Examining the Validity Evidence of a Self-Report Measure of School Psychologists’ Multicultural Competence

With an increase in diversity in the United States and within U.S. schools over the past several decades, there is a corresponding increase in need for educators to become more competent in their ability to engage with students in culturally responsive manner. While school psychologists practice within the education system, their scope is unique to their profession and many of the applications of theoretical foundations specific to teaching may not be specifically relevant to their practice. In order to know whether the school psychology field is making progress toward goals of furthering social justice and equity in schools through culturally responsive practices, school psychologists’ current competence in this area should be measured. However, there is currently a lack of research regarding the self-reported multicultural competence of currently practicing school psychologists relating to all aspects of school psychology service delivery. The purpose of the study is to provide additional validity evidence for a measure of school psychologists’ multicultural competence. The findings suggest that the SPMCS-R holds to a three-factor structure reflective of the tripartite model of multicultural competence, and the SPMCS-R demonstrates measurement invariance across groups based on years of experience. These findings provide additional validity evidence for the SPMCS-R and suggest support for its use as a measure of self-reported multicultural competence based on the tripartite model.