Maine East High School
Maine Township High School East is an amazing place. There are few other places in this country where an intern can walk through the halls and hear over 50 different languages spoken and see groups of students gather that represent countries from all parts of the world. Maine East has a rich history of being the first school to serve the Park Ridge community but as this more affluent area became part of Maine South and the surrounding communities diversified, Maine East changed. Now serving a culturally, racially, and economically diverse population of 2,000 students, Maine East educates students who come from homes were 70% of the students speak a language other than English and where over 30% live in poverty.
A high school such as Maine East is a microcosm of the world and society. Over time a High School, School Psychologist has the opportunity to be exposed to many of the challenges that today’s society holds. District 207 has responded to many of the unique challenges raised by the student population of Maine East by developing a number of innovative programs including a Family Center and School Based Health Center. Maine East is a leader in District 207’s initiatives to implement RtI. Maine East High School has a very loyal staff who work in this environment because of their dedication to this population of students. This creates a welcoming environment that is open to the ideas and energy that interns bring to the setting. Interns are part of the culture of the school and have many opportunities to interact with staff.
The doctoral internship position is in the Student Personnel Services. This unique placement of a School Psychology position offers interns training opportunities with both the general education and special education departments depending on interest. Staff in the SPS department (counselors, social workers, and nurse) coordinate many programs and groups that provide students with numerous resources to meet their academic and social-emotional needs. Interns participate in cluster team meetings comprised of Social Workers, Counselors, and Deans for the purpose of addressing individual student needs. These teams are problem solving teams that work closely together to coordinate behavioral, social emotional, and academic interventions. All initial case study referrals filter through the building referral committee and the SPS department manages the completion of the initial evaluations. Initial case studies tend to be complex, challenging cases which challenge the skills for the interns.
Interns work closely with students in three academic programs, Integrated Freshman Literacy (IFL), English as a Second Language, and Special Education. The IFL Program is designed to address academic needs of underachieving general education students. This group of 100 underachieving, high risk, freshman are the focus of many academic and social emotional interventions. The ESL program serves five levels of ESL students. The ESL program is also moving forward in finding ways to address the individual needs of the students. The Special Education Department consists of approximately 200 students with a wide range of disabilities serviced within the building and in private placements. There are numerous opportunities for reevaluations, behavioral analysis, groups, and individual counseling with special education students.
Driven by the Psychologist and Interns, MEHS has been innovative in movement toward implementing RtI. The Interns are leaders in benchmarking the majority of the freshman class three times yearly. The Interns are proactive in data gathering, recommending interventions, and progress monitoring students who are identified as needing interventions beyond what are provided at TIER or TIER 2. It is common throughout this process to work with students who have learning, emotional, and attention problems. Ethnicity and cultural play a critical role in all the activities in which the Interns engage.
Prospective Interns should have a strong interest in working with high school aged students from a variety of cultures and socioeconomic statuses. The Intern will have the opportunity to participate in numerous regular and special education programs and training opportunities. Internship year is a time to gain exposure to a variety of both new and familiar experiences that will allow the intern to gain the knowledge and skills to function as a School Psychologist. It is impossible to learn all there is to know at an entry level but the goals of supervision are to impress upon the interns the importance of having a curious mind, learning to think through presenting situations and to gain confidence in addressing challenging students. There is a natural increase in independent practice as the year progresses and as the intern forges relationships with the staff and develops their own ideas and style of practice. Supervision attempts to embrace and encourage individual growth through thoughtful and collaborative assignment of cases and responsibilities based on both the intern’s goals and the supervisor’s vision of growth for the intern. Ideally there are two doctoral level interns and one or two rotating elementary interns whom doctoral interns will have the opportunity to supervise.
Each Intern will complete approximately 10 initial Psychological Evaluations and Reevaluations. The level of challenge of the cases will depend on the intern’s skills in test administration, interpretation, and report writing. A regular counseling caseload of approximately 10 students will be part of the training year but numbers will vary depending on how many groups the intern co-leads. The Interns will be expected to participate in at least one cluster team and Building Referral Committee. Risk assessments will be completed as the need arises. There are opportunities for group counseling depending on the interest and needs of the student population and intern. There are numerous opportunities for the intern to participate in a variety of activities including individual or group behavior intervention plans, specialized committees, family center activities such as presentations to minority parents, the Latino and Black Teen Summits, and reevaluations of low incidence students. If an intern is interested in an opportunity that is not currently in place, previous interns have found the staff to be very open to ideas. A 20 day elementary rotation is available with Don Sibley in Arlington Heights, District 25 or with Bill Connor in Park Ridge, District 64. Both districts are committed to flexible service delivery and curriculum based assessment.
Dr. Ruth Shook-Orr is the School Psychologist in the Student Personnel Services Department. Ruth has a Masters Degree in School Psychology from Bowling Green State University and a doctorate in Clinical Psychology from the Illinois School of Professional Psychology. Ruth is a National Certified School Psychologist and Licensed Clinical Psychologist with interests in a variety of areas including implementing RtI in the high school, crisis intervention and risk assessment, personality assessment, and assessing culturally and linguistically diverse students. This is Ruth’s eighth year at Maine East after working 16 years in the district as a School Psychologist with behavior disordered students. Ruth will be the primary supervisor for SPS interns. Ruth’s overall training philosophy is that interns remain curious and thoughtful in their approach to their job responsibilities as a high school, School Psychologist. Interns are encouraged to use the training year as an opportunity to hone in on both school and clinical assessment, writing, and counseling skills and to challenge themselves to participate in new activities that will both stretch their skills and provide an opportunity to develop new skills. Interns are encouraged and supported at Maine East and learning takes place in an environment where consideration of the culture and ethnic identity of the student and their families is given. Ruth’s primary focus in supervision is to provide a comfortable relationship in which the intern can struggle with issues and concepts and to nurture a curiosity about human behavior and a desire to learn and grow as new challenges arise. With Dr. Shook-Orr, interns receive a minimum of two hours of individual supervision weekly and one hour of group supervision designed strictly to increasing the intern’s clinical knowledge and skills. There are numerous opportunities for informal supervision with other staff, but additional formal hours may include supervision with the School Psychologist in special education, a social worker, group supervision, and/or peer consultation.
Liliana Isoe is the School Psychologist in the Special Education Department. She is also a diversity mentor for ISPIC. Liliana will provide supervision to the intern on completion of the low incidence reevaluation cases or groups within the special education program. Liliana has a Specialist degree in School Psychology from National Louis University. She is a National Certified School Psychologist. She is bilingual/bicultural and speaks fluent Spanish. Her specialty area is bilingual evaluations and evaluations of students with limited English Proficiency. This is Liliana’s 12th year at Maine East and her responsibilities are within the special education department as well as assessment of initial case student evaluations in which Spanish the primary language. Special education students represent a wide variety of classifications ranging from Learning Disabilities, Emotional/Behavior Disabilities, Multiple Needs, Physically Handicapped, Autistic, and Mental Retardation.
The close proximity to Advocate Lutheran and Alexian Behavioral Health Care provides opportunities to participate in continuing education programs provided by the hospitals.
Maine East High School offers numerous training and educational opportunities in an environment that is culturally rich and professionally stimulating. The stipend for a doctoral level intern is $12,000 no benefits. The work week is Monday through Friday, 7:30 – 3:30. The internship begins mid August and follows the school calendar except that doctoral level interns will complete the full 12 months. Interns share a main office in the SPS department with a second office available for direct service. The office has a computer, phone and access to the Internet and school mainframe. Interns can also use their own laptop computers for writing reports.