Blog 2: Assessment

          After reading the article and chapter this past week, it opened my eyes to a lot of new information that I was unfamiliar with.  I only took one statistics class and I do not feel as though I got much out of it due to the frequent absences of my professor.  However, I was familiar with mean, median, mode, and some of the graphs that were presented due to my teaching experience.  Other graphs, such as the interval and ratio still have me confused but my hope is through more discussions I will be confident in the field with testing.  I understand that this course will help deepen my understanding of assessment procedures and how to interpret the results but I find myself nervous due to my lack of background knowledge of statistics. 

            In addition to being exposed to a lot of new information, I found it interesting that they brought the vital roles counselors play in the assessment process.  Drummond and Jones stated that counselors need to have knowledge of statistical concepts.  It makes me wonder if it varies across districts or counselors are supposed to be always playing this role across the state.  Ekstrom (2004) brought up the fact that it was found in a study that 67% of a group of 423 ASCA members considered assessment to be a very important part of their work.  I am sure it is because it allows you to learn more about the child in a variety of ways if done correctly.  Throughout the assessment process, you are completing observations, interviews, and asking questions related to the assessment.  In the School District of Lancaster the school psychologist are the ones that are working with the students.  The counselors do not have too much interaction with testing and interpreting.  It will be interesting to learn about what their job descriptions actually say.  I feel that assessment should fall under a category and that might be the case with the School District of Lancaster.  However, they are just not required due to having a school psychologist on site.  In addition I also gathered that it is important for you to continuously stay updated with any new or evolved information that comes our way.  In conclusion, even though there are some schools where the counselors are not playing a role in the assessment, we still need to be knowledgeable incase the situation arises where we either have to administer a test or interpret an assessment for parents.   

Drummond, R. J. & Jones, K. (2010). Assessment Procedures for Counselors and Helping Professionals (7^th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

Ekstrom, R.B., Elmore, P.B., Schaefer, W.D., Trotter, T.V., & Webster, B. (2004). A Survey of Assessment and Evaluation Activities of School Counselors.  Professional School Counseling, 8 (1), 24-30.