Glossary
School Psychologist Terms & Vocabulary
15 essential school psychologist terms with plain-English definitions: the vocabulary you’ll hear in training and on day one.
Key school psychologist vocabulary
These 15 terms come up constantly in school psychologist training, on the job and in interviews. Knowing them helps you follow instructions, document accurately and sound prepared.
- BIP
- Behavior intervention plan.
- Cognitive assessment
- IQ-style testing.
- Ed.S.
- Education specialist degree.
- Eligibility
- Qualifying for services.
- FBA
- Functional behavior assessment.
- IDEA
- Federal special education law.
- IEP
- Individualized Education Program.
- MTSS
- Multi-tiered support system.
- NASP
- National Association of School Psychologists.
- NCSP
- National certification.
- Progress monitoring
- Tracking growth over time.
- Psychoeducational evaluation
- Testing for learning needs.
- RTI
- Response to intervention.
- Specific learning disability
- A category of special education.
- Threat assessment
- Evaluating safety concerns.
Practice these terms
Test yourself with the free School Psychologist practice test: it includes vocabulary questions built from this list. For a complete course, see School Psychologist training.
Browse terms from every career in our career glossary.