About

Kizzy Albritton is an Associate Professor in the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin. She holds a B.S. in Management Information Systems from the University of Alabama, and both her M.Ed. in Behavior/Learning Disabilities and Ph.D. in School Psychology from Georgia State University. Prior to completing her doctoral studies, she worked as an elementary and middle school special education teacher. Her research agenda includes three main lines of inquiry: expanding the role of school psychologists in early childhood settings, exploring the implementation of multi-tiered frameworks in early childhood, and examining school-based issues that influence the academic and social-emotional outcomes for students from minoritized and marginalized backgrounds. Dr. Albritton has contributed to understanding how school psychologists can improve outcomes for young children, particularly those from diverse backgrounds, and has published work on early literacy identification, training in school psychology, and perceptions of work/life success among middle school students of color. She has received awards such as the Distinguished Faculty Researcher Award from Kent State University and the Early Career Scholar recognition from the Society for the Study of School Psychology.

Research topics

• Pedagogy
• Psychology
• Sociology
• Medical education
• Political Science
• Medicine
• Developmental psychology
• Law
• Criminology
• Gender studies
• Social psychology

Selected publications

• A Meta-Analysis of Tier 2 Early Literacy Interventions for Young Dual Language Learners

  School Psychology Review · 2026-02-06

  article
  PublisherDOI

• From what is wrong to what is strong: Using tiered frameworks to identify early literacy strengths in Black preschool-age children.

  School Psychology · 2026-05-18

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Efforts to improve preschool children's early literacy skills continue to intensify (e.g., Cabell et al., 2023; Wackerle-Hollman et al., 2024), often using tiered frameworks (e.g., response to intervention and pyramid model) to identify children needing intervention. Much research about early literacy interventions within tiered frameworks has overrepresented young Black children (i.e., 45% of participants; Stuckey et al., 2022). However, tiered frameworks can also be leveraged in ways that challenge deficit-oriented lenses often used by practitioners, schools, systems, and researchers when implementing such frameworks. Children's placement in a tiered framework was examined for fall and spring to identify strengths of 487 Black 3- and 4-year-old preschool children based on an early literacy screener, Get Ready to Read!-Revised. Estimated mean standard scores fell squarely in the average range, and the percentage of children identified for Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3 at both fall and spring approximated the theoretical percentages proposed by researchers (e.g., Fuchs & Fuchs, 2006; Stoiber & Gettinger, 2016). Children's Get Ready to Read!-Revised performance aligned with diagnostic measures of receptive vocabulary, print knowledge, and phonological awareness. Results contribute to the limited research base about early literacy strengths of young Black children and have implications for school psychologists' contributions to the response to intervention process in preschools. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

  PublisherDOI

• Examining Racial Match among Black Children and Teachers in Early Childhood Settings: A Systematic Review

  Early Childhood Education Journal · 2026-03-23

  articleSenior authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Research on Consultation in Early Childhood Programs

  2025-12-11

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  Early childhood settings provide young children with an opportunity to strengthen their academic, social-emotional, and behavioral development. Research suggests that these skills are critical aspects of young children’s short- and long-term academic success. Multitiered frameworks have emerged as the primary method to provide young children with additional academic, social-emotional, and/or behavioral support. Although a review of the literature indicates increased implementation of multitiered approaches in early childhood programs, there appears to be limited research on the use of consultative mechanisms within multitiered frameworks. This chapter will outline the importance of research on consultative mechanisms within multitiered frameworks in early childhood settings and discuss how these consultative mechanisms could increase the likelihood of equitable outcomes, particularly for young children from racially minoritized and economically marginalized backgrounds.

  PublisherDOI

• From surviving to thriving: Increasing equitable discipline outcomes in preschool settings

  Theory Into Practice · 2025-05-09 · 2 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• The More Things Change, the More Early Childhood School Psychology Remains the Same

  School Psychology Review · 2025-04-28

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Systematic review of culturally adapted SEL interventions for racially and ethnically minoritized preschool children

  Journal of School Psychology · 2024-07-04 · 7 citations

  review1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Examining the role and graduate preparation of bilingual school psychologists in early childhood settings

  Journal of School Psychology · 2024-08-15 · 1 citations

  articleSenior authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Onset-Rime, Alliteration, and Incidental Teaching

  2023-07-10 · 1 citations

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  There is overwhelming evidence outlining the importance of early literacy development during the preschool timeframe. Often referred to as emergent literacy skills, these skills are multifaceted and include areas such as oral language, conventions of print, letter knowledge, phonological awareness, linguistic awareness, emergent writing, phonological memory, and rapid naming. Phonological awareness is an umbrella term that describes the awareness of the parts of spoken language at several levels: word, syllable, onset-rime, and phoneme. Whereas words and syllables are considered larger units of spoken language, phonemes are the smallest unit of sound that make a difference in a word’s meaning. Many skills taught in early childhood classrooms utilize incidental teaching, a strategy that provides unstructured learning opportunities by following the child’s lead and interests in the natural environment. To maximize learning opportunities between the adult and child, several things must happen.

  PublisherDOI

• The impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic on school psychology internship outcomes

  Psychology in the Schools · 2022-11-18 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  Abstract The Ohio Internship Program in School Psychology was forced to adapt abruptly to the changing circumstances brought on by the novel coronavirus (COVID‐19) pandemic beginning in March 2020. The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which the school psychology internship outcomes were negatively affected by the COVID‐19 pandemic in terms of supervisors' ratings of intern competencies, the number of students served by interns, and the outcomes of academic and behavior interventions supported by interns. Findings of the annual evaluation of the Ohio Internship Program in School Psychology for the school year directly affected by the pandemic (2020–2021) were compared to the findings for the year the pandemic began (2019–2020) and the 3 years before the start of the pandemic. The results provide evidence of gains in professional competencies and positive outcomes for students served by interns. The results also highlight racial disparities in the counts of students provided school psychological services during the pandemic. Implications for school psychology graduate preparation and practice are discussed.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Stephen D. Truscott

  Society for the Study of School Psychology

  9 shared

• Adrienne Stuckey

  Western Carolina University

  6 shared

• Nicole Patton Terry

  Google (United States)

  6 shared

• Kenia Cruz

  The University of Texas at Austin

  5 shared

• Jenny L. Cureton

  Kent State University

  4 shared

• Cassandra A. Storlie

  4 shared

• Lynnae Psimas

  Georgia State University

  3 shared

• Janice A. Byrd

  Pennsylvania State University

  3 shared

Awards & honors

• Distinguished Faculty Researcher Award, Kent State Universit…
• Outstanding Research and Creativity Award – Early Career, Ke…
• Early Career Scholar, Society for the Study of School Psycho…