Department of Psychology
- The Department encourages its undergraduates to complete professional practice placements in community social-service agencies, schools, and businesses. Two semesters of service-learning in psychology and an accompanying faculty-led seminar meet the requirement for a capstone experience. Over 50 students each year complete this experience.
- The Psychological Services Center offers consultation to parents and teachers for children's school-related problems. Its Autism Service is the only one in McLean County and provides supports to local school districts. The Psychological Services Center has also added the College Learning Assessment Service, a service for the college-age population with suspected or diagnosed learning disabilities.
- Psychology’s doctoral program has earned reaccreditation by the American Psychological Association (APA). Illinois State offers the only APA-accredited School Psychology doctoral program in the state of Illinois.
- Students from the Department’s specialist and doctoral programs earn 100 percent placement rates for internships and first professional positions as certified school psychologists. They also have a 100 percent pass rate on the Illinois State Board of Education subject test in school psychology.
- Each year, the Department helps alleviate the shortage of school psychologists in Illinois by graduating eight to twelve certified psychologists.
- Interns placed through the Illinois School Psychology Internship Consortium, which the Department co-sponsors, have remained in Illinois as School Psychologists at a rate of 87%. ISPIC has reversed the loss of doctoral-level school psychologists, not only by retaining those trained in Illinois but also by attracting those trained elsewhere.
- The department’s faculty members are active scholars who each year publish about 50 journal articles and book chapters and present about 100 papers at professional conferences. Many serve in editorial roles for professional journals: one as Co-Editor, four as Associate Editors, and 13 as members of Editorial Boards. They also received fifteen research grants and service contracts in the last year, amounting to $424,095.
