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Clarifying Differences in Definitions Between ASHA Policy Documents and the Authors in "The Critical Shortage of Speech-Language Pathologists in the Public School Setting: Features of the Work Environment That Affect Recruitment and Retention"

Contact author: Frank M. Cirrin, Minneapolis Public Schools/Special Education, 425 5th Street NE, Minneapolis, MN 55413. E-mail: fcirrin{at}mpls.k12.mn.us.

Purpose: The January 2007 issue of Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools includes an article by D. Edgar and L. Rosa-Lugo entitled "The Critical Shortage of Speech-Language Pathologists in the Public School Setting: Features of the Work Environment That Affect Recruitment and Retention." In their article, the authors cite the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) policy document "A Workload Analysis Approach for Establishing Speech-Language Caseload Standards in Schools: Guidelines" (ASHA, 2002) and include the term workload in their survey instrument and study results. However, their definition of workload differs from the definition in ASHA policy documents. In addition, they provide some information from the ASHA Technical Report on workload (ASHA, 2002) that may be misconstrued out of context. The purpose of this letter is to reduce the possibility of any misunderstanding on the part of readers by highlighting the differences in definitions between the authors' work and ASHA policy documents and by providing context for information from the policy document.

Conclusion: D. Edgar and L. Rosa-Lugo should be commended for conducting research related to the successful recruitment and retention of qualified speech-language pathologists in schools. Hopefully, these comments will contribute to those discussions by clarifying important points

KEY WORDS: schools, work, recruitment

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