Approximately 30 years ago, the field of psychology was challenged to consider cultural diversity issues in psychological service delivery. Specifically, practitioners were encouraged to develop awareness of their own cultural values and biases, their client’s worldview, and to utilize knowledge and culturally appropriate intervention strategies (Sue et al. 1982; Worthington et al. 2000). Sue et al. (1982) proposed a tripartite model of cultural competence to the American Psychological Association (APA) that included awareness/beliefs, knowledge, and skills. The concept of multicultural competence is also referred to by professional organizations as cultural competence and described as a set of congruent behaviors, attitudes, and policies that come together in a system, agency, or among professionals and enables that system, agency, or those professionals to work effectively in cross-cultural situations (Frisby 2009; NASP 2003). Culturally competent psychologists must develop a greater degree of awareness about how their own thoughts and behaviors may impact their work and how to address any existing biases that are present (Ingraham 2000; Miranda 2008). Given the great diversity of students who attend public schools, it is critical that school psychologists actively work toward being culturally responsive in the services they provide (Sullivan and A’Vant 2009). Although several measures have been developed in the field of counseling psychology to examine multicultural competence in practitioners, there has been limited study of measures to examine self-reported multicultural competence in the field of school psychology. Mechanisms for self-assessment and monitoring of multicultural competence are essential for supporting practitioners in engaging in a process of reflection that may improve their skills. The purpose of this study was to examine the validity of an existing measure of multicultural competence for use with school psychology practitioners.

Measures of Multicultural Competence

The construct of multicultural competence has been extensively investigated in psychology for more than 20 years (Carlson et al. 1998; Cartwright et al. 2008; Constantine and Ladany 2000). Many self-report and expert rating instruments were developed based on the tripartite model of multicultural competence proposed by Sue et al. (1982) including the Multicultural Awareness/Knowledge/Skills Survey (MAKSS; D’Andrea et al. 1991), the Multicultural Counseling Inventory (MCI; Sodowsky et al. 1994), the Multicultural Counseling Awareness Scale (MCAS; Ponterotto et al. 1996), and the Cross-Cultural Counseling Inventory-Revised (CCCI-R; LaFromboise et al. 1991). These measures were designed to assess the skills of both trainees and practitioners in counseling psychology to successfully and sensitively work with clients from diverse backgrounds (Constantine and Ladany 2000; Malone 2010).

Several measures examining cultural competency have been used to assist trainers in counseling psychology programs with assessing the multicultural competency of their students throughout the course of their graduate training. Although many of these measures were developed over the last 20 years (Cartwright et al. 2008; Fouad, et al. 2009), the validity of these tools has received little attention in the literature (Matsumoto and Hwang 2013). One potential explanation for the limited investigation into validity is partly due to a lack of clear descriptions of what the subscales are purported to measure (Kocarek et al. 2001). A few studies have assessed the reliability and validity of these surveys beyond their initial development (D’Andrea et al. 1991; Pope-Davis and Dings 1994; Ponterotto et al. 1994). For example, Ponterotto et al. (2001) examined the reliability and construct validity of the four most commonly used multicultural competency measures, the MCAS (Ponterotto et al. 1996), the MAKSS (D’Andrea et al. 1991), the CCCI-R (LaFromboise et al. 1991), and the MCI (Sodowsky et al. 1994). In this study, three of the four were used as self-report measures, and two were utilized by trainers to evaluate their trainees. The instruments were each found to be efficient, reliable measures of multicultural competency, though validity results were considered preliminary.

Although the field of counseling psychology developed four widely used multicultural competency instruments, there are few formally published instruments other than the Multicultural School Psychology Counseling Competency Scale (MSPCCS), for use specifically in school psychology (Rogers and Ponterotto 1997). This disparity between these two fields of psychology suggests a need for additional study of how to measure the construct of multicultural competence in the field of school psychology.

Multicultural Competence in School Psychology

The emergence of school psychology as a field was characterized in part by the need to address the increasing multicultural context of public schools within the USA (Newell et al. 2010). Over the last 30 years, the field has also expanded its definition and practical aspects of multiculturalism to address the nation’s growing demographic changes which include the recognition of social issues related to gender, sexual orientation, and economic hardship (Lopez and Bursztyn 2013). As the number of both students and degree of diversity has increased, so have students’ learning needs, and concerns of physical and mental health (French 1990; Sullivan and A’Vant 2009). Ysseldyke et al. (2006) suggest that addressing educational inequities apparent along racial/ethnic lines should be of critical importance to school psychologists because, as a profession, we are concerned with improving educational outcomes for all students. Despite the recognition that school psychologists need to acquire the skills and knowledge which will enable them to work effectively with diverse populations, that need has not been historically reflected in published literature (Miranda and Gutter 2002). In addition, there remains a paucity of empirical research investigating diversity in school psychology journals, especially related to race and ethnicity (Noltemeyer et al. 2013). The field of school psychology has been challenged with how to effectively evolve in a culturally responsive manner that moves beyond basic knowledge and appreciation of diversity and toward more evidence-based practices that enhance the awareness and development of culturally competent psychological services (Sullivan and A’Vant 2009).

One significant way in which the field of school psychology has advanced is by establishing sound multicultural competencies and standards in its training practices (Ingraham 2007; Lopez and Rogers 2007; Lopez and Bursztyn 2013; Newell et al. 2010). There are certain elements of training that are considered necessary for a school psychology program, such as offering multicultural training. A study of school psychology training programs found that 94 % of the programs considered exemplary offered a specific multicultural course, while only 60 % of the total programs surveyed offered this (Rogers 2006). Additionally, students from exemplary programs had not only a high likelihood of taking a diversity issues course, but they also had opportunities to routinely develop and refine their applied skills with diverse clientele during their training and were more likely to have an atmosphere that was supportive of multicultural perspectives (Rogers 2006).

Only a few empirical studies have been published on multicultural competence in school psychology (Keim et al. 2002; Lopez and Rogers 2001; Ramirez and Smith 2007; Rogers and Lopez 2002; Rogers and Ponterotto 1997; Sullivan and A’Vant 2009). Further developing multicultural knowledge and understanding in school psychology would improve psychological service delivery, as well as produce more culturally aware clinicians who are better equipped to serve a culturally diverse population (Miranda 2008). The field of school psychology has traditionally served one of the most diverse and pluralistic populations within the USA, and projections have indicated that children served within the public schools will become increasingly more diverse over the next several decades (Brown 2009). Conversely, the demographic makeup of practitioners within the profession of school psychology has remained primarily composed of 78 % female and 92 % European American/White practitioners (Curtis et al. 2004; Castillo et al. 2013). Less than 2 % of school psychologists have been reported as African American for more than 30 years nationally, and although the number of Hispanic school psychologists has doubled, this number still remains at only 3 % (Curtis et al. 2004). All other ethnic minority school psychologists remain at or less than 1 %. More recent investigations provide evidence that this demographic discrepancy has continued with 8 out of 10 school psychologists being women and most (approximately 90 %) school psychologists identifying as White (Castillo et al. 2013). Castillo et al. (2013) report that for all APA accredited programs in psychology including clinical, counseling and school, 77.7 % of the students were female, and for school psychology, 82.4 % were female as of the year 2010. Miranda (2008) has referred to this trend as an ethnic incongruence between school psychology practitioners and the public school clients they serve. Given this continuing trend, it is critical that there is a mechanism for measuring the skills that trainees and practitioners possess in order to encourage reflection and further development of these competencies.

Unlike in the field of counseling psychology where there are several multicultural competency measures available (Matsumoto and Hwang 2013), until recently there was only one published measure designed to capture the self-reported multicultural competence of school psychology practitioners, the MSPCCS (Rogers and Ponterotto 1997). The MSPCCS was designed to assess school psychology trainers’ perceptions of multicultural school psychology counseling competencies of their graduate trainees, based on the Sue et al. (1982) multicultural competency recommendations. The investigation of the MSPCCS was undertaken to extend previous research in the field of professional psychology by beginning to identify multicultural competencies of school psychologists and to translate those competencies into an exploratory measure for the field (Rogers and Ponterotto 1997). The scale is comprised of 11 questions that are based on the cross-cultural counseling competencies identified for professional psychologists by Sue et al. (1982). The MSPCCS differs from the original multicultural competency statements slightly by using language that is modified on some items and indicates school psychology specifically in the question to make items relevant to the assessment of school psychologists’ multicultural counseling competencies. These same cross-cultural competency statements were previously employed in counseling research and specifically in the development of the original CCCI (Hernandez and LaFromboise 1985). Psychometric investigation of the MSPCCS revealed a Cronbach’s coefficient alpha of .88, providing evidence for the internal consistency of the scale (Rogers and Ponterotto 1997). Content validity was explored by allowing experts in the field to review the measure. Further, exploration of construct validity determined that the measure was unidimensional, rather than multidimensional and reflective of the knowledge, awareness, and skills domains from the Sue et al. (1982) paper (Rogers and Ponterotto 1997). Despite the exploratory and preliminary nature of these findings, the Rogers and Ponterotto (1997) study is a first step toward a quantitative measure of cultural competence in school psychology but additional work is needed.

Social Desirability and Multicultural Competence

One of the potential drawbacks identified in using self-report measures is social desirability, which refers to a pattern of responding that reflects an individual’s need to provide perceived socially acceptable responses to questions rather than to report their actual feelings (Constantine and Ladany 2000; Vella-Brodrick & White, 1997). Social desirability is often defined as a unidimensional construct reflecting the degree to which participants attempt to make a good impression when completing research on clinical instruments (Worthington et al. 2000). It is considered to be a relatively stable trait, rather than situationally determined, and typically results in an overly favorable self-presentation that may impact relationships among variables in research and thereby affect the reliability and validity of research findings (Thornton & Gupta, 2004). High scores on social desirability scales are typically taken to indicate that respondents’ scores reflect a tendency to select the “right,” or socially desirable, choices on scale items rather than answering the questions honestly. If social desirability is related to self-reported multicultural competence, it could indicate caution regarding the ability to interpret self-reports (Constantine and Ladany 2000). The Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale (MC-SDS; Crowne and Marlowe 1960) is the most enduring and popular of the social desirability scales used to assess and control for social desirability response bias in research (Barger 2002). The MC-SDS includes true/false items which are associated with feelings or behaviors that are typically judged positively or negatively by others. For example, items such as “I never resent being asked to return a favor” or “There have been times when I was quite jealous of the good fortune of others” (Crowne and Marlowe 1960) may automatically incline a respondent to deny their true feelings in order to have themselves viewed in a positive light. Although in the field of counseling psychology there has been some evidence of a positive correlation between reports on multicultural competency scales and social desirability (Sodowsky, et al., 1998), the research investigating the correlation of multicultural counseling competency with social desirability measures is limited (Constantine and Ladany 2000).

Current Study

School psychologists are likely to find themselves increasingly engaged in cross-cultural situations with others who are ethnically, linguistically, and racially different from themselves as professionals in practice. Given this reality, it is incumbent upon practitioners and trainers to attend to issues of multicultural competence broadly defined. The current study was designed to investigate the convergent validity of the MSPCCS (Rogers and Ponterotto 1997) with the CCCI-R (LaFromboise et al. 1991), while also considering the potential effect of social desirability on self-reported multicultural competence. Three specific research questions were addressed.

  1. 1.

    What is the average self-reported multicultural competence of school psychology practitioners as measured by the MSPCCS and CCCI-R?

  2. 2.

    Does the MSPCCS demonstrate convergent validity with the CCCI-R?

  3. 3.

    What is the relationship between the CCCI-R and the MSPCCS and a measure of social desirability (i.e., the MC-SDS)?

Method

Participants

Participants were recruited from 11 school psychology organizations within the greater USA. A total of 161 participants made up the sample with 125 females (77.6 %) and 36 males (22.4 %). The sample was comprised of 85.7 % European American/White participants, 6.8 % of the sample was Hispanic/Latino, 5 % were African American/Black, 0.6 % (one participant) was Asian-American, and 1.9 % identified as bicultural. Additional demographic data regarding the final sample is reported in Table 1. As in a previous literature, the majority of respondents were European American females (Curtis et al. 2004; Castillo et al. 2013). In addition, 70.8 % of the total sample indicated membership in the National Association of School Psychologists, 41.6 % of which held the Nationally Certified School Psychologist (NCSP) credential, while 77.6 % reported membership in the state organization from which the survey was disseminated, and 19.3 % were members of the APA.

Table 1 Characteristics of the sample
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Measures

Demographic Questionnaire

A brief demographic questionnaire was designed by the first author and included items regarding ethnic background, gender, level of education, practice setting, years of practice, and professional affiliations. Sample questions from the demographic questionnaire include items such as “Please indicate your age,” “please indicate number of years in practice,” and “Are you currently providing services within the public schools?” Gender choices were also given as male, female, or transgender.

MSPCCS

The MSPCCS was used as a self-report measure to evaluate participants’ degree of cultural competence in school psychology practice and is based on the multicultural counseling competencies identified in the Sue et al. (1982) position paper. The MSPCCS is comprised of 11 questions and contains operationalized queries on the cross-cultural competencies needed by professional school psychologists (Rogers and Ponterotto 1997). The measure is the only published measure to date that is based on the Sue et al. (1982) multicultural competencies and has yielded satisfactory reliability results when used by trainers to assess their trainees. Sample questions from the MSPCCS include “When you engage in psychological service delivery with clients of culturally diverse backgrounds, to what extent are you: ‘Aware of your own cultural heritage and values,’ ‘Aware of potential biases toward other cultures stemming from your own culture,’ ‘Comfortable with racial differences that may exist between you and others.’” Because the MSPCCS was developed based on the Sue et al. position paper and task force from the American Psychological Association (APA) and field at large to identify in developing multicultural competencies, it is an appropriate measure to use for the field of school psychology. Some item stems were changed to tailor the scale for use with school psychologists involved in all aspects of psychological service delivery. For example, “Understanding of the generic characteristics of the school psychologist’s role” was an item changed for use with school psychology practitioners. It is noted that this scale was specifically developed for the assessment of counseling practices with clients (Rogers and Ponterotto 1997); however, many items reflect the primary psychological services provided by school psychologists in consultation and assessment. Items focused on whether the practitioner is able to send and receive culturally sensitive verbal and nonverbal messages accurately and appropriately with racial/ethnic minority clients, is accepting and respecting of others’ culture, and has awareness of potential biases toward other cultures stemming from his/her own culture have direct relevance to the practice of consultation. In regard to assessment practices, items that support an understanding of the sociopolitical influences that may dictate referral of a minority client and the possession of specific knowledge and information about racial/ethnic groups are particularly relevant. Other items that are relevant for the practice of counseling as a school psychologist as well as for all psychological service delivery include questions related to the awareness of institutional barriers that hinder racial/ethnic minorities use of mental health services and items that highlight the practitioner’s own cultural sensitivity, such as how an awareness of the practitioner’s cultural heritage and values may impact the client’s experience. Permission to use the MSPCCS was obtained via email correspondence with the primary test developer (Rogers, personal communication, September 7, 2009). Scores range from 1 to 4 on the MSPCCS, and the highest possible score on the measure is 44. Item mean scores have been utilized in previous similar research to identify an average level of cultural competency. In the Rogers and Ponterotto (1997) study, these scores were estimated to be 3.05 (SD = 0.47) on a scale of 1–4. Construct validity of the measure was investigated using principal component factor analysis which yielded a unidimensional factor structure. This construct accounted for 46.9 % of the variance. The items were determined to be moderately correlated with 10 of the 11 correlations in the .61–.74 range (Rogers and Ponterotto 1997).

CCCI-R

The CCCI-R is a 20-item Likert scale of 1–6 used to measure cross-cultural competencies that was developed to meet the need for explicit assessment of counseling effectiveness with culturally diverse clients (LaFrombroise et al. 1991). The scale is developed from division 17 competencies based on three characteristics of (a) counselor awareness of their own values and biases, (b) counselor awareness of the client’s worldview, and (c) culturally appropriate intervention strategies, which are taken from the three important tenets of the original position paper (e.g., attitudes/beliefs, knowledge, and skills) of the APA and the Sue et al. (1982) item recommendations. The revised version of the scale is composed of 20 items, as opposed to the original 11 items, and has shown to yield an internal consistency (coefficient alpha) of .95 with inter-item correlations ranging between .18 and .73. Sample questions from the CCCI-R include items such as “The counselor is aware of his or her own cultural heritage,” “The counselor is comfortable with differences between the counselor and the client, “The counselor appreciates the client’s status as an ethnic minority.” Researchers have considered the CCCI-R to have adequate construct validity (LaFrombroise et al. 1991). The factor structure of the CCCI-R, which was investigated through principal component factor analysis utilizing Varimax rotation, revealed a three-factor solution that accounted for 63 % of the variance of the scale (LaFromboise et al. 1991). Item mean scores were obtained on each item with a high score meaning strong agreement (LaFromboise et al. 1991). The item mean of the norming sample was 4.21 (SD = 0.31) on a scale of 1–6. Respondents agreed most on the item indicating awareness of professional and ethical responsibilities and the least on an item which indicated knowledge about the client’s culture.

The Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale

The Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale (MC-SDS) is a 33-item self-report scale that assesses the type of social desirability (i.e., need for approval) that may be experienced by respondents. MC-SDS scores range from 0 to 33 (M = 15.5, SD = 4.4) with higher scores indicating greater need for approval (Paulhus 1991). In early validation studies, a mean of 15.5 (SD = 4.4) was reported in a sample of 300 college students (Crowne and Marlowe 1960). Convergent and discriminant validity for the original scale was evaluated by comparing correlations with the MC-SDS and the Edwards’ Social Desirability scale with various Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory scales (Barger 2002; MMPI: Hathaway & McKinley, 1943). The MC-SDS has been reported to have adequate construct validity, and in previous investigations, internal consistency coefficients for the MC-SDS have ranged from .73 to .88 (Paulhus 1991).

Procedures

Institutional approval to conduct the study was received. A formal agreement was obtained from 11 participating school psychology organizations across the USA, and organizations indicated their willingness to distribute the survey electronically. An email to solicit participation was sent to the members of each organization that agreed to participate in the study, and no more than three email prompts for participation were sent. The potential participants received an email link to participate via Survey Monkey. The participants first viewed an informed consent flyer followed by the demographic survey. Next, the study questionnaires were presented with the MSPCCS items first, followed by the CCCI-R items.

Data analysis included preliminary analyses to ensure no violation of the assumptions of normality, linearity, and homoscedasticity occurred, and basic descriptive statistics were calculated including means and standard deviations. The convergent validity of the MSPCCS and the CCCI-R and the correlation between social desirability and self-reported cultural competency were investigated using bivariate correlations.

Results

The final sample for analysis included 161 participants. Thirty-nine total participants were removed due to incomplete surveys and one during outlier analysis. The participants included in the final sample were mostly Masters’ Specialist-level clinicians, and half of the sample had between 0 and 5 years of experience. The years of experience of the rest of the sample were evenly distributed across the categories as can be seen in Table 1. Of those participants with between 0 and 5 years of experience, 82 % were female and 86 % were European American, 6.9 % were Hispanic/Latino, and 5 % were African American/Black. Although there were Asian and native American respondents in the initial group, the Asian and native American respondents were among those removed from the final sample due to incomplete surveys, and one additional Asian American participant was removed during outlier analysis. Means and standard deviations for the variables of interest are reported in Table 2 and in Table 3 for the individual items of the MSPCCS. Mean item analysis was also used to determine an average level of self-reported multicultural competence on the CCCI-R (see Table 3). Respondents reported the highest score on an item querying awareness of one’s own cultural heritage/values, and the lowest item mean score was yielded on an item assessing the skill of sending and receiving cultural verbal and nonverbal messages accurately and appropriately with racial/ethnic minority clients.

Table 2 Descriptive statistics for variables of interest—total scores
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Table 3 Mean and standard deviation scores for each item on the Multicultural School Psychology Cross-Cultural Counseling Scale (MSPCCS)
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Internal Consistency

On the MSPCCS, the Cronbach alpha coefficient was .82 for the total 11 items. Since existing literature indicates that the MSPCCS is a unidimensional scale (Rogers and Ponterotto 1997), it was examined as such in this study and the total score was compared to the three subscales of the CCCI-R. For the CCCI-R, the Cronbach alpha coefficient was .92. Total scale scores on each cultural competency measure demonstrate adequate reliability, while two of the three subscales for the CCCI-R demonstrate adequate reliability. These are the CCCI-R skills subscale (Cronbach alpha = .87) and sociopolitical awareness subscale (Cronbach alpha = .80). The CCCI-R subscale for cultural sensitivity yielded a Cronbach alpha of .58. The low reliability was largely due to low correlations between question 15, “presents own values to client” (LaFrombroise et al. 1991), and the remaining three items. Specifically, the correlation between this item and other scale items was less than .18 and the reliability with the item deleted was .71. However, because CCCI-R and the subscales are commonly used measures, the subscale remained intact for subsequent analyses.

Convergent Validity

Correlations between the total scores of the two multicultural competency instruments (MSPCCS and CCCI-R) were positive and significant (see Table 4). Using bivariate correlations of the total score on the MSPCCS and the CCCI-R subscales, convergent validity was also demonstrated. All CCCI-R subscales demonstrated significant, positive, moderate correlations with the MSPCCS. Correlations ranged from .52 to .57, and all were statistically significant at the .001 level.

Table 4 Pearson correlation coefficients for the MSPCCS and CCCI-R
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Correlation with Social Desirability

The two self-report measures (MSPCCS and CCCI-R) were tested for linear associations between total self-reported multicultural competence and total social desirability score, as measured on the MC-SDS. Using bivariate correlation, significant associations did not emerge between the self-report measures of multicultural competence and the measures of social desirability (MSPCCS r = .05; p = .51; CCCI-R r = .11, p = .17).

Discussion

The purpose of this study was to investigate the convergent validity of the MSPCCS with an established measure of multicultural competence that was designed based on the same tripartite model of cultural competence. To date, only two multicultural competency scales have been developed and researched for use specifically in the field of school psychology with the first and most enduring being the MSPCCS (Rogers and Ponterotto 1997; Malone et al. 2015). Given the clearly identified need for culturally competent and responsive practice, a measure for use in the field for trainees and practitioners to assess their skills level is greatly needed. Practitioners within the field of school psychology will find that they may encounter cross-cultural situations on a daily basis, and it is critical to consider these variables and the difficulties children from different cultural groups may experience (Brown 2009). Not only will developing cultural knowledge, awareness, and skills help to improve the ultimate outcome of clients served within the public schools but culturally aware clinicians may be better equipped to address their clientele in ways that are consistent with the goals of the a problem-solving model when encountering cross-cultural situations (Henning-Stout and Meyers 2000; Lopez and Rogers 2001; Nastasi et al. 2000).

The pattern of practitioners in school psychology being predominantly female and European American was reflected in the sample for this study. Even when those who are new to the field (0–5 years of experience) are examined specifically, this pattern appears to persist, consistent with recent findings in the literature (Castillo et al. 2013). Given the increased diversity of students in public schools, it is likely that school psychologists will serve children and families from a different racial or ethnic group, emphasizing the need for increased awareness and ongoing skill development around multicultural competence.

In the present study, both the MSPCCS and CCCI-R results indicate that the participants reported moderate levels of multicultural competence according to average item scores. This indicates that school psychology practitioners reported themselves to be competent in providing counseling services to diverse populations, especially in terms of their awareness of multicultural variables. However, multicultural competency skills may be the area in which trainers and practitioners wish to focus more on their efforts when seeking to foster and develop multicultural competence over their careers. Further, the results indicated adequate convergent validity of the MSPCCS with the CCCI-R revealing that the MSPCCS appears to measure the same, or similar constructs to those captured by the slightly longer, 20-item CCCI-R. Results were adequate for both the total score between both measures and between the MSPCCS total score and the three subscales of the CCCI-R. This is promising given that, although both measures were designed based on the tripartite model of multicultural competence (Sue et al. 1982), the MSPCCS is a much shorter measure and has been found to measure a unidimensional construct in previous work (Rogers and Ponterotto 1997). We interpret this as suggesting that the scale already contains a strong basis from which to build an even more robust measure of multicultural competence for school psychology.

The association between social desirability and self-reported cultural competence in counseling psychology has been found to be statistically significant in some studies of multicultural competency (Constantine and Ladany 2000), although these findings are inconsistent. Further, the social desirability variable has the potential to confound results in self-report ratings due to a possible bias. Using bivariate correlation, total scale scores from the MSPCCS were used to determine whether or not a significant positive relationship was present between self-reported multicultural competence and social desirability. A significant association did not emerge between the MSPCCS and social desirability, supporting the validity of the self-reported MSPCCS. The current study was similar to the results found in the use of other similar counseling psychology measures (Ponterotto et al. 1990; Sodowsky et al. 1994) in that small insignificant positive correlations were present. The fact that social desirability was not found to be a confounding variable in self-report ratings suggests that the results of the research are not biased in a socially desirable manner and respondents provided a fair estimate of their own self-appraised cultural competency.

Presently, the MSPCCS can be used with confidence to measure self-reported cultural competence. Future study will need to further ascertain the degree to which the MSPCCS can be used as a pre-post measure of competence in training and professional development. At the very least, based on the current study, there is confidence in the MSPCCS from a theoretical standpoint.

Limitations

There are some limitations to this study. The MSPCCS and the CCCI-R scales have different instructions; therefore, participants may have responded differently to each measure. There may also be selection bias as a limitation of this study because only those who are credentialed and active participants of school psychology organizations were sampled. Only organizational members or practitioners and trainers who are closely affiliated with such organizations had access to the survey and then self-selected to participate. This could limit generalization to some populations, such as nonaffiliated school psychology professionals who are not members of these organizations or who elected not to participate for other reasons. It may also have been the case that those who self-selected to participate felt strongly about the topic or were more likely to be aware of issues related to multicultural competence. Also, the MSPCCS has been in existence for more than a decade and is based on cultural constructs and items that were formulated from a position paper written in 1982. Some may argue that these constructs or domains do not fully reflect the skills required of school psychology practitioners today. There is also the potential limitation related to technical properties of the scale given that although the scale was developed on the tripartite model of cultural competence, it demonstrated a unidimensional structure in the original study (Rogers and Ponterotto 1997). Revising the MSPCCS to include skills and roles specific to school psychology would be of benefit in improving the measure and would allow for further study of the psychometric properties of the scale. For example, although we considered examining the scale through factor analysis, first revising the scale to include an increased number of items would likely make the scale more robust and lend it to more future psychometric study such as factor analysis and further assessment of reliability and validity. Given the importance of this topic to the training of school psychologists as well as those who are practicing in the field, further study is greatly needed to address these limitations.

Practical Implications and Future Directions

The results of this study suggest that there is moderate validity for the MSPCSS when used as a self-report measure with school psychologists. The primary implication is that this measure could be used with school psychology trainees and practitioners in a variety of ways. The measure can be used in training, utilized in pre-post assessments for intervention/professional development, and future work needs to expand the implementation of this type of tool for improving the skills of practitioners. The scale could also be revised to make it more robust and more inclusive of the roles and functions of school psychology service delivery such as the recently published School Psychology Multicultural Competence Scale (SPMCS; Malone, et al. 2015), which is a measure designed to include the primary domains of school psychology practice, such as assessment, consultation, and intervention.

As mentioned above, until just recently, the MSPCCS was the only scale to assess multicultural competence in school psychology. The SPMCS is a newly developed self-report measure designed to capture the competence of school psychologists in working with diverse populations. It was based on both the Sue et al. (1982) framework of awareness, knowledge, and skills and the competencies identified by Lopez and Rogers (2001) as necessary for school psychology practice (Malone et al. 2015). The scale includes 45 items across the dimensions of awareness, knowledge, and skills, which examine the various activities in which school psychologists typically engage in schools such as consultation, assessment, and intervention (Malone et al. 2015). The measure was pilot-tested with graduate students in school psychology with the factor analysis results indicating four factors instead of the anticipated three. Results also indicated that school psychology graduate students who had coursework in cultural competence or who had completed practica with diverse populations were more likely to report higher skills in certain areas on the SPMCS (Malone et al. 2015). This measure has not yet been studied with school psychology practitioners, so future study of how it relates to existing measures like the MSPCCS would be informative.

Given the need to build multicultural competence within the specialty area of school psychology, the MSCPSS could also be used as a progress monitoring tool to assess the development of cultural competence skills across training and across the career span. Future directions for study should include possible revision and expansion of the MSPCCS. Possible ways to expand and revise the MSPCCS could include utilizing expert recommendations provided in the existing literature concerning specific cultural competency considerations and skills related to school psychology (Lopez and Rogers 2007; Rogers and Lopez 2002) and to include those skills among the items represented. In addition, revision of the scale might include careful examination of items as another way to improve the scale’s technical adequacy. As a field, school psychology includes many aspects of practice that may be specialized and unique compared to other settings where psychology is practiced, specifically related to daily cross-cultural encounters or skill requirements (such as the use of interpreters in cross-cultural assessment). The regular use of a measure to assess and encourage reflection about service delivery skills could be beneficial to improve training and psychological service delivery within public schools and across other applied settings. It may also be necessary to consider alternatives to self-report measures of multicultural competence that include more direct skills assessments, reviews, or permanent products.

There is a critical need for a measure that can be used by school psychologists to assess the degree to which they practice with multicultural competence. The MSPCCS shows great initial promise for use in this capacity but has largely been under-studied. The results presented here are promising; however, future research to study the various applications of a measure like the MSPCCS as well as the potential for revision and expansion of the measure is greatly needed. Measures like the MSPCCS will not only be valuable but essential for use across training and practice in order to facilitate the development and maintenance of skills for culturally competent practice.