APA Top 20 Principles Badges--New Program

For those of you not familiar, for several years, the American Psychological Association has had a series of principles that are most important in education. What is new is that the APA Center for Psychology in Schools and Education (CPSE) is recognizing schools that successfully promote the 20 principles with a "badging" program. The program allows schools to demonstrate programs that illustrate one or more domains of the Top 20 principles and then can "Badge" their website.



Schools apply online with a written statement and specific samples of evidence showing how their chosen “Top 20” Badge category and its respective set of principles are reflected in their classrooms school-wide. In order to assist applicants, examples of successful use of evidence are provided in the application. All complete submissions are evaluated by members of the Coalition for Psychology in Schools and Education, and in addition to a badge, participating schools receive written feedback from the coalition, including suggestions for improvement.

These "Top 20 Principles" can be found here and are in the graphic below.

The principles focus on several domains:
1) thinking and learning
2) motivation
3) social-emotional learning
4) classroom management
5) assessment

In short, this is an excellent way to bring psychology not just to your classes, but to your entire school. To check out the process and to learn more to convince your principals to participate, click here.

posted by Chuck Schallhorn