MUNCIE, Ind. - A new study ranks faculty from Ball State University's school psychology program among the nation's best for scholarly productivity.

The program's faculty was ranked seventh in total scholarly publications produced in 1995-99. Ball State's ranking was the best among state schools with Indiana University at 45th and Indiana State University at 51st.

The announcement was made at a recent meeting of the American Psychological Association in San Francisco. It is the largest gathering of academic and professional psychologists in the world.

The faculty also was seventh in scholarly publications published in major school psychology journals for 1995-1999. Overall, faculty was fifth among 53 similar programs from the period of 1970 to 1999.

"The rankings are quite remarkable for the school psychology program and for Ball State University," said Dan Lapsley, chair of the educational psychology department. "Ball State does not quite have the same research mission as larger universities with prestigious graduate schools, but these rankings do show that our faculty are among the nation's finest.

"This is great for the morale of the program and great for the reputation of the entire university," he said. "I believe it says a great deal about the high quality of our graduate programs as well. It should help us continue to recruit outstanding faculty, graduate students and doctoral students

In addition to research, the school psychology program provides psychological and educational services to the community at a minimal cost through the School Psychology Clinic, located in the Department of Educational Psychology, Teachers College. These services include assessment, consultation and intervention.

The program also provides these services to local school corporations as part of its training of masters, Ed.S. and doctoral students in school psychology. The program also conducts research and provides training and services through the Neuropsychology Lab and a Parent/Child Interactive Therapy lab.

By Marc Ransford, Communications Manager

(NOTE TO EDITORS: For more information, contact Lapsley at dlapsley@bsu.eduor (765) 285-8500.)