Decoding School Psychology

New school psychology graduate students are inundated with a litany of professional vocabulary (i.e., jargon) at the onset of their training. Unfamiliar terminology related to school psychology and the field of education more broadly arises both within professional coursework and when engaged in school-based field experiences. Jargon may become further obfuscated when it is abbreviated with acronyms (arrangement of letters standing in for full words) or initialisms (arrangement of letters not stated as a word) (Floyd & Norfolk, 2024). Although acronyms/initialisms serve the purpose of simplifying and speeding up communication, their overuse can be problematic. In this article we briefly discuss issues with the use of acronyms in education and then decode 154 common acronyms/initialisms encountered by graduate students in the University of Cincinnati School Psychology Program. The list was inspired by a handout previously developed by Torki and Nese (2010) in the National Association of School Psychologists newsletter, the Communiqué. Although we are certain this list is not comprehensive (jargon and acronyms likely differ state to state, district to district, and school to school), we hope it is helpful to new trainees as they begin their journey from laypersons to professional school psychologists.