The more that I learn about the role that a school counselor
plays in a school; the more I am realizing how important this assessment class
will be for my career. From
administering, to scheduling, to measuring results, it is very likely that it
will be a major piece of my job.
When I
first thought about changing careers and going back to graduate school for
school counseling I always just assumed that the role of the counselor in the
school was to simply be the counselor.
It really wasn’t until I talked to a friend until I realized that
counselors in schools are used for many other different things, especially
scheduling. My thoughts about it at that
time were much like the counselors thoughts in the Ekstrom article, “How is
that a good use of a school counselor?”
Maybe I was being ignorant to the situation, but I assumed that anyone
could learn how to schedule or give assessments, but not everyone could learn
how to be a school counselor. In my way
of thinking, it takes a certain special kind of person to be a school
counselor, and those talents and much of their time should not be wasted on
other tasks.
Even though
I have my strong opinions about the role that the school counselor should play
in the school, I live in the world of reality.
I have accepted the fact that I will probably be doing many things that
are not necessarily associated with counseling.
As a result, I would like to be as educated and prepared as much as
possible. I just need to look at it in a
different way. Everything I do as a
school counselor is going to help and support the school that I will be working
at in some way. No matter what kind of task
it is, I want to own it and make it my own.
I would also rather know that the person who is in charge of assessment
or testing process in the school has some sort of background and/or training
associated. If that happens to be me,
than so be it.
After
reading chapter 3, I have come to realize why I was not looking forward to the
statistical concepts that were going to be introduced in the world of assessments. It has been too long since I have worked with
any type of statistics. I try my best to
avoid math in general. Just trying not to get overwhelmed and hoping for the best.
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
Drummond, R. J.
and Jones, K. (2010). Assessment Procedures for Counselors and Helping Professionals.
Upper Saddle River , New Jersey
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