Summary of the Results of the Survey of OSPA Members, November 1996

In the fall of 1996, the Executive Board of the Oregon School Psychologists Association ordered a survey of current members to determine demographics and member preferences and satisfaction with services. Over 300 surveys were sent out and 118 were returned for a participation rate of approximately 39%.

Quick Summary

The majority of respondents are trained at the Master's level and are employed as school psychologists. Salaries range from $30,000 to $60,000 annually. Six respondents are retired (5%), and 13 are within 10 years of retirement (11%). Ten respondents engage in some form of private practice (8%), but only 2 of those practice more than 5 hours per week (1.7%).

October and April are the preferred months for training conferences. There is a moderate preference for Portland as the favorite location because of proximity and entertainment options. Most members recommended against remote destinations, although a few liked the opportunity to "get away from it all," particularly if the far-off location was a resort area.

The five services of OSPA that received the largest number of "Essential" ratings were:

• Newsletter
• NASP
• Professional Standards Committee
• Legislative Committee
• Tri-State Conference

The services with the least number of "Essential" ratings were:

• Regional Groups
• Awards
• Liaisons
• Fall Conference

Demographics

Over 300 surveys were sent to all current members, plus members from last year who are late in paying dues. Current OSPA Board members did not receive a survey. A total of 118 replies were received. All who responded to the optional question reported Caucasian ethnicity.

About a decade before the survey, the field was evenly populated with males and females. It seemed that more and more women were becoming school psychologists; however, the majority of OSPA leadership positions were occupied by males.

Job title: This was an open-ended question with a total of 80 responses, distributed as follows. (It is not clear why some people did not answer this question.)

Level of training: There were 90 responses. Nearly two-thirds have professional training at the Master's level. It is not clear why some people did not respond to this question, since even students in training programs should have a Bachelor's degree.

Salary: There were 93 responses.

Years in school psychology: There were 94 responses.

School psychologists in Oregon are a rather young occupational group, with almost half working nine years or less.

Years living in Oregon: There were 99 responses.

The overall pattern is similar to that obtained for the number of years in school psychology.

Years to retirement: There were 74 responses. Six individuals were already retired. (People were asked to answer this question in relation to the age at which they plan to retire; results may have been confounded by a ballot measure pending in the November election that changed the retirement age.)

Over the next nine years, about 18% of the membership was expected to retire; within fourteen years, that number would jump to 43.3%. It appears that many members planned to take advantage of early retirement options.

Hours per week in private practice: There were 89 responses. These figures suggest there are not very many school psychologists who work in a private setting.

Conference Preferences

Location: There were 127 responses for "best" or most desired location and 45 responses as to the "worst" or least preferred. (This was an open-ended question, so it is not clear whether "Southern Oregon" includes Eugene, or whether "Eastern Oregon" includes the Bend area or just the far reaches of the state, such as Ontario.) The largest number of respondents preferred to attend meetings in the Portland area — most likely reflecting the fact that most school psychologists work in the metro area.

Preferred month: There were 140 responses for the best month and 40 for the worst month. April and October were the two months with the biggest response — the months in which conferences were usually held. Many respondents rated the Spring Conference and Tri-State as "essential"; markedly fewer rated the Fall conference as "essential."

Evaluation of OSPA Services

The survey asked respondents to rate each OSPA activity against two criteria. The first was "Essential vs. Optional," included to guide the Executive Board in case OSPA faced the need to cut back to basic services only. The second was "Fine As Is vs. Needs Improvement," included to provide information about member satisfaction. Very few members rated all activities on both dimensions, and the responses were sometimes illogical (for example, a member might rate the Legislative Committee as "optional" but then comment that OSPA needed to do more political action).

In considering various explanations for this pattern, the Task Force determined that most members lacked sufficiently detailed knowledge about the services to make an informed judgment. The newsletter is the one universal member service, yet only 76% chose to rate it on the "Essential/Optional" dimension, and only 63% offered an opinion on "Fine As Is/Needs Improvement."

Several members noted "there is always room for improvement" and universally marked the "Needs Improvement" box, giving a somewhat negative overall quality to the results. The Survey Task Force suggested that the Board and Committee Chairs study the following statistics for broad trends relative to the overall results, rather than becoming discouraged about any single number. (Percentages are calculated on the number of responses per item.)

The five services with the largest number of "Essential" ratings were the Newsletter, NASP, Professional Standards, Legislative, and Tri-State. The two lowest rated services were Awards and Regional Groups.

The Task Force thanks the members who responded to the survey. The results were presented at the January 9, 1997 Executive Board meeting and were helpful in a number of decisions — so your assistance has already had an effect!