Author: Carl Milofsky

Publisher:

Published: 1989

Total Pages: 288

ISBN-13:

Carl Milofsky studies the organizational dilemmas that confront school psychologists and the strategies they employ to work effectively in schools. He looks closely at the process of intelligence testing, showing that important racial differences exist in the testing of black as opposed to white children. He finds that psychologists spend two to three times longer testing white children than black children. He argues that since test scores are not objective measures that can be interpreted quickly, the time spent in testing is very important. He explains these differences as a product of organizational differences in urban and non-urban schools. Urban school psychologists define their role passively and narrowly; they think of themselves as bureaucrats, and as a result urban children are more likely to receive hurried, often careless testing. Suburban psychologists often have a different sense of their job. They think of themselves as professionals who serve children and defend them against an irrational, coercive organization.