Here, you guide the healthy development of children and young adults.
School psychologists help meet the academic, social-emotional,
and mental health needs of children and families across the nation. Governors
State’s Specialist in School Psychology program
equips you to deliver a continuum of direct and indirect services to children,
families, educators, and administrators as you enhance student learning and
promote safe, healthy school climates. You will learn to meet the needs of
children, from early childhood through young adulthood.
The
School Psychology program is grounded in the scientist-practitioner model—a
training model that provides graduate students with a strong research
foundation—and emphasizes school-based service delivery that is empirically
supported, data driven, and culturally competent.
Reach your career
goals.
As a graduate of the School Psychology program, you will have
achieved both a Psychology M.A. and a School Psychology Ed.S. Upon program
completion, you will be eligible to apply for practice in Illinois.
Why become a School Psychologist?
As of 2017, the national median salary
for school psychologists is $75,090, while Chicago’s
mean salary for school psychologists is $80,510 (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Achieve your Ed.S. in four years. Governors State’s 68 credit-hour School Psychology Training Program is a part-time, cohort-based, dual degree
program. Upon completion, students will earn both a Master of Arts (M.A.) and
an Educational Specialist (Ed.S.) degree in School Psychology.

Yadira Bustamante
I really appreciate the time and effort that GSU professors, administrators, and staff dedicate to preparing competent, conscious, and skillful specialists in the field of school psychology. I have learned that a school psychologist needs to be a professional who is well aware of the importance of empirical research and who takes into consideration factors such as psychometrics, statistics, validity, and reliability while at the same time being mindful about ethics, legality, assessment, learning and behavioral interventions, and special education services among many other issues. GSU’s School Psychology program transformed my liking for this profession into a passion for becoming an exceptional and distinguished school psychologist.

Dr. Danel Koonce, School Psychology Program Coordinator
One of the areas which demonstrated to me that GSU students are incredibly well-trained is the care and effort they exercised in preparing the lesson for an active research project for a group of high school students that was extended beyond the original curriculum. The GSU students showed an acute awareness of the needs of the high school students by balancing the integration of technology with hands-on activities. The high schoolers were somewhat apprehensive to engage in the lesson, but with minimal prompting from the GSU students, I heard laughter, choral responding, and a commitment to implement the skills taught in the lesson. The GSU students then solicited feedback from me unprompted and almost flawlessly embedded the feedback in their next lesson.