Quality and improvement potential in school psychology services

The present study evaluates the collaboration and school psychology task pr iority of elementary school administrators, teachers and school psychology counsellors. The aim of the study was to shed light on the subjects' servic e quality concepts and to evaluate the change potential of the categorical school psychology services (SPS). Factor analyses of the Collaboration Inde x show different quality indicators between administrators and teachers. So me support was found for agreement among school personnel, that responsiven ess of school psychology counsellors is the most important quality criterio n. The Task Priority Index shows overlapping preferences among the school p ersonnel-all groups wanting extension of all services. Teachers, however, w ant more consultation and systemic prevention services than administrators, who were more preoccupied by the timeliness and availability of the servic es. Teachers who are members of special education teams evaluate the collab oration with the SPS more positively than do non-members. They also demand fewer extra services than non-members. A promising finding is the school pe rsonnel's and the SP personnel's agreement that intervention, consultation and prevention need preference over categorical services. The finding is di scussed in relation to the change potential of the SPS.