started with 3 broad categories (research, teaching, service) and then kept track of everything I did related to those categories. Each week, Toggl sends me an email with a breakdown of how I spent my time during the previous week.”Know when you write best. Dr. Dave Klingbeil shared his approach: “I write best late at night, when there are far fewer distractions. I also tend to be more productive when I write almost every day for 1-2 hours (not always attainable), rather than trying to protect two full days for ‘research time’.” 1. Give Yourself the Gift of NoDr. Amanda Sullivan pointed out, As an early career scholar, you have a finite amount of time so there reaches a point where saying yes to one thing means saying no to another - or where you risk overburdening yourself to the point where your performance in other areas of work suffers. Saying yes to x often means less time for y. Learning to say no first requires identifying your priorities so that you can easily identify requests and opportunities inconsistent with those priorities. Practice pleasantly and unapologetically saying no. It’s okay to say no without offering any more justification than you are simply unavailable. What other tips or favorite posts would you share with new faculty?

Transitioning from Practitioner to Graduate Educator in School Psychology

By Daniel L. Gadke, Mississippi State UniversityAt any given time (excepting pandemics and major recessions), there are dozens of open faculty positions in school psychology across the country. Often, many envision a career path into academia to look something like (1) finish graduate school, (2) complete a post-doctoral position to gain research experience or licensure, and (3) find a job at a university. While this path may have been the route for many academics, fortunately, it is not the only one. Academia is full of outstanding educators and scholars who first practiced. Unfortunately, given the more traditional path into academia and research demands, many practicing school psychologists interested in taking the leap to the ivory tower may feel discouraged in doing so. Concerns with establishing a research line and connecting to mentors are just some of the things that might hold them back from applying. To help us better understand, prepare for, and navigate the transition, we have asked Drs. Courtenay Barret, Michigan State University; Shereen C. Naser,  Cleveland State University;  and Wesley A. Sims, University of California Riverside to share their insights and journeys from successful practitioners to successful academics. Why did you decide to transition into academia?Barrett: I went into academia right after graduate school and then chose to become a practitioner when I started a family. At that time, though, I knew there was always the possibility that I would go back! I decided to transition back into academia because I missed working with graduate students, the emphasis on conducting research, and the autonomy, but the precise timing was somewhat coincidental and prompted by a mixture of family circumstances and available positions at research-intensive universities in school psychology doctoral programs. Naser: When I was working as a practitioner I was asked to head MTSS programming for my school. I found myself constantly asking questions about our behavioral procedures I couldn’t readily find answers to. I was spending a considerable amount of time writing data reports, working with my teams to apply for grants, and creating white papers or reports for our administrative teams. I absolutely loved being a practitioner but I began to wonder what it might be like to do the work I was spending so much time on with more space to read and learn from other scholars.Sims: I transitioned from practice to academia because I felt academia would allow me to influence the field in a more impactful way. I enjoyed working with practicum students and interns and teaching undergraduate psychology courses. I enjoyed both and believed that training future school psychologists would be personally gratifying, professionally fulfilling, and impactful.How did you develop your research and teaching experience while practicing? If you didn’t engage in research or teaching while practicing, did you do anything to build your skills or experience once you started in your new role?Barrett: In my previous position at a regional education service agency, I tried to embody a scientist-scholar-practitioner role by using research principles and concepts, such as program evaluation, data-based decision making, progress monitoring, research design, and measurement theory, as an approach for service delivery in a manner that could be evaluated and was publishable. I also reached out to several university-based researchers to collaborate and seek mentorship on how to conduct community-engaged scholarship. In terms of teaching, I provided a lot of professional development and coaching to a range of educators, which scratched that itch for me!Naser: I was fortunate to have a graduate advisor and mentorship team who were willing to continue to write with me and provide me with adjunct teaching opportunities. The time where I was a full-time practicing school psychologist, supporting our building’s after school programming, teaching Abnormal Psychology as an adjunct while trying to also be involved in manuscript writing was brutal. However, it helped me keep all my doors open. I do want to reiterate that none of that would have been possible without the mentorship I received from folks who were in academia. Academia can often feel like a mysterious place. I remember the first time I submitted a manuscript as lead author and I had no clue that including a cover letter was standard practice. Having partners in academia made navigating those things much easier.Sims: As a practitioner, I frequently conducted in-service presentations for my district(s). Additionally, I taught undergraduate psychology courses for several years before pursuing my doctoral degree. These experiences gave me some insight into teaching adults/in higher education.In contrast, like many practitioners, I gained little to no research experience as a practitioner. Thankfully, I was very lucky to have been exposed to some great research models during my doctoral training. I had very generous advisors and mentors (thank you Chris, Wendy, Keith, Steve, Matt, Erica, and others). Later, I was honored to be included in the School Psychology Research Collaboration Conference (SPRCC). I will be forever grateful to my Catalyst Scholar (Linda Reddy) and group members. I have learned so much from them! Finally, reviewing manuscripts and collaborating with others with similar interests have supported development of my research skills.How did your experience as a practitioner prepare you for the work you do now? In what ways has it informed your scholarship?Barrett: My practice experience has been extremely influential and important for my current role as a faculty member. I believe my systems-level experiences have given me a unique perspective on how school psychologists can serve as change agents in schools. I have tried to bring that to my teaching and mentorship, and several students have commented that these experiences have been really useful in class. My experiences have also influenced my research agenda, as I became interested in implementation science and the research-practice gap. For example, one new line of research, economic evaluation in school psychology, came about directly from my experience as a practitioner. I witnessed first-hand how resource allocation is extremely complex and crucial for high-quality implementation of evidence-based practices. The complexity has made it a really fun area to study and its practical importance helps me feel like my research agenda has real-world implications for student outcomes, which is my primary goal! Naser: I am deeply thankful for my time as a practitioner. I learned so much from the teachers, administrators, families and children that I worked with. I keep old copies of our school’s newsletter on my office walls, and my computer desktop wallpaper is a picture from my time as a practitioner. In academia, particularly for tenure track faculty, there is a push to publish and grant write as a goal in and of itself. These keepsakes remind me that the work I engage in can have real consequences, that my research and training other school psychologists is an opportunity to continue to serve the students, families, teachers and administrators in our education system. My time as a practitioner gives me purpose and my experiences enrich my research and my teaching.Sims: My time as a practitioner helped me transition to academia in several ways. First, there is no substitute for the professional experiences from which I can draw to illustrate concepts or issues discussed in class. Rather than hypothetical examples, I have actual experiences to use. They’re usually much more entertaining than anything I could make up. Next, working in multiple buildings, districts, and cities, each with its own unique organizational make up, socio-political climate, people, and procedures taught me how to be adaptable. Lastly, as a practicing school psychologist I learned how to manage numerous activities at once and to be flexible. Rarely does a school psychologist’s day happen as planned. I learned to be organized and to plan ahead, but also how to roll with changes that will inevitably occur. The latter attributes have proven helpful in my work in the fast-paced, stressful, and unpredictable world of academia.My time as a practitioner has informed my scholarship by influencing my research interests. Broadly, my research seeks to improve service delivery practices and processes, particularly those related to prevention and early intervention. This work is grounded in the daily challenges I directly experienced as a practitioner and is driven by my belief this work could have positive and enduring impacts on student outcomes.What were the key challenges associated with making the transition?Barrett: I haven’t had too many challenges, above and beyond those associated with any transition to a new organization. I’m continuing to learn more about the procedures, policies, and cultural norms of my program, department, and university, but this is necessary for any new job. I think my prior experience in academia helped me significantly. If this were my first position in academia, I would probably be quite overwhelmed trying to navigate the pre-tenure process! Naser: Many of my current colleagues completed postdoctoral fellowships before moving into a tenure track position. They were able to come to academia with a well-defined research agenda, a publication pipeline and in some cases grant money to help fund their projects. In choosing to practice as a school psychologist I forwent a traditional research post doctorate experience. I don’t regret it at all, however my first few years in academia were really a challenge. I went from getting to work at 6:30 AM, greeting students in the  morning, supporting teachers, having mandated state deadlines for writing projects, and feeling an urgency to solve immediate problems our school was facing to turning on my computer and wondering what the heck I was supposed to do next. That transition came with some very serious imposter syndrome as well. I had worked in school buildings across the world, and I always worked as part of team. Coming into academia I was greeted enthusiastically by my colleagues, shown my office and was expected to initiate my own tasks- there were certainly no 5th graders following me down the hall wondering what exactly I was doing next. I do not mean in any way to imply I did not have support. Moving into academia gave me exactly the mental space I was craving to be creative and answer burning questions, and I was hired because other people believed in my vision. However, I really had to dig deep to develop the discipline to create a thriving research agenda, and to become the trainer and teacher I wanted to be. It was easy at first to look for service opportunities to try and create that sense of urgency that I had as a practitioner. Part of refocusing was really outlining my goals and my mission as an academic and saying no to activities that didn’t help me further that goal.With that in mind, I tried to create a structure that would help me succeed. In my first year I signed up for writing courses, read books on writing, reached out to colleagues I knew were also looking for writing opportunities and created interdisciplinary writing and research accountability groups at my university. As a woman and as an Arab American in academia working in primarily White and male spaces, I spent a lot of my first few years in academia often questioning if I belonged. As the daughter of immigrants, I felt like maybe I didn’t have the institutional knowledge I needed to figure this thing out. So, I started reaching out to other people with similar backgrounds. I really outlined what I wanted and what I hoped to accomplish in the next 5 years. I don’t think I ended up publishing a single thing I wrote that first year but I made some fantastic relationships that have developed into productive research partnerships and friendships.I am still learning and still growing and that sometimes feels uncomfortable, but I feel much better equipped to handle the growing pains now than I did when I first started, even as a visiting assistant professor. All of the skills I used to help me get the ball rolling in academia- problem solving, team building, being flexible- were all skills that I honed as a practicing school psychologist and that translated well to academia. Sims: I think the biggest challenge associated with this transition has been the general instability that has come with it. Returning to school was a very dramatic life change. After almost a decade of practice, I had become stable in my career, finances, and life. Returning to school ended that stability. Similarly, this transition has resulted in several relocations. In most cases, pursuit of an academic career requires a willingness to go where jobs are rather than finding a job in a place you want to live. Like most other changes, there has been a learning curve. Academia has its own rules, terms, paperwork, hierarchies, and expectations that can take time to learn. Finally, and relative to academia in particular, academia can be very punishing. At times it can be challenging not to take reviewer feedback personally.What mentoring or professional learning experiences were valuable in preparing for or supporting your scholarship?Barrett: I have received a lot of support and mentorship from professionals with a range of backgrounds, values, perspectives, and role identities both inside and outside of my previous organization, and locally and nationally. I received an Early Career Research Award (ECRA) from the Society for the Study of School Psychology (SSSP) as a practitioner to run a pilot study examining the effects of coaching in schools, with Nate Stevenson, Ph.D. from Kent State University (Co-PI), and Matt Burns, Ph.D. from the University of Missouri, as our mentor. This experience was extremely helpful in learning how to conduct applied research in schools. My advice to anyone who is trying to promote systems-level change and/or transition from practice to academia would be to proactively reach out to a range of professionals for help and then commit to following through until you have reached your goals. I believe that one of the biggest challenges is not just talking about what we’re going to do, but then actually going and doing it!   Naser: Even as a practitioner I continued to attend professional conferences and presented research I conducted while working as a school psychologist. I also completed a visiting assistant professor position before transitioning to a tenure track position. I also kept in touch with my mentors, and they were instrumental in helping me transition into an academic position.Sims: As noted earlier, my experiences during my doctoral training were extremely valuable. I work on multiple large-scale, multi-year, and federally funded projects under advisors that were great models. Later, collaborative efforts with my SPRCC group have been invaluable.What advice would you have for a practitioner interested in entering the academic job market? Is there anything you wish you’d done differently?Barrett: I think it’s important to talk to a range of people about the culture and values of academia, and understand the various types of universities. For example, some universities emphasize research productivity, others emphasize teaching and mentorship. There will also be differences if the program is at the EdS-level or the doctoral-level. Essentially, institutional fit is important. I think that many of the skills necessary to be successful in academia are only/best learned by participating in the process (e.g., the publication process), so I would recommend reaching out to collaborate with others with more experience, if that’s an area for growth. Prior to going on the job market, I was somewhat ambivalent and asked a mentor of mine for career advice, as she has also been in a range of settings (independent consultant, practitioner, academic, and program developer), and she gave me some of the best advice – to sincerely reflect on what I enjoyed doing and then find the work environment that supports my engagement in those activities. I wouldn’t change any part of my career trajectory, even though it has been somewhat atypical, but this is the advice I would give anyone looking to make a change!Naser: The academic job market is rough. Other than a job that requires strict security clearance, I don’t know of many fields that require multi-day interviews and several different presentations, all after turning in an application that basically bares your soul. No one page resumes here! I was also applying for jobs while in the middle of a family crises- I had a sibling with a chronic illness that was taking a turn for the worst. In a lot of ways my sister’s illness meant I didn’t have mental capacity to worry about much else. I created my materials, my mentors and friends were kind enough to review them for me and to help me prepare and practice my research and teaching talks, and I just went for it. I think this forced me to be more authentic in my approach. The interviews I did get were at institutions that felt like fantastic fits, and I met people I would have been proud to work with. To this day I still keep in touch with people at institutions I interviewed with, even though I do not work there. That being said, reviews of my materials by mentors and friends as well as practicing my teaching and research talks multiple times also helped me ensure I was putting my best self forward.Sims: Do your research (pun intended). Make sure you know what you’re getting into. Make sure you understand where you want to end up and where you could end up. Try to get a sense of what academia looks like at several different institutions, not all academic positions are created equally. There is a vast array of positions each with their own, varying research, teaching, and service expectations. You should be mindful and intentional about the types of training and experience preferred for the type of position you want and seek them out.In hindsight, I wish I had focused more on the development of my research skills (e.g., statistics, manuscript preparation), rather than continuing to emphasize practice in my training and experiences. As I made this transition, I continued to practice while pursuing research focused training and experiences. I wish I had more fully embraced unfamiliar, novel research-oriented learning experiences that would support my current work.Thank you to all our panelists. What questions or concerns do you (our readers) have about transitioning and thriving as practitioners moving into academic settings?

Archived Webinar - Applying for the NIH Loan Repayment Program

The Early Career Forum recently hosted a webinar on the NIH Loan Repayment Programs (LRP). This webinar was co-hosted by Dr. Eric Moody, Wyoming Institute for Disabilities, a past LRP recipient and NIH LRP Ambassador; and Dr. Bryn Harris, University of Colorado Denver, a recent NIH LRP awardee. The NIH LRP is designed to recruit and retain qualified health professionals in research careers. The program alleviates some financial pressure of remaining in research careers instead of obtaining positions in private industry or private practice. The program repays up to $50,000 annually of a researcher’s qualified educational debt in return for a commitment to engage in research endeavors over a two year period. The webinar provided an overview of the program, qualifications for submission, application process, and tips for a successful submission. A recording of the webinar is available here.

Research as a Tool for Advocacy

By Sally Grapin, Montclair State UniversityIn the last decade, the concept of social justice has received unprecedented attention in the field of school psychology. As the field grapples with its role in promoting social justice, many scholars have focused on integrating advocacy and research to deconstruct systems of power and privilege in K-12 schools, training environments, and communities. To better understand research as a tool for advocacy, the authors of this post reached out to four experts in integrating these professional activities. Our panelists include Drs. Antoinette Miranda (The Ohio State University), Sherrie Proctor (Queens College, City University of New York), David Shriberg (Indiana University), and Sam Song (University of Nevada, Las Vegas). These scholars were asked to respond to a variety of questions about their research experiences, goals, and challenges, as presented below.What does it mean for school psychologists to use research as advocacy? Why should scholars strive to integrate research and advocacy? Antoinette Miranda [AM]: To me, it means answering the hard questions and examining areas that we have traditionally avoided in school psychology. In many respects, broader issues that are affecting education also affect the profession. These include the privatization of public schools, over-policing of urban schools, discipline issues, and chronic absenteeism, to name a few. These are systems issues, but we have the ability to implement programs and promote strategies that will benefit the most vulnerable students in education. I believe school psychologists can make an impact with research that examines and implements culturally responsive practices that improve the educational outcomes of minoritized youth. Our research should promote socially just practices.Sam Song [SS]: The clearest differentiating factor is "action," i.e., the findings result in (or contribute to) social action/change for a local community per "action research" literature.Dave Shriberg [DS]: I believe connecting your research with advocacy is important both for the researcher and for the students that we work with. For the researcher, every scholar—or at least I hope this is the case—is motivated to pursue research questions that have the potential to be impactful. The vast majority of school psychology researchers want their work to benefit practice. However, practice does not occur in a vacuum. Schools are a microcosm of the broader society, including topics pertaining to social justice [e.g., topics related to equity, access, and respect (culturally responsive behavior/non-discriminatory behavior)]. I am hard-pressed to think of research topics within the realm of school psychology that do not touch on social justice issues in some way. So, to conduct your research as if social justice realities do not exist first limits the type and usefulness of the research questions you are exploring.Second, to just put your research out there but not advocate for why this work is important lessens the likelihood that your work ultimately will have an impact. If you are convinced that all one needs to do is conduct the research and then things will take care of themselves in terms of this work being translated to practice in a culturally responsive manner that does not perpetuate existing inequities, then I think you are fooling yourself. It is possible to both remain objective in your data analysis and also work to devise research studies that speak to social justice advocacy and then to go out and advocate yourself for why your work—and the work of others—is important.Regarding our students, we are modeling not only how to design strong research studies but also the moral imperative for why research is needed in the first place. Research itself can be considered a revolutionary act. If we already have all the answers, why conduct more research? By conducting research, you are saying that, on some level, the current state of knowledge on the topics you are studying is incomplete and/or inaccurate. Advocacy involves not just doing the study, but also making the case for why this work is needed, particularly in light of social injustices that impact your topic. If our students do not see us out there advocating for the need for our work and then tying this need to the moral imperatives that underlie social justice, how can we expect them to do so?I once was afraid that if I advocated for social justice that I might somehow undercut my credibility as a researcher. I have never found this to be the case; instead, I have found that the more I make the case for why research that speaks to social justice is needed, the more I learn from others, the stronger my own research becomes, and the better mentor I become to my students.In your opinion, what are the major social or advocacy issues that school psychologists should be addressing through their research? AM: Many inequities impact students’ educational attainment.  School psychologists have the opportunity to address systemic issues that perpetuate and/or impact academic achievement, especially for marginalized students. For example, consider serious childhood trauma. We could be advocates for developing and implementing trauma informed practices school wide to help in reducing behavioral problems and improve the mental health of students.  We could be better advocates for wellness programs and school-community partnerships. There are many RFPs related to these issues that can focus on developing evidence-based programs. We need research that asks the hard questions with respect to these inequities such as disproportionality, effective training in the area of culturally responsive practices, and how the privatization of schools negatively affects urban public schools and our work in them.SS: Major social or advocacy issues include educational disparities, diversity, equity, and inclusion.DS: This is a bit challenging to answer. I think that almost every research topic germane to school psychology COULD be framed around social justice advocacy, if the researcher chose to think about it this way. Again, research can and should be revolutionary in the sense of changing paradigms. I worry very much that people will just start using the phrase “social justice” in their work because it is seen as trendy but not really do work that speaks to the disruption of the status quo on issues of equity, access, and respect that the term entails.Everyone is passionate about different things when it comes to research and my sense always has been that people do their best work on topics that they are passionate about. That said, my opinion is that there is a major gap in school psychology research related to work that speaks directly to different forms of cultural oppression, be it racism, nativism, classism, religious oppression, sexism, heterosexism, etc. Ask the typical school psychologist if these different “isms” exist and cause harm in schools, and I believe most would say yes. But where is the deep well of research that speaks to these different topics and the intersectionalities between them? This type of research is rarely found in school psychology journals. Some of that is due to a lack of researchers in this area, but also I feel that many school psychology journals have historically been closed off to these topics. For a lot of school psychology researchers, to do this work has meant to look outside of school psychology journals to publish. So, while I do hope that more school psychology researchers pursue social justice topics—and my sense is that this is already happening—it’s not just about picking topics to address; it’s about having our field’s journals be open to high-quality research in these areas. My sense is that we have a long way to go on that front, unfortunately. I hope I am wrong about that.Sherrie Proctor [SP]: Issues related to educational inequity represent major advocacy issues I believe school psychologists should address in their research. I think it is important to address these issues from a structural and systemic perspective instead of a student-centered deficit lens. For example, discipline disparities and school push-out for Black girls and boys that begin as early preschool are issues school psychologists can research using an advocacy frame. What are the structural/systemic factors that account for such disparities? Advocacy focused research approaches these topics through a lens that leads to actionable recommendations that challenge existing structures and systems that are unfair and unjust for specific student populations. An advocacy focused lens also pushes researchers to frame discussions of their findings in ways that disrupt the "status quo."How do you link advocacy and research in your own work?SP: I begin by thinking about educational and social inequities and injustices that impact Black people, particularly Black students throughout the educational pipeline. I then immerse myself in the relevant research, identifying gaps in knowledge. My research questions are a direct result of the gaps I find, but I generally contextualize my work within school psychology. I'm highly focused on developing research questions that relate directly to our field because I feel that there is great opportunity to advocate for Black students within school psychology, given my knowledge of the field from both a practitioner and academic perspective. In many ways, my work is designed to help school psychologists gain insight into issues impacting Black students throughout the educational pipeline in order to encourage their advocacy for Black students. In my work, I stay away from the use of a deficit lens; instead I focus on systemic and structural changes that can lead to educational and social justice for Black students.SS: I engage in action research or community based research (CBR), which includes participatory action research (PAR).AM: My advocacy in research has mostly centered around social justice. Thus, I have examined how we can engage in socially just practice in a myriad of ways from training to implementing university-school partnerships.What types of challenges have you or your colleagues encountered in integrating research and advocacy? What suggestions might you have for addressing these challenges? SP: My main challenge as a younger researcher was fear that integrating research and advocacy would prevent me from getting published in school psychology journals. During my pre-tenure years, the prospect of my work getting rejected from in-field journals was really scary because much of my work is designed to influence our field. As I became a more experienced researcher and writer, this fear lessened a bit. For less experienced researchers, I recommend partnering with more experienced researchers who engage research using an advocacy frame. I also recommend reading research in other fields that integrate an advocacy frame, submitting your work to journals often and taking the feedback seriously, and writing a lot!  It may also be helpful to find a trusted colleague who is successful with integrating research and advocacy to review drafts of articles prior to journal submission.  I've also found having conversations with other researchers who are at my same career stage is helpful with talking through the challenges of integrating research and advocacy.SS: Large districts seem to experience significant changes in administrative leadership at various levels (superintendents to team coordinators). It will behoove the researcher to build genuine relationships with various leaders and individuals in the community and system when (not if) this occurs. Fortunately, true CBR/action requires such relationship-building.DS: The biggest challenge I see is a lack of programmatic and institutional support, particularly for faculty from minoritized groups. If you decide that you are going to bring advocacy to your work, particularly around social justice topics that inherently involve challenging the status quo, you are almost certainly going to meet resistance, often very fierce and personal resistance. Even as someone with privilege, I have experienced this regularly. It’s the unfortunate reality of many academic spaces that you are going to get a lot of pushback if you advocate for social justice. Academia tends to reward those who don’t make waves and those who follow whomever has the most power in their college at that moment. So, finding the right place to work, a place that truly values you for you and allows you the space to advocate for social justice, is incredibly important, as is finding allies to help you through the inevitable pushback you will receive when you speak up. This is not a random sample, but over the years I have heard from so many graduate students and faculty from across the country who tell me that their school psychology programs are hostile to social justice research and advocacy. This needs to change.Some have argued that integrating research and advocacy may bias scientific investigations by skewing findings in support of specific ideologies or positions. How would you respond to this claim? SS: First, part of the answer relates to how "advocacy" is defined. Some would not define it the way that I did above. Second, it is common knowledge, especially in 2020, that all human endeavors are ripe with "specific ideologies or positions" to use your terms. Said in another way, even the most "rigorous" of scientific studies are based on human beliefs (e.g., epistemology), values, etc. that have influenced even the type of research question asked. For those who do not understand this, well then, they are biased.AM: We are assuming that this already doesn’t or hasn’t happened.  We have many examples of this having occurred in “supposedly” scientific investigations in the past. If we are engaging in research for the purpose of advocating for better programs, strategies, and system-wide solutions that will improve outcomes for our most vulnerable students, then we are doing the right and socially just thing. In addition, research that exposes flaws, discrimination, disproportionality, racism, and poor practices will hopefully enable us to develop solutions that meet the needs of students in a cultural context. Honestly, I think too often “research” has justified practices that negatively affect minoritized populations and thus has supported a specific ideology that has been detrimental to certain segments of the population.DS: I have never understood this argument and find it incredibly insulting. You are saying that you do not trust the author to be ethical. As a journal editor, many times I have given authors feedback that they are making claims that go beyond their data. I do not assume, however, that they are doing this on purpose or have some kind of “agenda” behind this mistake. Researchers are not perfect and, in my opinion, when they go beyond their data this should be pointed out and factored into editorial decisions. None of this, however, has anything to do with the TOPIC of the research, and I see no reason why, to the extent this occurs, skewing findings to fit someone’s preconceived ideas or otherwise going beyond the data obtained is any more common with people doing research focused on social justice than any other topic we might investigate.One of the things I have noticed is that people who have the concern reflected in this question tend to emphasize the sanctity of objective data but then provide no objective data of their own in support of their claim that the social justice oriented research was biased. Many times over my career I have submitted research focused on social justice only to receive reviews suggesting that the reviewers dismissed the work out of hand because they felt that the topic was not legitimate, without critiquing the actual quality of the research design.  Of course, these kinds of reviews reveal the reviewers’ bias, but I don’t get the sense that these reviewers get the irony that they are accusing me of being biased in words that reveal that their own biases were the guiding factors in their conclusion. I am not saying that all of my studies are perfect—they are not—or that work related to social justice should not be judged on its merits. What I am saying is that, despite the loud claims of such bias, no one has ever shown me any convincing, data-based evidence that a lack of objectivity is any more common in research focused on social justice than it is in research on any other topic. As such, I have a hard time taking this argument particularly seriously intellectually, although I recognize that the prevalence of this type of thinking presents major barriers to work reflecting social justice being published in school psychology journals, which I tend to assume is the intent.How can early career scholars build an advocacy agenda into their own scholarship? SS: Consider why you entered the field and the communities who are most in need or minoritized by the status quo. Partner with them - listen and learn from them, develop genuine relationships with them, and work together to take action.SP: I think all research is biased, and this bias starts with the selection and framing of research questions. I believe that many people truly believe that our science is objective. I am not one of those people. One reason I really love and embrace qualitative methods is that these methods force researchers to name their biases upfront as well as to monitor/challenge them throughout the research process. I think when you are more upfront with and acknowledge the biases you bring to the research process, you are more attuned to managing them. I think strong research designs, collaborating with other researchers who share a high level of integrity, and being ethical prevents skewing of findings in support of specific ideologies or positions. But, I think this is true for those doing advocacy focused research or not. I do think it is important for research that serves as advocacy to be clear in its limitations. I also think it helps for researchers who utilize an advocacy frame to be upfront in their aims and not to overreach in their interpretation of findings in order to support a position. But, again, I think the things I am speaking of are indicative of behaviors in which all researchers should engage, not just those who aim to use research as an advocacy tool.AM: I believe they have to have a commitment to engage in research with the purpose of improving educational outcomes in the real world. We cannot do research for research’s sake in the educational community.  We need to develop, implement, and share evidence-based practices that work with students in a cultural context.Do you have any additional thoughts or comments on this topic? What else should readers consider?SS: Be aware that this type of work takes longer to develop relationships and may become stalled due to transitions in leadership. This has happened to me a number of times in different contexts. It will be important to have multiple types of projects with this community and with others. It will help with the tenure-pressure. After all, we (the field of school psychology) need you all to be successful for the future of our profession!Thank you to each panelist for taking the time to respond to these questions and to share your insights with early career researchers.How do you integrate research and advocacy in your own work? Share your thoughts below!

Navigating the Impact of COVID-19: Advice from School Psychology Faculty with Experience in Administrative Roles

By Lindsay Fallon, University of Massachusetts BostonIn our previous posts this spring, we addressed the general concerns posed by COVID and those specific to research. On May 11, 2020, the SSSP ECF, led by Bryn Harris, hosted a Q&A session for early career faculty to explore perspectives of university administrators who are also school psychology scholars. Experienced department and college administrators answered questions from early career faculty about how to weather this time and what to expect in the months to come. Our panelists were Drs. Beth Doll (Professor and former Dean, University of Nebraska – Lincoln), Randy Floyd (Chair and Professor, University of Memphis), and Amity Noltemeyer (Chair and Professor, Miami University). Below, we synthesize their responses to the questions posed by early career participants.A note: The panelists recognized that institutions and circumstances vary widely and there is no one-size-fits all approach to working in the context of COVID-19 as an early career faculty member. Therefore, these ideas are intended only as a starting point for reflection, rather than a road map for success.How can early career faculty advocate for themselves with their administrators to get support for their professional and personal needs? 

• Be informed and participate in shared governance. If you are able, consider serving on the faculty senate (or other shared governance entity at your college or university). If you are unable to participate in shared governance actively, identify a colleague who can advocate on your behalf. This might be a more senior faculty member in your department who can suggest policy changes or request support to benefit you and other early career faculty members.
• Be strategic with requests for support when communicating with administrators. Your institution’s administrators may have certain priorities right now, impacting what they can (and are willing) to support. When making a request for support, ask for what you think you need at this moment, acknowledging there may be limited capacity to support your requests. 
• Be entrepreneurial if you can. Consider strategic opportunities that may benefit you now and in the coming year. An example of this is perhaps applying for a small grant to allow for a course buyout. If funded, this could offer you more time in the coming academic year to devote to other professional and personal responsibilities. 
• Build relationships with department, college and university administrators and leaders. It is helpful if these individuals know who you are and what you have accomplished. This may be especially important as administrators navigate the next steps of responding to COVID-19 at your institution (e.g., how to address budgetary losses).
• If time allows, continue to improve your skills. That is, if you’re able, consider spending time engaging in professional development activities (e.g., reading, strengthening statistical skills) to improve your skills as a researcher, teacher, and mentor.

The ramifications of COVID-19 will likely be extensive in all areas of academic work – teaching, research and service. Some universities have offered to stop the tenure clock for one year given these challenges. What things should early career faculty consider when determining whether or not to take this clock stoppage? 

• Every institution has its own set of traditions around promotion and tenure. Find out when you will have to make any decisions about pausing your tenure clock or delaying tenure. Determine if you must ask for it now or if you can ask for it in a year, two years, etc.
• Solicit advice from more senior faculty members in your unit. They should be able to tell you if you’re on the right path or if more time might be beneficial to you, considering their understanding of your institution’s guidelines. It may also be helpful to discuss such a decision with college-level leadership.
• Inquire if and what guidance will be given to external reviewers when considering tenure portfolios in the future. Specifically, you might ask departmental or college leadership if there will be a standard statement made to all reviewers about how to consider tenure packages in light of the impact of COVID-19.
• Do not feel badly if you’re not your most productive right now. Most people are not being highly productive at the moment. 

As COVID-19 may impact tenure decisions, annual reviews, and general evaluative processes, how might recent or future administrative action impact these processes? How might early career faculty advocate for themselves during these evaluative processes? 

• Most likely, COVID-19’s impact will be context-specific. That is, there will be variability across departments, colleges, universities, states, etc.
• Provide contextualization in reviews or review materials to give your Chair (or other evaluator) more detail about the materials submitted for review. Consider explaining changes to productivity or teaching evaluations, and convey how you continue to add value to the unit. 
• Know the policies of your college and university. If you feel like you’re being evaluated in a way that conflicts with the policy, ask about it, determine your rights, and consider engaging with your faculty union (if you have one). Again, be as engaged as possible in the decision-making at the department and college level to support you and other early career faculty. 
• Stay optimistic and strong. It is likely leaders will be taking context into consideration, care about the development of faculty, and will want to nurture a sense of goodwill within units.

Early career faculty are concerned about potential pay freezes and pay reductions. Recently, we have seen both of these scenarios become reality at multiple universities. What strategies might early career faculty consider in dealing with these financial challenges? 

• Pay cuts may be seen in various forms, and this is (and will likely be) highly varied by institution. Pay cuts may come in the form of furlough days, pay freezes, and a reduction of supplemental pay opportunities. The pay cuts may impact administrators and staff in more significant ways
• If pay freezes occur, they won’t last forever. Continue to think about showing your value, make yourself indispensable. 
• Know your limits. Know what you can do and what you can’t do. Don’t be taken advantage of.
• Know your options. For instance, if you are facing a 25% pay cut, perhaps look around for another position (including outside of academia), or if you’re finding that there are not viable options, consider if you can survive with the cut.
• Again, be entrepreneurial. Perhaps there are summer teaching opportunities that maybe you didn’t consider before that may be worth pursuing now.
• When the financial situation improves, you may be able to request support to increase your productivity. This might mean asking for additional graduate assistant hours or research funds (if possible or available).In sum, you picked a great field and there continues to be a need for school psychologists. It should give you a sense of optimism. You have skills as a school psychologist that professionals in many other disciplines do not have. There are always going to be opportunities for school psychologists (both inside and outside of academia).

Early career faculty may be asked to assume additional administrative tasks or an increased load next year and potentially beyond. What advice might you have for early career faculty as they navigate these additional responsibilities? 

• It is very possible that there will be changes in the future. There may be changes to how we evaluate teaching, research, and service. 
• If you have increased class sizes, consider how to adjust your teaching to continue to teach with high quality. This may involve being innovative. For instance, if you’re teaching an assessment course in which you traditionally had many protocols or review and grade, consider instead asking students to review each other’s work carefully and then for each student to submit an exemplar for grading. This would reduce your grading load.
• Start thinking now about how to move your coursework online for the fall (e.g., start locating videos, ancillary materials, online examples). This will help you prepare for distance or hybrid teaching.
• Think about untapped resources. For instance, consider if you can rely more on undergraduate students and offer an independent study. If you’re able to “delegate” to students, students may be able to learn from the opportunity and it will give you more time to do other tasks.
• Monitor distribution of service tasks among your unit and advocate for yourself if you feel you are doing more than your share of service.If possible, ask departmental leadership to give you no new course preps in the coming year to protect your time.
• Expect that this may not be your best year (per teaching evaluations, number of manuscripts submitted for review, etc.). That’s OK. You’ll learn a lot and be able to apply what you learn in future years.

What advice would you give new faculty as they potentially have fewer opportunities for collaboration (research/teaching/service), presenting, professional development opportunities, and travel or internal research funding (among others) while trying to establish themselves and launch their careers? 

• Take advantage of opportunities to be involved in online conferences and professional meetings. This will require little travel funding and allow you to engage in networking and professional development.
• Or, perhaps instead of focusing on conference posters and paper presentations, allow yourself more time to spend writing research briefs and/or full-length manuscripts. 
• Consider if you have contacts or colleagues interested in collaborating on (a) analyses of large existing datasets, (b) systematic literature reviews, (c) policy analyses, or (d) research with undergraduate students. 
• Consider if there are opportunities to engage in research about the impact of COVID-19 with school partners. Some of the most exciting research comes out of unanticipated circumstances.

What other advice do you have for early career scholars?

• Not everyone is in the same boat, but we’re all weathering the same storm.
• Look for allies in other academic units if you’re not being supported in your own unit (e.g., colleagues in social work, teacher education). They may be able to relate to your situation and provide advocacy in your unit, college, or university.
• If you need to advocate for yourself, use your consultation skills to guide your interactions with administrators (e.g., build rapport, reference facts/data). 
• Keep an updated CV so that you’re tracking your marketability and prepared for change, if needed.
• You may see pots of money (e.g., travel funds, indirect funds for a PI) being reallocated for more immediate needs. That is, reallocated funds may be protecting the jobs of more vulnerable university staff, so take that into consideration as you note changes.
• Access available resources from professional communities. For instance, TSP is archiving guidance and various forums related to supporting faculty in the era of COVID-19. Access these opportunities.
• Keep moving forward. Be well.

Thank you to our panelists and to everyone who joined us for the session. Do you have comments or questions? Post below. 

Coping with COVID-19 As An Early Career Scholar - Part 2: What About My Research? (and an appeal to not so early career scholars)

By Kathrin E. Maki, University of Florida; Ryan Farmer, Oklahoma State University; and Amanda L. Sullivan, University of MinnesotaAs we all continue to navigate life in a pandemic, we are attempting to manage wellness, work, family, community, and other responsibilities. Some days may go more smoothly than others. Because the SSSP Early Career Forum exists to support early career scholars and many early career scholars are worried about their interrupted research, we felt it was important to discuss considerations for research during and in the aftermath of the pandemic. That said, as noted in Part 1 where we discussed scholars’ general C-19 concerns, we also recognize that many scholars are not able to focus on research due to caregiving responsibilities, unexpected professional responsibilities, heightened stress, Zoom exhaustion, and numerous other reasons. Many of us are dealing with disastrous days under protracted disaster conditions. This post is not intended to suggest that we should all be focused on our research now (to be clear, we eschew pandemic productivity pressure); for many scholars, that simply isn’t feasible or conducive to their wellness. If that is the case, we hope you’ll offer yourself compassion generally and especially in a pandemic and that your university provides accommodations to evaluation and tenure/promotion. But for those who are interested and able to engage in research now, we hope this post will support your endeavors. Taking StockAs an early career scholar, you may have received the advice to develop a three-to-five year research agenda including studies you plan to carry out, manuscripts you plan to write, and grants for which you plan to apply. Even if you do not have a highly specific plan, you have likely thought through how your research agenda will facilitate your eventual promotion and tenure or future scholarly opportunities (e.g., jobs, grants, fellowships, collaborations). Today, our research plans may feel rather tenuous because we do not know what the next several months hold. As school psychology scholars, many of us engage in applied research in schools and other settings now beset with disruptions and unknowns regarding the reopening and return for former operations. If you are like Katie, you may have experienced the abrupt end to a project that had barely gotten off the ground with data collection after an arduous process of obtaining parental consent. Or perhaps you were close to finishing data collection when schools closed. Many of us were running treatments with students either one-on-one or in groups, and those studies had to be discontinued. Even many basic scientists and large-scale data analysts (like Amanda) find themselves locked out of their university labs and centers, meaning most scholars likely find their research derailed in one way or another by stay-at-home orders. Taken together, this is frustrating for most and fearsome for many—and early career scholars in particular—when concerns about finding, securing, or keeping positions; achieving tenure and promotion; gendered divisions of labor at home and work and resultant research disparities; and sustaining long-term goals are on layered onto current challenges. Managing the Unknowns AheadThe ongoing pandemic and uncertainties about the coming year mean planning for future research projects, particularly many types of school-based data collection, is extremely challenging. But there are other research activities in which you can engage to continue to advance your research agenda during this significant, and potentially protracted, interruption. (That said, it’s also absolutely okay to take a break from scholarship during a pandemic. These are extraordinary times.) If you endeavor to maintain research activity, consider the following as you reconceptualize what your scholarship might look like in the coming months:

• What manuscripts have you file drawered or otherwise ignored that you could write or revise now? 
• Are there high quality unpublished presentations, dissertations, or theses (your own or others) that you could help move toward publication?
• Are there studies using your existing data, or viable secondary studies, that you can write up?
• What of your recently interrupted data collection is salvageable for analysis and dissemination?
• What remote data collection methods might be applicable to your research interests?
• Can you adapt an otherwise shovel-ready project for remote data collection?
• Are there secondary data sources available that are applicable to your research agenda?
• Are there ways you can leverage review methods (e.g., systematic review, meta-analysis, bibliographic review) to advance your research agenda?
• What non-empirical writing projects might you contribute to the field (e.g., conceptual models, theoretical essays, historical analyses, methods demonstrations, commentaries)?
• Can you leverage past or current collaborations to assist with less disrupted projects?
• Are there ways you might pivot your research agenda to address emergent pandemic related issues if consistent with your (general or temporary) interests and opportunities (e.g., COVID-19 rapid response grants from APA and NIH and related journal solicitations)?
• What other activities can you engage in now or in the coming months to eventually advance your research agenda?

Answers to these questions will depend on several factors such as your topical focus, typical methods,  career stage, experience, institutional resources, current and prospective collaborations, and personal circumstances. In taking time to reflect, the goal is, to the extent feasible, to identify ways you might reclaim momentum without relying on in-person access to your university or school partnerships. Rebounding from Interrupted ProjectsMany of us face decisions of whether halted projects are salvageable. One important consideration for your research will be the status of data collection and the quality of the data collected. If you were further along in data collection, consider if any data can be meaningfully used. For some, the existing but less than ideal data are sufficient for reporting. If part of your project can be salvaged, it will be important to further consider how you will contextualize your study within manuscripts. As applied researchers, we often experience disruptions that impact our research (e.g., student absences, snow days, field trips). The pandemic, although a more significant impact, can be similarly discussed in manuscripts so that reviewers and readers understand its impact on study limitations. Of course, it will be important to ensure that interpretations reflect the data collected and associated limitations. Perhaps the data won’t reflect your initial plan, but research questions may still be addressed differently. In addition, are there modified research questions that can be examined or different means of addressing similar questions?For others, preparing manuscripts might not be feasible. My (Katie) project that came to a halt one week into data collection is unfortunately lost (for this year at least) because I simply did not have enough data for meaningful findings or interpretations. But, after feeling frustrated about the lost project and publication, it is helpful to think through how and when the project can be implemented in the future. Again, while the future seems somewhat tenuous now, you may be able to start the project over in the future. At the very least, in planning for your initial data collection, you prepped all the needed materials so the planning and logistics will hopefully be easier a second time around. Another important research consideration is how to handle grant-funded research and the associated procedures. The Institute of Education Sciences and National Institute for Health have released guidance to help grantees navigate the pandemic. If your funder hasn’t released guidance yet, you may reach out to your program officer to see if they can provide guidance on how you should move forward regarding grant administration and completion, including the research itself. Staff at your university or college a grants office may also be able to provide guidance on how you should handle the disruption to your work (e.g., requesting a no-cost extension). Even if they may not readily have the answers, they may have relationships with or understanding of funding agencies to help you navigate the process of obtaining relevant information. Regardless, your grant manager’s role is typically to facilitate the acquisition, administration, and maintenance of grants for the university, and maintaining contact and communication with them may make the process much easier. Alternatives to Data CollectionWhile it is perfectly reasonable (and likely expected) to see a drop in your productivity during this time (I’m sure we’ve all had about enough of the memes about Shakespeare’s and Newton’s quarantine productivity), some of you may be looking for ways to remain active even though you may not be able to  collect data through your typical means or otherwise engage in your typical research activities. This may be the time to turn to an existing dataset, an unfinished manuscript, archival data, secondary data (you can find some helpful sources here and here), systematic reviews, meta-analyses, or non-empirical pieces. The important thing to keep in mind is even if your research agenda has been stalled, there are many other ways to engage in meaningful scholarly contributions. If keeping busy is your goal but you’re struggling to engage in research, perhaps skill building to support your research in the future is a viable option.  At times, I (Ryan) have felt taxed by the constant news and the physical distancing, and that’s made it so that I struggled to write or think clearly. I spent several hours the first week of physical distancing completing modules on scientific writing  and peer review. A quick search of Coursera or other sites reveals a variety of options (I highly recommend the courses by Daniel Lakens on statistical inference and questions). Another alternative is to dedicate time (or more time) to reading journal articles and other professional resources.Another option, particularly if you just aren’t up to engaging in research from home, is to work on other tasks in the next few months that would take away from your research time in the fall when you might be able to restart projects. For example, you might conduct more prep for course work for the fall or ramp up graduate student mentorship, helping students deal, or support for vulnerable colleagues (particularly if you are less junior), to name a few.Communicating with Your UniversityLooking toward the future, pre-tenure faculty are no doubt wondering how all of this will affect their annual or tenure reviews, promotion (e.g., publication expectations or teaching evaluations), and so forth. While some universities are pausing tenure clocks or offering faculty the option to extend their tenure clocks , some may not have issued a statement or policy. Jody Greene, associate vice provost for teaching and learning at the University of California at Santa Cruz wrote in the Chronicle that we should “be prepared to tell the story of the semester” including explaining this semester’s teaching strategies, and potentially addressing negative teaching evaluations, but her advice rings true for the range of academic activities we engage in. It may be worth documenting now how you are navigating the pandemic with regard to disrupted research, supporting your students, transitioning your classes to online, and preparing future research and teaching plans. It’s also wise to maintain open and honest communication with your program colleagues, unit administrators, and mentors. Now may be a good time to reach out to them and seek their advice on how to move forward. Hopefully, your senior colleagues and mentors are compassionate, accommodating advocates or provide you with information regarding how to advocate for yourself. Let’s remember, though, that everyone is dealing with their own complexities now; kindness and patience toward these folks should be our default.A Note for Student ScholarsThis is a challenging time for everyone, but graduate scholars are likely to feel these are especially precarious times, particularly those who’ve seen their thesis or dissertations projects upended. If you’re early enough in the process, hopefully a slight to moderate course correction via modified research questions or methods will allow you to salvage as much of your work to date. If you’re less far along, we hope you can use the recommendations above for secondary analysis or review methods (this is a great book to get started) to craft a pandemic-friendly research project. (And we hope advisors appreciate the severity and implications of this pandemic and help student scholars adjust course without major delays or unwanted extensions of time to degree because of preferences against more accessible methods such as systematic review or secondary analysis)

I am advising all doctoral students to come up with 3 different dissertation plans right now.

Tier 1: "normal" lifeTier 2: significantly restricted/delayed data gathering. Tier 1, but later, or fewer peopleTier 3: a dissertation you can write using ONLY remote resources.— wikipedia brown, socially distant OG (@eveewing) April 16, 2020

An Appeal to No-So-Early Career ScholarsAs mentioned in Part 1, this bears repeating: As a full professor, I (Amanda) know that I am co-writing this from a place of immense privilege. I challenge myself and my similarly privileged peers to ask how we can support those without the luxuries of rank, tenure, and everything that comes with it. We must also keep in mind that the consequences of this crisis will continue to reverberate, even if/when we return to business as usual, so our grace must extend beyond the crisis. What we are seeing now isn’t simply several week’s disruption of study implementation but a global pandemic and multigenerational traumatic event that will reverberate for months and years to come. As such, even if university and school operations resume fully in the fall (unlikely given the many scenarios most universities are considering), the effects will not be as simple as a pause in research projects or the extra writing time some might frame it as or wish it to be. The setbacks to early career scholars’ research programs may be especially protracted because they don’t have the robust pipeline, collaborative network, or general experience to fall back on.Although some scholars are experiencing increased writing time, many more are not and will not for some time given increased and unevenly distributed caregiving, teaching, administration, and service needs and obligations that are disproportionately restricting women’s research productivity, not to mention disproportionate effects of this pandemic of minoritized communities that will inevitably detrimentally affect scholars who are Black, Indigeneous, people of color, or immigrants. We must apply an intersectional approach to understanding this pandemic and be reflective and compassionate as we evaluate scholars’ accomplishments and contributions in the months and years to come.

Equity in Academia "For the next few years, there should be a letter added to every tenure application," ....consider how the “fallout [from C19] has very different effects across gender and race.” Evaluators should consider each applicant’s individual set of circumstances."

— Bryn Harris (@bryncolorado) April 25, 2020

ConclusionIf you’re tired of hearing about how Shakespeare wrote King Lear or how Isaac Newton discovered gravity during quarantine, remember that back then, Netflix was still only doing DVD delivery. In all seriousness, we are in the middle of a pandemic where caring for our family, our friends, and ourselves should be our top priorities. However, if research serves as a helpful outlet or you want to remain productive in light of continued expectations from your university, focusing on available tasks, adapting questions or methods, skill building, and planning for the future may be ways you can continue to be research active while caring for yourself and others.

Update: @BLCKSMTHdesign made this tweet into awesome art https://t.co/M56c4PfXt2 pic.twitter.com/LmyQz1bJN1

— Jenny Jaffe (@jennyjaffe) April 26, 2020

What other suggestions do you have for early career scholars seeking to revive or re-envision their research agendas? What questions or comments do you have for the ECF?

Coping with COVID-19 As An Early Career Scholar (Part I)

By Lindsay M. Fallon, University of Massachusetts – Boston; and Amanda L. Sullivan, University of Minnesota Over the past few months, COVID-19 has been known to infect over a million people worldwide. Its spread brings great concern for physical health and safety, but also emotional wellness; access to healthcare, education and employment; caring for oneself and others; managing competing responsibilities; and much more. A pandemic of this magnitude is uncharted territory for most of us and there remain many unknowns. Intense and new feelings about the virus and its impact are justified. Kindness to oneself is critical in navigating through this difficult and unsettling time.As early career scholars in a helping profession, it can be hard to know exactly what to do or how to help. Those whom we support, teach, and mentor may be experiencing illness or significant disruptions to their life (e.g., moving away or back home to be with family, experiencing an abrupt end to on-site fieldwork, managing the interruption to dissertation data collection, unemployment or illness among family members). Challenges may be exacerbated for individuals from historically minoritized backgrounds, including first-gen students, individuals from racially minoritized backgrounds, women, and others given racialized, classist, gendered, and ableist dimensions of this crisis. Taken together, this may bring about feelings of disappointment, discomfort, and even grief. Those we mentor may require additional and more intensive support during a time when we also need time and space to process and adjust to unanticipated changes ourselves. It is critical we engage in self-care, access social support, and set and maintain manageable expectations now and in the coming months.There are many ways to engage in self-care. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recommend: 

• Taking breaks from watching, reading, or listening to news stories, including social media. Hearing about the pandemic repeatedly can be upsetting.
• Taking care of one’s body by engaging in relaxation techniques (deep breathing, stretching, meditation), healthy eating, exercise, and adequate sleep.
• Making time to unwind and connect with others. Talking with trusted friends and colleagues can help to process difficult events and feelings.

Additional recommendations and resources have been offered by NASP, SAMHSA and others. Accessing necessary social support is, of course, impacted by the practice of social distancing, or physical distancing as it is more aptly named. Guidance by the American Psychological Association (APA) emphasizes the value of using technology in the absence of face-to-face interactions. This includes using phone calls, text messages, video chat and social media to access social support networks. There are many virtual social media support groups emerging (e.g., Facebook groups) to facilitate communication and a sense of community. While social and professional support needs will vary for individuals, the realization that all early career scholars are experiencing this pandemic together is powerful. We hope that early career scholars utilize each other as support systems and build stronger collaborative relationships as a result of these challenging times.It’s also important to set and maintain manageable expectations in the coming weeks and months. What is manageable is necessarily different now and will likely vary throughout this pandemic. Most faculty are grappling with the unwieldy task of quickly transitioning to online instruction while also managing extensive, and perhaps growing, personal demands. Rebecca Barrett-Fox offered numerous reasons why you should please do a bad job of putting your courses online during this unprecedented time. Her rationale and corresponding recommendations are especially helpful for scholars who are deeply committed to high quality preparation of school psychologists and high personal standards of excellence generally. We all want to do our best. As she points out, present circumstances necessitate a qualitatively different approach to online teaching than we’d pursue outside of a crisis. Be kind to yourself and your students by doing less. That’s more important now than learning and implementing the most recent teaching apps or ensuring that your online course is as rigorous as you’d intended the in-person class to be before COVID-19 upended everything. Elsewhere, recommendations for supporting struggling online learners are increasingly abundant, but the general themes are to be flexible, low tech, and as minimalistic as possible. It's also reasonable to assume your students are or will be struggling with COVID-related challenges and to practice compassion accordingly.Contrary to early posturing about mimicking Shakespeare or Newton’s pandemic productivity, this crisis does not lend itself to research productivity for most of us. We aren’t on mandatory writing retreats when stay-at-home or shelter-in-place orders are issued by university and state leaders. This is especially true for individuals now acclimating to round-the-clock childcare duties; distance learning support for school-age kids; mutual aid for friends, loved ones, and community members; and supporting our students, advisees, supervisees, and colleagues---to say nothing of the personal emotional toll of all of this. We are anxious. We are angry. We are grieving. We are scared.As scholars and graduate educators, most of us have the privilege of being able to continue our work from our homes following social distancing and home isolation orders. Yet, as many have pointed out, “You’re not working from home. You’re sheltering in place during a pandemic and trying to get work done in the gaps between taking care of yourself, your loved ones, and your worries.” Such pandemic work is fundamentally different from choosing to work from home outside of an international crisis. Research findings on employees’ stable or enhanced productivity when working from home are not generalizable to our present context. We must give ourselves permission to expect less from everyone---ourselves, our students, our collaborators, our colleagues---right now. 

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— Seánie (@seanieflanagan) April 1, 2020

Indeed, it may be hard to concentrate or focus on certain tasks, making it difficult to feel productive. This can feel stressful, but is completely understandable. Now, productivity will likely look very different than it did last semester. Practice acknowledging and accepting this, along with celebrating what you are doing: responding to the needs of students, colleagues, clients, etc. is essential, meaningful work. Also, many of us now have children at home all day and are navigating work and caregiving responsibilities. This calls for flexibility with deadlines, requests, and workload. As such, it might also be important to communicate with professional colleagues about capacity and deadlines (e.g., asking for more time to review manuscripts for editorial boards). It is important to think about ways to advocate for one’s needs during this time. Don’t be afraid to request extensions, step away from projects, or ask for other assistance. For tenure-track junior faculty, it may be necessary to discuss with department, college, and university colleagues about adjusted expectations pre-tenure (e.g., fewer publications required; paused tenure clocks). Many universities are automatically extending probationary periods or are allowing faculty to opt in to pausing their clocks. It can be difficult to grant yourself use of such allowances because of common criticisms of pausing clocks that many of us have encountered from senior scholars and others, not to mention concern for how it may widen gender disparities, but these are extraordinarily challenging times. Those of us with more privilege* must advocate and assist our more vulnerable colleagues. This means being flexible with scheduling, deadlines, and delegation of responsibilities and assignments. It means, as much as possible given our own challenges, shouldering more of the burden than we put on junior faculty, contingent faculty colleagues, and students. It also means advocating for tenure clock extensions if they aren’t already in place and ensuring that we make allowances for this lost year when evaluating junior scholars’ accomplishments and potential in the context of promotion, tenure (pssst - external reviewers), student reviews, hiring, or grant or fellowship proposals. The likely impact on grades, research output, teaching evaluations, service activities, and other professional activities or accomplishments should not be ignored or downplayed once this pandemic passes. In the coming days, weeks, and months, we will have a better sense of how long COVID-19 will impact our daily lives and of the long lasting impact the pandemic will have on our field and society. In the meantime, we can take care of ourselves and others by normalizing our own feelings of discomfort and stress, engaging in self-care to the extent that we’re able, accessing social support as needed, setting and maintaining manageable expectations, and being an advocate for what we need at this time. This is undoubtedly a pivotal moment in history. Let’s be kind to ourselves as we navigate the duality of this unprecedented time.

 

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This is part 1 of at least two posts the Early Career Forum is preparing to address the unique circumstances COVID-19 presents for early career scholars and others in our school psychology community. Our next installment will address the research challenges for early career scholars in school psychology. To our readers: What questions do you have for the ECF? What resources or opportunities would you like to see? What other recommendations would you offer to our community for coping with COVID-related issues as an early career scholar? Tell us in the comments section below or comment on Twitter or Facebook.* As a full professor, I (Amanda) know that I am co-writing this from a place of immense privilege. I challenge myself and my similarly privileged peers to ask how we can support those without the luxuries of rank, tenure, and everything that comes with it. We must also keep in mind that the consequences of this crisis will continue to reverberate, even when/if we return to business as usual, so our grace must extend beyond the crisis.

NASP 2020 Recap & Handouts

Thanks for joining us for the Early Career Forum's sessions and events at the NASP 2020 Convention! Thanks to all the early career scholars who joined us as well as the panelists and mentors who contributed: Scott Ardoin, Stacy Bender, Amy Briesch, Elaine Clark, Bridget Dever, Tanya Eckert, Lindsay Fallon, Randy Floyd, Daniel Gadke, Sally Grapin, Bryn Harris, Bridget Hier, Shane Jimerson, Janine Jones, Steve Kilgus, Dave Klingbeil, Katie Maki, Amity Noltemeyer, Andy Roach, and Ethan Van Norman.We're pleased to share handouts from our three sessions:

• SS024 - Effectively Mentoring Student Research: Leading a Productive Lab
• SS003 - Methods Matter: The Promise of Empirical Research to Inform Practice
• PA176 - Careers in Academia: Aligning Research, Teaching, and Service

If you have ideas for future conference programming or events, or topics you'd like to see us address here on the blog, please comment below.

Where Should I Send My Paper? Input from New Editors

By Ethan Van Norman, Lehigh University, with Robin Codding, Northeastern University; Craig Albers, University of Wisconsin Madison; and Shane Jimerson, University of California Santa BarbaraA cursory look through the topics addressed in the ECF blog sheds light on the numerous challenges associated with conducting research and preparing manuscripts you are likely to face as an early career scholar. Yet, even after the data are collected results are written up, and you’ve finally re-formatted all your tables to be consistent with the APA 7^th edition publication manual, an extremely common question that you may ask yourself is, “Where should I send this paper?” Previous blog posts on choosing journals and open access publishing have offered general advice for navigating this decision. The purpose of this post is to dive further into considerations for determining whether your work is a good fit for School Psychology, School Psychology Review, or the Journal of School Psychology.The fact that you are reading this suggests that you are actively engaged or will be engaged in research that addresses issues relevant to the field of school psychology. Yet, if you have had had the joy of planning training curricula or reviewing training standards, you are well aware that the field encompasses a broad range of topics. As a consequence, school psychology researchers publish in a wide variety of journals with foci that overlap with the broader aims of the field to varying degrees (Hulac, Johnson, Ushijima, & Schneider, 2016). Yet, if you identify as a school psychologist, it is reasonable to assume that your research has some implications for the field of school psychology, and, as a consequence, at least some of your work should be published in journals widely read by your peers, or generalist school psychology journals (Floyd, 2018). To be blunt, it is likely that members of your promotion and tenure committee, as well as external letter writers, will expect that at least some of your work appears in journals widely read by school psychologists.In 2020, three generalist school psychology journals have or will be undergoing changes in editorial leadership. Dr. Robin Codding from Northeastern University will become the editor of School Psychology (formerly School Psychology Quarterly). Dr. Shane Jimerson from the University of California Santa Barbara will become editor of School Psychology Review. And Dr. Craig Albers will become editor of the Journal of School Psychology. An important recommendation from the previous blog post was that reading commentaries written by incoming editors can help you gain a sense of the editorial priorities and points of emphasis of the journal to make an informed decision about the fit of your paper with that journal. We have tried to facilitate this process by bringing together each editor to answer a common set of questions.Question 1: What is your vision for the journal moving forward? What major changes if any should authors look forward to?Robin Codding School Psychology: School Psychology has always prided itself on enhancing the science, practice, and policy of immediately pertinent issues for children, youth, and the adults who support them. We hope to offer scholars and practitioners access to cutting edge science that is grounded in practical applications and address current issues in the U.S and around the world. We will continue to offer high quality and timely reviews of manuscripts. Priority will be given to succinct manuscripts; however, exceptions can be made when justification is provided by authors, for topics that require greater length. School Psychology had a name change in 2019! Consistent increases in annual submissions over several years resulted in the move to offering 6 issues per year necessitating that School Psychology Quarterly be changed to School Psychology.Shane Jimerson School Psychology Review: BE THE CHANGE is our 2020 vision for SPR as posted at NASPonline.org (SPR is the official journal of NASP -- the largest association of school psychologists in the world). BE THE CHANGE is apropos for SPR considering that authors should look forward to the following changes:

• the partnership with Routledge / Taylor and Francis as the publisher of SPR (for instance, manuscripts accepted for publication will now be featured online first within 30 days),
• the increased size and breadth of expertise represented among the incoming leadership team (including the range of topics and methodologies relevant to school psychology),
• expanded Editorial Advisory Board of 130 practitioners and faculty members (including colleagues who will focus their reviews on Methods and Analyses),
• a new Student Editorial Board to prepare and include the next generation of school psychologists in peer review,
• the commitment to providing high quality and timely reviews (constructive reviews and decisions within 30 days of submission),
• the focus on advancing science to inform practice and policy,
• an opportunity to publish in a journal with increasing reach (over 20,000 practicing school psychologists, over 1,000 graduate educators, over 1,000 leaders across all 50 states, over 1,000 graduate students, in addition to institutional library subscriptions and online indexes),
• the emphasis on advancing diversification of school psychology, (featuring high-quality scholarship that includes participants from diverse groups, geographic regions, cultural, and marginalized or underrepresented and underserved groups (e.g., LGBQ, transgender, homeless, immigrant-origin, early career, and students),
• feature scholarship from related disciplines (including education, special education, as well as educational, developmental, counseling, child-clinical, pediatric, community, and family psychology)
• further emphasis on promoting dissemination of articles (including NASP, T&F, social media, videos, etc.), and
• special topic sections addressing new frontiers in school psychology (including open calls for all authors to submit their manuscripts for review and consideration).

Craig Albers Journal of School Psychology: I had the good fortune of serving the better part of the past 10 years as an Associate Editor for JSP and have been even more fortunate to have almost all of the AEs continuing in their roles moving forward. Given this stability, I am not envisioning any major changes moving forward – but check back with me in a year! The constantly evolving publishing landscape (e.g., open access, replication) requires that academic journals also evolve, thus one of my responsibilities is to continue positioning the journal in such a way to best disseminate scholars’ work not only for the present, but also in the future. Even without major changes, we will continue to look for ways to further strengthen the journal, enhance efficiencies, and facilitate and increase the reach and impact of the manuscripts published in JSP.JSP’s goals are not changing; the journal will strive to continue publishing the highest quality research that advances the science of school psychology. We will continue publishing empirical articles on research and practices relevant to psychological and behavioral processes in school settings, including research on intervention mechanisms and approaches; schooling effects on the development of social, cognitive, mental-health, and achievement-related outcomes; assessment; and consultation.Question 2: Which topics/themes, populations, and methodologies will you emphasize?Robin Codding School Psychology: School Psychology has a long commitment to publishing high quality manuscripts on a breadth of topics that are relevant to the field and represent the variety of settings, clients, and services that school psychologists engage in. Submissions from scholars and practitioners who engage in research in school psychology and related fields with a focus on promoting the educational, psychological, health and mental health services of children and youth, are encouraged. We encourage submissions that emphasize cross-national and cross-cultural topics as well as elucidate educational disparities. We hope to see submissions that address implementation of feasible, usable, culturally and contextually relevant evidence-based practices and their sustainability. We have four different manuscript submission types. The standard type that School Psychology has always offered is the empirical article. We also offer author guidelines for brief reports, systematic reviews and meta-analyses, as well as advances in research methods. As part of the Open Science movement, authors will generate brief impact statements that summarize each study’s findings for a general audience to increase dissemination and usage of research results. We are also encouraging submission of replication studies and high-quality studies that describe null findings. We are committed to publishing quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methodologies.Shane Jimerson School Psychology Review: SPR will emphasize empirical studies (quantitative, qualitative, mixed-methods, single-case), meta-analyses, systematic reviews, and other forms of scholarship that inform prevention, intervention, and support strategies that promote the social, emotional, behavioral, cognitive, mental health, and academic development of all children, youth, and their families. Meta-analyses and systematic reviews of important topics will be a particular emphasis SPR in the next few years. All authors are encouraged to submit their scholarship to SPR. SPR will feature high-quality scholarship that includes participants from diverse groups, geographic regions, cultural, and marginalized or underrepresented and underserved groups (e.g., LGBQ, transgender, homeless, immigrant-origin). SPR will embrace scholarship focusing on diversity considerations, social justice, and diverse populations will be emphasized in general articles as well as in timely special topic sections featuring contemporary science.Craig Albers Journal of School Psychology: Let me start by saying this: high quality research is valued, whether it be quantitative, qualitative, or mixed methods. If the manuscript (a) addresses a topic connected to the science of school psychology, (b) utilizes appropriate methodologies and analyses to answer the research questions, and (c) is well written, then three critical boxes are checked for submitting that manuscript to JSP. So, the issue isn’t what methodologies will be emphasized, but rather whether the appropriate methodologies and analytic approaches were utilized. JSP continues to welcome submissions utilizing a variety of methodologies.As mentioned earlier, the journal’s goals are not changing as JSP will continue publishing empirical articles relevant to the science of school psychology; because of this, the quantity and quality of submissions are the primary driving force as to what is published within JSP. With that being said, we must continue to push for more research examining issues surrounding underrepresented groups – broadly defined – and equity. One way to facilitate more research is to increase recognition of these issues, and publishing work in this area increases this recognition. Consequently, getting these manuscripts published, whether in JSP or other professional journals, is critical.  JSP remains committed to advancing our understanding of these issues and we strongly encourage you to consider submitting your work in these areas to JSP.Special issues provide an avenue for bringing additional attention to current and emerging issues, and moving forward, JSP will continue to publish special issues. Special issues are also one way where we can really draw attention to research with students from underrepresented backgrounds, so we will be working on developing one or more special issues in this area. Andy Garbacz, who has served as a JSP AE since 2014, has agreed to serve as a Senior Associate Editor and will help facilitate special issue development. If you have an interest in exploring a possible special issue, by all means, please let Andy, any of our AEs, or me know as we would love to explore it more with you, support its development, and eventually see it in publication.Question 3. What advice do you have for authors to determine whether their work is a good fit for the journal?Robin Codding School Psychology: School Psychology has a wide casting net and audience as the official Division 16 journal of the American Psychological Association (https://apadivision16.org/publications/school-psychology-quarterly/ ). This includes APA Author Features such as the Journals Dialogue Podcast for early career scholars and opportunities to be featured in the Article Spotlight.I recommend that authors become very familiar with the official journal website. It is helpful for authors to attend to the call for papers to identify the scope of content the journal publishes. School Psychology also advertises calls for special topics on the website with the goal of highlighting work in a particular area. It is useful if authors familiarize themselves with the editorial review board members to find individuals with areas of expertise that match the content and methodology of their study. General author guidelines as well as guidelines for each manuscript type are available on the website and provide specific recommendations for manuscript formatting and fit. I think it is a good idea to read one or two published articles representing a manuscript type to get a true sense of the journal expectations and visualize what the final production looks like. Finally, authors should feel welcome to reach out directly to me, via email, to discuss manuscript fit with the School Psychology.Shane Jimerson School Psychology Review: Regarding advice for authors to evaluate goodness of fit with SPR -- If your scholarship is innovative, high quality, aims to advance science, inform practice and/or policy, or has particular relevance to help support the increasingly diverse children and families in the United States, and you want to receive high quality feedback within 30 days, then SPR is a great journal for you to submit your scholarship. Colleagues are encouraged to visit the SPR website, which includes published articles, aims and scope for the journal, instructions for authors, and the manuscript submission portal. We also welcome pre-submission inquiries, so email us. We encourage early career colleagues to join us, to – BE THE CHANGE – and submit your scholarship to SPR.Craig Albers Journal of School Psychology: It probably goes without saying that reviewing the journal’s description and the past 2-3 years of publications within a specific journal will give you a really good idea as to the types of topics and methodologies that the journal tends to publish. However, the cautionary note with this approach is that depending on your work, it is possible that the journal hasn’t previously received any submissions similar to yours, whether that is because your work is innovative, groundbreaking, or in an area where others simply have not been conducting research. Thus, in addition to reviewing information provided by the journal, I strongly encourage you to reach out to the journal’s editor or one of the journal’s associate editors and simply discuss with these individuals. As a former AE and now editor, I truly enjoy communicating with authors who are trying to determine if JSP may be the best home for their work.Thank you to each editor for taking the time to respond to each question.What tactics do you use to decide where to send your work? Share your tips and tricks below!

Resolutions to Improve Your Statistics Fitness This New Year

By Ethan Van Norman, Lehigh UniversityMany topics on this blog are dedicated to helping early career faculty identify, develop, and sustain a productive program of research. As with most things in academia, navigating this process seems to become easier with time as we learn strategies and habits to remain productive and free up our time. However, there is one arguable advantage that researchers just out of graduate school hold over more experienced faculty. Recent graduates are likely to have received the most up-to date training in cutting-edge statistical analyses. The more seasoned veteran may have not have run a given statistical test for well over half a decade or are using an expired SPSS license while the newest hire is explaining how R works to the rest of their colleagues. Fortunately, there are ways to ensure that your statistics muscles do not completely atrophy. The purpose of this post is to describe potential strategies, and associated considerations, to keep up to date with your quantitative training.Paid Seminars and Classes Demands from associate editors and reviewers for sophisticated quantitative analyses seems like an ever rising tide. Given that many researchers lack training in analytic approaches only recently made accessible via commercially available software for personal computers (e.g., Bayesian analysis, multilevel modeling, item response theory, etc.), many companies have stepped in to offer paid trainings on these analyses in a condensed class format. Often, you may required to pay upwards of multiple hundreds to thousands of dollars to enroll in a class to learn a given set of analyses. Course formats can be face-to-face, online, or hybrid. One such provider charges $1,295 to participate in a three day face-to-face training. Depending on your geographic location, there may be other options that are less expensive. For instance, there are training options that last two days face-to-face and start around $900. Sometimes you can receive a discount (sometimes upwards of $300) if you attend the training online rather than face-to-face. Another option is to check university websites as summer approaches, as many institutions offer statistical training over a 1-2-week period during breaks. Briefer trainings are frequently available in conjunction with annual meetings and conventions.In terms of paid online courses, many of the providers listed above will offer access to previously taped trainings or offer live-streaming synchronous options if you are unable to attend in person. A google search provides other online-only options for training.Things to ConsiderFirst, it is advisable to consider costs other than registration fees to attend such training, such as airfare, hotel, meals, and if applicable missed time from work when making your decision. Further, if the analyses you want to learn require specialized software, find out whether the software will be provided at the training or if you are expected to have purchased and downloaded the software prior to arriving. Some software packages cost more than the laptops you’re reading this post on. Using start-up funds to cover these costs may be a wise investment if the software is not something your unit, college, or university provides. Also, be sure to verify the level of familiarity with the software needed to participate in the training.It goes without saying that paid seminars and classes are expensive! Therefore, it is in your best interest to make sure that the training is worth your money and time. The best advice is to talk to colleagues about their impressions of trainings they have completed (please comment below!). In addition, it may be worthwhile to search reviews or message board posts about attendees’ experiences. Be sure to seek out information from websites unaffiliated with the company as a common marketing tactic is to selectively post positive testimonials from customers. Relatedly, make sure that the training you are considering is appropriately geared towards social scientists or educational researchers. Statistics training is a rather nebulous term and any topic can be approached with different levels of breadth and depth. While it may be nice to understand the matrix algebra behind a new-to-you analysis or to delineate each assumption associated with a given probability density function, this information may not be crucial to your needs. Ensure that you will be equipped to carry out the research you wish to pursue after completing the training.For any training that you pay to attend, make sure that course materials will be made available to you after the training has ended. In the midst of the all-day training you may feel extremely confident that you’re absorbing all of this new information without a problem. Once you come back to reality and are pulled in 100 different directions, it may be difficult—if not impossible—to retain all that new knowledge. Being able to revisit lecture notes, activities, and videos from that seminar will be invaluable to ensure you retain everything you have learned.Auditing/Sitting in ClassesAnother option may be to sit-in on a class being taught by a colleague at your university. This may be beneficial in that the content of the course is not condensed into a few rapid-fire daylong classes. As one can imagine, this option is dependent on you having a positive relationship with the instructor of the course. In addition, there may be other institutional considerations within the department or university at play. Generally, you can be clear this up by having a discussion with the instructor of the course.Things to ConsiderIt goes without saying that one of the biggest perks of our jobs as instructors is academic freedom. To that end, it is imperative that if you are to sit in on someone’s class you (a) ask them beforehand, (b) not take up space or resources that would otherwise be used for students paying tuition, and (c) not act in an evaluative manner regarding the instructors teaching. A little bit of perspective taking can go a long way. Ask yourself how you would feel if a colleague sat in on your course for an entire semester and act accordingly. If you are a more senior faculty member, recognize the power differential that may be at play if you make the request to a newer colleague. While they may have the option to decline, they may feel uncomfortable doing so to someone that holds a vote as to whether they will keep their job in the next few years.Another consideration relates to the method of delivery. Be sure that you have the time to dedicate to the course throughout the entire semester (to both make the scheduled class time and work needed outside of class). The optics of treating a class that your colleague has invested substantial time and energy into as a drop-in service can be a very bad look. In addition, if you truly want to get the most out of the course, be prepared to do any reading and assignments given to students. While it may not be possible to receive graded feedback from your efforts (again, think about how you would feel if you had another paper to grade from a non-student), actually practicing the skills being demonstrated is critical.Self-Study A third option is to engage in self-study. There are no shortage of textbooks covering novel statistical analyses. The most straightforward method would be picking up a book and working through it. Building upon the previous point, many faculty are willing to share a reading list or syllabus regarding an analytic method if attending a class is not feasible. Having an annotated bibliography can also help in conducting a self-assessment to determine where you may have more or less conceptual and procedural knowledge about a given approach.Things to ConsiderThe feasibility of engaging in sustained self-study is almost entirely driven by your level of personal accountability. Although you may buy a book with the best of intentions, without a clearly defined schedule for completing readings—and intentionally blocking out time each week to complete those readings—it is very likely that it will end up on your shelf collecting dust. In addition to finding a book geared toward a social science or educational audience, it may be beneficial to seek out textbooks written with the intent of self-study. That is, some authors have written resources in the prologue or foreword with recommended reading order and practice exercises with answers to assist in mastering the content. However, in this case, it is critical that you actually do the exercises. Building upon the broader open-science movement in psychology and educational research, some authors will record and distribute lectures from classes that the textbooks are based on for free. Again, creating and sticking to a pre-determined schedule to watch each lecture on a specified date and time will increase the probability of following through with the endeavor.Another strategy could be to engage in a book club in which colleagues with similar interests also read and work through the book on a common schedule. Having regular conference calls or discussions can help maintain accountability.Conclusion All of the options discussed thus far have a common shortcoming: each lack an expert instructor to actively monitor your mastery of the content and provide corrective feedback. The reality is, absent actually enrolling in graduate-level statistics classes, you are unlikely to be exposed to such a highly structured environment with frequent feedback to learn a new statistical analysis at this point in your career. For the vast majority of the readers of this blog, their PhD is their terminal degree. Therefore, before undertaking any endeavor to broaden your statistical toolbox, it would be wise to critically evaluate how acquiring this new skill will help further your career. That is, you should weigh the potential return on investment of learning a new statistical strategy. Will this new set of skills help maintain or propel your research agenda? Or is the desire to learn a new strategy driven by a one-off study? If the reason is the latter, your time may be better spent seeking collaborations with colleagues that have expertise in that analytic strategy. It goes without saying that being able to read, understand, and execute the statistical analyses underlying your research is crucial. However, it is important to remember there are multiple ways to contribute to a research project. What have been your experience with the approaches discussed here? Are there other factors to consider? Feel free to discuss these points in the comments section below!