Psychology in the Schools, School Psychology Review, School Psychology Quarterly, and Journal of Educational and Psychological Consultation Editors Collaborate to Chart School Psychology's Past, Present, and "Futures"

For the first time in the history of school psychology, four editors of journals with a school psychology readership are collaborating to offer our field extensive coverage of the recently held School Psychology Futures conference and to continue discussion on a variety of topics relevant to the professional practice of school psychology. This introduction will briefly describe the special journal issues that will be offered in Psychology in the Schools (PITS), School Psychology Review (SPR), School Psychology Quarterly (SPQ), and Journal of Educational and Psychological Consultation (JEPC) on topics related to the conference. This information is provided in an effort to offer our readers a Futures link across a variety of journals and organizations (including both the Division of School Psychology of the American Psychological Association and the National Association of School Psychologists). (All of our journals are available by subscription, or individual special issues can be purchased from the publishers listed.) This introduction, which will be reprinted at the beginning of all of our special issues, will establish a context for the Futures conference by discussing the promise (and practice) of school psychology in our ever changing, vibrant, but problem-saturated society. We hope you will join us in using these vital resources to help chart new Futures for school psychology.

For almost a half-century, students in school psychology have investigated the "Boulder" and "Thayer" conferences (e.g., Cults, 1955; Raimy, 1950), studying and exploring our foundation as scientist-practitioners and brooding over the "school" in school psychology. While the Boulder conference clearly contributed to the science in our practice (Bardon, 1989; Gutkin & Reynolds, 1999), most of the issues considered at the Thayer conference (e.g., titles, roles, and services) were not resolved. The contributions of the "other" conferences, the Olympia Conference and the Spring Hill Symposium, remain even less obvious and the outcomes are even more debated (Ysseldyke & Weinberg, 1981). Indeed, school psychology's track record with psychology conferences is filled with a great deal of conversation but little documented change (Conoley & Gutkin, 1995; D'Amato & Dean, 1989; Sheridan & Gutkin, 2000). Nevertheless, current conceptualizations of leadership stress strategic planning and popular maxims of our day still reflect Benjamin Franklin's belief that "By failing to prepare you are preparing to fail."

With this in mind,...