UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — James C. DiPerna, professor of education (school psychology) in the Penn State College of Education, has been honored with the Distinguished Contributions to School Psychology Award by the Pennsylvania Psychological Association (PPA).
PPA is the professional association for psychologists in Pennsylvania, serving the needs of psychologists in independent practice, schools, business organizations, hospitals, private and government agencies and academia. DiPerna was presented with the award at PPA’s annual awards dinner on May 19.
DiPerna has served on the College of Education faculty since 2003. His research program focuses on the development of practical assessments and interventions to enhance students’ social, emotional and academic competence in school settings. DiPerna’s research has been funded by the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Office of Special Education Programs, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
“A lot of my research interests focus on the interface between kids’ behavior and their learning, particularly between their social behavior and their academic learning,” he said.
DiPerna earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Dayton and master’s and doctoral degrees in educational psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
A Pennsylvania native who grew up on the east side of Pittsburgh, DiPerna said he didn’t originally plan to get into school psychology. However, he developed an interest in the field while working as a residential counselor in a youth shelter for adolescent males after receiving his bachelor’s degree.
“I thought it would be much more helpful to work with kids before they get into a crisis situation,” said DiPerna. “That’s what led me to pursue school psychology as schools are the one setting where you have sustained opportunities to work with kids from an early age. I think it’s fair to say it’s also really driven a lot of my interests more on the research side of things in terms of how to help kids be successful in school settings. Not just academically but also socially and emotionally … how can we proactively help kids develop their social and emotional skills?”
DiPerna’s work has focused on developing assessments that can be used with students from preschool through college. In addition to academic skills, the assessments evaluate students’ social skills, motivation to learn, engagement in learning and study behaviors. He is currently working on a federally funded project to “develop the next generation of those measures,” he said. He currently also has a federal grant for a school-based randomized trial evaluating the effectiveness of a universal program intended to promote young students’ positive social and emotional development during the early elementary grades.
DiPerna served as the professor-in-charge of Penn State’s School Psychology graduate program for 12 years. He has served as the director or co-director for three federally-funded training grants that have provided fellowships for approximately 50 doctoral students in the School, Child-clinical, Human Development and Educational Psychology programs at Penn State. He is a former president of Division 16 (School Psychology) of the American Psychological Association.