Oregon School Psychologist Association Spring Conference

On Friday evening and Saturday, April 8th and 9th, 2011, the Oregon School Psychologists Association Spring Conference will be held at the McMenamin’s Grand Lodge in Forest Grove, Oregon. Please see the attached color brochure. You are invited to join us! Here’s why you might want to come:

For two days before the conference, Nancy Mather, Dan Miller, George McCloskey, Dawn Flanagan, Sam Ortiz and Steven Feifer will create a national model for school district SLD policies and procedures based on the Learning Disabilities of America White Paper (2010). The LDA White Paper recommends both RTI and Pattern of Strengths and Weaknesses (PSW). At the conference, they will share their own areas of expertise and talk about this new work.

The Oregon School Psychologists Association invites you to come because you might be working with the any of these three situations in your school district:

• Some districts have moved away from the IQ/Achievement Discrepancy Model and have instituted evaluation procedures based on “Pattern of Strengths and Weaknesses,” yet they need help refining their model and making it more useful to intervention.
  
• Others implemented RTI and came to know RTI’s shortcomings when used in isolation; however, the knowledge of how to apply valid methods of Pattern of Strengths and Weaknesses (PSW) approaches of identification and intervention may not be readily available.
  
• Some school districts are looking for ways to blend RTI and PSW into the most valid and useful method for SLD.
  

Our presenters will give you special guidance in how to perform comprehensive assessments that resolve current legal issues:

The OSPA Spring Conference is a chance to learn in a great atmosphere with the leading experts in the field. We hope you will join us in Forest Grove for this seminal event. We welcome you to come.

Jim Hanson, OSPA Past President, Conference Chair.

NOTE: The attached brochure includes presenter bios, conference details, and registration information.