THOMAS J. KEHLE AND MELISSA A. BRAY

We argue that the existence of the gap is perhaps a result of an overallegiance to the medical

model and the lack of measurable criteria regarding the definition of an educated and psychologically

healthy student. Further, an additional and equally daunting problem for school psychological

practice is that it is influenced by general education that has scant evidence of

accumulated scientifically based knowledge that demonstratively improves the education of children.

The belief that educational practice continually increases in its effectiveness is simply not

warranted. Consequently, educational practice is in constant reform and subjected to legal mandates

that are most often equally ineffective and at times even detrimental. The intent of this

paper is to suggest ways, within this broader milieu, to reduce the gap between science and

practice. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Despite sustained criticism of school psychological practices devoid of scientific bases, many

still enjoy widespread popularity. The allegiance to these practices is at least partially caused by

the practitioner’s overreliance on the medical model, intuition, tradition, and the belief in the

righteousness of legislation. School psychological practice should be a scientifically based problemsolving

inquiry to determine what works best to promote children’s academic and social functioning.

Inquiry is a quest for objectivity that is, however, always associated with some degree of error.

However, there are some popular practices that contain considerable error and should not be

employed, such as the use of projective techniques and profile analyses. The initial task to address

this gap between science and practice is to identify why such practices are employed without

sufficient scientific support, and further why more appropriate practices are not embraced.

Focusing on one of these issues, legislation that is not firmly based in science promotes and

tends to justify inappropriate practices (e.g., Education of All Handicapped Children’s Act, 1975;

and its subsequent reauthorizations, and the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, Public Law 107–

110). The passage of and compliance with these eventually becomes synonymous with moral and

good practice. Noncompliance or criticism of components of the public law, such as Kehle and

Guidubaldi’s (1980) questioning the worth of team placement and individual educational plans on

enhancing the academic and social competence of students, is often met with scorn and viewed as

something wrong or even immoral (Kehle & Guidubaldi, 1982). After 27 years, there exists, as far

as we are aware, no convincing evidence of the worth of these two components (i.e., team placement

decisions and individual educational plans) with respect to either promoting students’ academic

or social competencies. Nevertheless, to suggest that team placement meetings, or the

design of IEPs not be continued because they are ineffectual, and furthermore are an incredible

waste of an inordinate amount of professional, staff, and parental time, would be considered

nothing less than heretical.

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) is based on the assumption that increased

accountability, greater freedom of choice for students and parents, greater flexibility on how states

and local education agencies allocate Federal education monies, and an emphasis on reading,

particularly in the primary grades will substantially improve the effectiveness of educational prac-

Correspondence to: Thomas J. Kehle, University of Connecticut, Department of Educational Psychology, Storrs, CT

06269. E-mail: kehle@uconn.edu

Psychology in the Schools, Vol. 42(5), 2005 © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI: 10.1002/pits.20093

577

tice promoting children’s academic competencies. The accountability component of NCLB is

based on annual testing of all students in grades 3 through 8 and annual statewide assessment of

progress toward meeting state proficiency goals within 12 years. These proficiency goals are based

on the performance of the state’s lowest-achieving demographic group, or on its lowest achieving

schools in reading and mathematics. The academic and professional development program components

of NCLB are based on research and superficially are quite appealing. However there are

several fundamental assumptions of NCLB that not only make the effort fool hearty, but very well

could further erode faith in public education. For example, supposedly all teachers must be “highly

qualified.” Perhaps the best definition of “highly qualified” teachers is those that evidence annual

academic achievement of their students beyond that what would be normally predicted based on

maturation alone. The determination of a cut point based on some standard deviation units beyond

that normally expected is certainly subjective, and most probably unachievable, and most assuredly

almost impossible to ascertain for each elementary school teacher in grades 3 through 8.

However, anything less than the “academic growth of their students” criteria will likely further

attenuate the not too rigid current standards.

The notion that funding would be available to support scientifically based instructional techniques

to teach reading is also somewhat of a myth. What would these be? Are they to be developed

at some future date? We are simply unaware of any available reading program designed for

elementary grade children that results in appreciable and enduring gains in reading comprehension

scores. The assumption that NCLB will afford the opportunity for all children by the third grade

the ability to read is revolutionary in that such has never occurred previously in the history of

American public education. Finally, the fundamental goal of NCLB, that schools will achieve

100% proficiency in reading, mathematics, and science in 12 years, is its most serious flaw. It

represents the denial of the existence of individual differences and the Gaussian curve. Specifi-

cally, with regard to children’s reading comprehension, the focus of NCLB represents more wishful

and socially acceptable thinking rather than sensitivity to evidence, although incontrovertible

but most often dismissed, that indicates the genetic characteristics “that determine individual

differences in IQ are largely the same as those that determine individual differences in reading

skills.” (Brody, 1992, p. 258). Cardon, DiLalla, Plomin, Defries, and Fulker (as cited in Brody,

1992, p. 257) using behavioral genetic analysis to determine the relationship between children’s

IQ and reading achievement indicated that reading achievement and IQ were equally heritable and

“estimated that 90% of the covariance between reading achievement and IQ was attributed to

shared genetic covariance” (Brody, 1992, p. 257). It is highly doubtful that NCLB will alter

children’s reading achievement to any appreciable and enduring extent and the consequences for

not doing so under this Draconian legislation are grim for not only the professional administration

and teaching staff, but for all of those involved in public education including the students the law

was intentionally designed to help.

In addition to ill-conceived legislation, the bewildering breath of theories and practices support

the assumption that there is little or no unifying knowledge either in educational practice or

the field of school psychology. In both, there is an absence of any substantial cumulative knowledge

or consensus on practices. Although these assumptions may be contested, they are supported

by the observation that in the 15,000 or so school districts throughout the United States there is no

convincing evidence that any one of these, through their varied and independent curricula, policies,

or practices, produce academic achievement beyond that which would be predicted years

before on the basis of indices of cognitive functioning. “That is to say, children who are intellectually

average, evidence average academic achievement, no matter where they go to school. This

578 Kehle and Bray

inescapable observation is particularly apparent in the later grades.” (Kehle, Clark, & Jenson,

1993, p. 158). “Jencks concluded variation among schools in the U.S. might account for as little as

2%–3% of the variance in academic achievement after the composition of the social class background

of the school were taken into account” (Brody, 1992, p. 260). A critical question is that

given the countless variation in how teachers actually teach, why, after controlling for cognitive

variables, is there no evidence of variation in achievement? “Variations in what children learn in

school are not attributable to variations in the nature of the schools but are attributable to the

characteristics that children bring to the schools.” (Brody, 1992, p. 260). Further, it can be posited

that children’s psychological health has not been appreciably promoted through the unique practices

of school psychologists or other health service providers in any particular school district. It

is highly probable that if data were aggregated even at the school building level, similar results

would be observed. That is to say, when cognitive variables are controlled across the 120,000

public and private schools, no one school would be more effective than any other in promoting

children’s academic competence.

In summary, there exists no convincing empirical evidence that public education is more

effective today than it was at the beginning of the 20th century (Witt, 1986). Nor is there any

convincing evidence that students are more psychologically healthy or exhibit more civility than

they did 100 years ago. Nevertheless, children do learn. However, it may have little or nothing to

do with the innumerable methodologies employed in the schools. For all the numerous and detailed

types of instructional interventions to result in effectively equal academic achievements may

suggest a common foundation of the learning process. Applying Glass’s (2001) statement to educational

practice, the implausibility that the overwhelming variety of specific educational strategies

and interventions, curricula and practices, delivered with in a bewildering multitude of

district and school-level policies would yield indistinguishable academic outcomes is a strong clue

that either it is instead a set of often unacknowledged common elements that is effective in promoting

student learning, or else it is a set of processes residing largely in the students and simply

mobilized by being in school that promotes educational obtainments.

Similarly,Wampold’s (2001) argument to replace the medical model with a contextual model

of practice has implications for both school psychology and education in general. The medical

model has its origins in psychotherapy and behaviorism and includes the identification of a “disorder

(hysteria), the explanation for the disorder (repressed traumatic events), a mechanism of

change (insight in unconscious), and specific therapeutic actions (free association)” (Wampold,

2001, p. 11). “Specificity, the critical aspect of the medical model, implies that the specific therapeutic

ingredients are remedial for the disorder. The specific ingredients are assumed to be responsible

(i.e., necessary) for client change or progress toward therapeutic goals” (Wampold, 2001,

p. 14).

The medical model is commonly employed in school psychological practice and is synonymous

with the diagnostic prescriptive approach. There is identification of a problem through

observation and diagnostic testing, an explanation for the problem and rationale for change that is

in concert with the school psychologist’s theoretical orientation, and implementation of an intervention

or treatment that contains specific components that are assumed to be efficacious.

According toWampold (2001), the medical model encompasses most, if not all, behaviorally

based interventions. Consequently, the empirically supported treatment movement is also firmly

based on the medical model in that it is predominated by behavioral and cognitive-behavioral

treatments (Wampold, 2001).

The medical model is enormously popular in school psychology in that it is literally required

as the basis of psycho-educational evaluations, and is the foundation of most university training

programs. Further, the NCLB legislation, in that it is based on the medical model, will engender

Reducing the Gap Between Research and Practice 579

considerable pressure on school psychologists to continue their allegiance to the model. However,

there is an alternative to the medical model which Wampold labeled the “contextual” model that

emphasizes a holistic common factors approach. The model is termed contextual because it emphasizes

that treatment effectiveness is due primarily to common factors. Although there certainly are

common elements across all treatments, the contextual model assumes that these common elements

cannot be isolated or investigated independently.

The contextual model is supported by the observation “that all of the many specific types of

psychotherapeutic treatments achieve virtually equal—or insignificantly different—benefits because

of a common core of curative processes” (Glass, 2001, p. ix). “The implausibility that the great

variety of specific ingredients in the multitude of psychotherapeutic approaches would yield indistinguishable

outcomes is a strong clue that either it is instead a set of often unacknowledged

common elements that is effective, or else it is a set of processes residing largely in the clients and

merely mobilized by therapy that carries the power to improve clients’ lives” (Glass, 2001, p. ix).

Basically, Wampold supports the findings that psychotherapy is beneficial. However, the

particular type of therapy employed does not account for any appreciable amount of the variance

in the patient’s positive outcome. What is important are nonspecific effects of common elements

across different therapeutic approaches, including the relationship formed between therapist and

patient.Wampold argued against the notion that detailed treatment protocols are beneficial, instead

he recommended that careful monitoring of the individual’s progress be conducted. Such an approach

is inherent in single case research.

Wampold summarized the differences between the medical and contextual models through

differences in their respective differential hypotheses and evidentiary rules. With respect to differential

hypotheses, the effects of treatment in comparison to no treatment, both the medical and

the contextual models would predict efficacious outcomes; however the relative efficacy of each

model would differ in that the medical model would predict variation in treatment efficacy, and the

contextual model would predict uniform efficacy. The medical model would predict that positive

outcomes would be a result of specific components of the therapy, whereas the contextual model

would not. However, both models would predict that the treatment would be superior to a placebo,

and the placebo would be superior to no treatment. Also supporting the contextual model, there is

no evidence for specificity.AsWampold stated, there are countless examples of treatments that are

clearly positive and result in the client’s betterment, however. “the psychological explanations for

the benefits have failed to be verified” (p. 147). Even the components of the popular and highly

respected cognitive-behavioral treatment, “are apparently not responsible for the benefits of this

treatment” (p. 148). Rather than any specific component causing positive psychotherapeutic outcomes,

it is the single factor of the working alliance that is the key component to producing

positive outcomes. “It appears that the relationship accounts for dramatically more of the variance

in outcomes than the totality of specific ingredients” (p. 158). Additional strong support for the

contextual model was that the effects of adherence to treatment protocols were negligible. Finally,

with respect to Wampold’s evidentiary rules supporting the contextual model, the research on

therapist effects would indicate that it is not the specific treatment, nor adherence to a specific

treatment protocol that effects positive change, but that the person of the therapist. The medical

model would predict that the therapist’s technical expertise would account for variability of outcome.

“The evidence is clear that the type of treatment is irrelevant, and adherence to a protocol

is misguided, but yet the therapist, within each of the treatments, makes a tremendous difference”

(p. 202).

Perhaps, there is also a common elements explanation of those noticed positive gains from

school psychological practices. It may be that it is not necessarily the theoretical orientation, or

particular school psychological intervention, but nonspecific effects, common elements inherent

580 Kehle and Bray

across the varied and numerous strategies and interventions that are important in promoting children

academic and social competencies.

To help close the gap between science and practice, one would think it would be beneficial to

closely examine and compare the effectiveness of practices based on the medical, as opposed to

the contextual model. However, according to Wampold (2001), this comparison is not possible

because one cannot construct a manualized contextual model treatment. In another sense, all

treatments are examples of the contextual model. So, when one compares cognitivebehavioral

treatment for depression with an interpersonal treatment for depression, one is

also comparing a cognitive-behavioral model with a contextual model. If the two treatments

are equally effective, it is because of their respective specific ingredients or because both are

instances of contextual model treatments? (p. 27)

Another explanation for the existence of the gap is the lack of clear definitions and consensus

of what are the dependent variables. Although there is a continual plea for evidenced-based interventions

that affect measurable outcomes, there is no consensus on how these outcomes are related

to the definition of an educated and psychologically healthy individual. Specifically, a problem

with educational, and particularly school psychological practice, is that there is no clear definition

of either an educated or psychologically healthy individual. This is most probably why, unlike the

hard sciences, there has been no noticeable incremental improvement in either educational or

school psychological practice. Unlike many examples noted in the sciences, psychology and education,

because of the lack of accumulated knowledge, have not ever experienced a “breakthrough.”

The acid test is to be able to convincingly argue that children are better educated and

psychologically healthier in contemporary society in contrast to their counterparts in some earlier

period in history.

Barclay’s (1991) quotation of Henri Poincare is the microcosm of the plight of school psychology,

and for that matter education. “Science is built up of facts, as a house is built up of stones,

but an accumulation of facts is no more a science than a heap of stones is a house” (p. 21).Without

a unifying theory, or even a clear definition of what the dependent variables should be, it is

practically impossible to realize an accumulation of knowledge that promotes incremental improvement

in both school psychological, and educational practice. To seriously address ways of closing

the gap between research and practice in school psychology there has to be theoretical development

that addresses the definition of the proposed end product of the educational experience.

We suggest that the Resources, Intimacy, Competence, and Health theory (R.I.C.H.; Kehle,

1989; Kehle, 1999; Kehle & Bray, 2004; Kehle et al., 1993) presents a tenable unifying theory of

education that would most probably provide sufficient focus to allow for cumulative knowledge in

school psychological and educational research. The R.I.C.H. theory incorporates aspects of Darwin’s

(1859) On the Origin of Species, Russell’s (1930) Conquest of Happiness, Wilson’s Consilience

(1998), and Skinner’s (1971) Beyond Freedom and Dignity.

The R.I.C.H. theory defines psychological health as being synonymous with an educated and

happy individual. “With respect to the R.I.C.H. theory, these individuals have four characteristics

including resources, intimacy, competence, and health. The four characteristics are interrelated to

the extent that they incorporate each other in their definitions, encompass all possible reinforcers,

are relatively obtainable by all individuals, and the improvement in any one, results in improvement

of the remaining three” (Kehle & Bray, 2004, p. 43). These four characteristics essentially

encapsulate Bertrand Russell’s (1930) definition of happiness.

Reducing the Gap Between Research and Practice 581

Resources. The appropriate allocation of resources results in a feeling of independence or

professionalism which is defined as being synonymous with a sense of individual freedom, or a

sense of control over one’s time and daily life. The assessment of the appropriate allocation of

resources is based on the degree the individual can initiate and maintain friendships, establish

competence, and enjoy physical health.

Intimacy. Intimacy is defined as friendship. It involves empathy and the appreciation and

enjoyment of a friend’s company. To initiate and maintain an intimate relationship requires an

allocation of resources, competence, and physical health.

Competence. The sense of competence is the consequence of being competent relative to

some standard. Competence is attributed to one’s own abilities. The feeling of competence, in

addition to being the consequence of some competent behavior, is also specific. One’s sense of

competence is the consequence of having resources, enjoying intimacy, and physical health.

Health. In a relative sense, the individual is aware of practices that are conducive to physical

health and also has an allegiance to these practices. A physically healthy individual is defined

as one who is independent, enjoys intimacy, and feels competent. (Kehle & Bray, 2004).

Again, the characteristics of resources, intimacy, competence, and health at first inspection

would not appear to be related. However, as indicated above they are so highly interrelated they

essentially can be considered synonymous with each other. As previously stated, if one of the

characteristics is promoted, so is the remaining three. If one is diminished, so is the remaining

three. Also, as stated above, each of the four characteristics is defined by the remaining three. For

example the definition of a physically healthy person is one who is independent, enjoys intimacy,

and feels competent.

Perhaps applying Glass’s (2001) statements to school psychological and educational practice

and in concert with the contextual model, that positive change may be primarily the consequence

of a set of often unacknowledged common elements. Or else it is a set of processes residing largely

in the students and that are merely mobilized by intentionally or unintentionally promoting the

R.I.C.H. characteristics that carry the power to improve student’s lives. For example, promoting

student independence by allowing them to largely design their own curriculum would also promote

the remaining R.I.C.H. characteristics (Kehle & Bray, 2004). Employing symbolic or material

rewards may be interpreted by the student as manipulation and control, which is inversely

related to the student’s sense of independence, and most probably would function to insidiously

erode the student’s intrinsic motivation to learn (Deci, Koestner, & Ryan, 2001) can consequently

diminish the remaining R.I.C.H. characteristics. When rewards are used to promote the student’s

sense of independence, his or her intrinsic motivation to pursue learning is apparently enhanced.

Deci and colleagues’ meta-analytic study on the effects of extrinsic and intrinsic rewards, indicated

that choice is important in promoting student independence and therefore intrinsic motivation.

Further, the R.I.C.H. would predict the student’s sense of competence, intimacy, and physical

health would also improve.

According to Kehle and Bray (2004),

the student should have a sense of “not working” in that he or she intrinsically enjoys their

selections of school environments and choices of what they learn. It would result in a lack of

bifurcation between the student’s private and public lives. For example, a student assigned

homework that is perceived as nothing other than “busy” work would definitely have a sense

of working. It is perceived as an unnecessary, and educationally illegitimate intrusion on his

or her time. External contingencies that are perceived as manipulative, are inversely related

to a sense of the individual student’s sense of developing professionalism. In accordance with

582 Kehle and Bray

the R.I.C.H. theory, the student learns best that which he or she is intrinsically interested.

(p. 45)

As Kehle and Bray (2004) indicated, the R.I.C.H. characteristics subsume all possible human

reinforcers. It is difficult to add another characteristic, these four sufficiently provide a definition

of an educated, happy, and psychologically healthy individual. An interesting observation of the

numerous definitions and theories of psychopathology is that they all include a component of

anxiety or fear. The R.I.C.H. characteristics define life relatively free from fear.

Education, at its heart, is elitist based on the inescapable observation that smart kids do better

at it. No matter what is done in an attempt to improve the not so smart kids’ academic performance,

the smart kids will do better. However, in accord with the R.I.C.H. theory, all children can

acquire the four characteristics; all children can be learn to be educated as defined by the theory.

According to Kehle and Bray (2004)

In a relative sense, all children are fully capable of learning to promote their independence,

establishing and maintaining intimacy, experiencing the satisfaction of competence, and enjoying

physical health. In addition, the four characteristics allow for the evaluation of processes.

Interventions can be evaluated relative to their worth in promoting movement toward the

attainment of the four R.I.C.H. characteristics. If the educational system requires the preschooler

to become skilled at walking a balance beam, its worth, or lack of it, can be judged

relative to its influence in promoting the R.I.C.H. characteristics. (p. 45)

The R.I.C.H theory would predict that when mothers, regardless of their cultural background,

are asked the question what do they want their child to have, or become, in adulthood, they would

respond in accordance with the R.I.C.H. theory. They want their children to be happy, that is to

have resources, intimacy, competence, and health (Kehle, 1999). Although, the R.I.C.H. characteristics

are what most parents want for their children, the majority of them nevertheless assume

that to acquire these one must have high educational attainment, high family income, marital

status, and religious commitment. However, as Lykken and Tellegen (1996) stated, less than 3% of

the variance in happiness or subjective well-being can be attributed to these misguided but highly

popular and cherished goals.

In summary, we have attempted to present an argument that the existence of the gap between

science and practice in school psychology is the result of an overallegiance to the medical model

and the lack of a clear definition of an educated and psychologically healthy student. An additional

problem for school psychological practice is that it is entrenched in, and highly influenced by,

general education that has a history of continual reform and negligible evidence of an accumulated

knowledge base that has resulted in demonstratively improving the education of children. Perhaps,

because of this universal observation regarding the lack of effectiveness in educational practice,

there have numerous and also almost continuous efforts to legislate reform. Most of these have

met with failure as NCLB most probably will.

The contextual model assumes that the positive effects of school psychological practice and

education may reside in the persons of the school psychologist and the classroom teacher. The

R.I.C.H. theory assumes that all children have the capacity, in a relative sense, to acquire the

theory’s characteristics. It was also argued that perhaps the goal of education and school psychology

should be consistent with what parents want for their children. That is they wish that their

children possessed resources to the extent they are relatively free and independent, have and

maintain intimate friendships, enjoy a feeling of competence, and benefit from physical health.

In summary, we presented arguments that the gap between science and practice in school

psychology may be perpetuated by an overallegiance to the medical model, and exacerbated by the

lack of a clear definition of an educated and psychologically healthy student. Further, general

education has historically lacked evidence of an accumulating knowledge base that would result in

Reducing the Gap Between Research and Practice 583

a continuing and incremental improvement of the educational process. Perhaps this lack of demonstrable

improvement of educational practice is largely the motivation for continual reform efforts

and legal mandates that are often equally ineffective and at times even detrimental such as the

NCLB act. To practice evidenced-based school psychology within this environment is not only

challenging, but often frustrating and threatening to one’s professional moral and sense of worth.

584 Kehle and Bray