What do Support Professionals do in Schools? Construction and Validation of an Instrument for Assessing Whole-School Prevention and Promotion Strategies

Abstract

Education policies worldwide have encouraged the entry and permanence of nonteaching support professionals in schools. During the last decade, Chilean regulations have allowed a massive incorporation of these professionals—mostly school psychologists and social workers—in publicly funded schools. However, there is scarce evidence regarding the actions of these professionals, including whether and how they align with whole-school approaches. In this study, we constructed and validated scales to assess professional practices aligned with universal prevention and whole-school approaches deployed by nonteaching professionals in schools. Participants were 329 professionals from municipal, private subsidized, and private Chilean schools. Psychometric properties were analyzed through exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses for construct validation and with Cronbach’s alpha for internal consistency. The results show that the instruments had adequate psychometric properties in terms of validity and reliability, allowing the assessment of four types of practices: individual socioemotional and academic support, group socioemotional and academic support, leadership practices, and interdisciplinary collaborative practices. We argue that these practices can be theoretically organized based on whole-school prevention and promotion strategies. Preliminary mean comparisons show that the most prevalent practice is through individual supports. We highlight the need to provide sound instruments that may allow comprehensive assessments of the actions deployed by nonteaching support professionals in whole-school improvement efforts.