Blog #3

            I have to say that I felt good about the first half of class last week, and was even curious to start learning about some of the different statistical concepts.  After leaving class I was a bit overwhelmed, but some of the concepts started to come back to me.  When I first started to read chapter 3, I had to break it up as much as I could.  When I take too many mathematical terms and concepts in all at the same time, I just get confused, which is how I kind of felt during the second half of class last week.  After I got home from school that evening, I just decided to let it sink in and to look at it again the next morning.  At that point, I realized that I am starting to pick things up and things are starting to come back to me. 

            Another extremely important step in the assessment process is the understanding of the scores.  Chapter 4 gives a good summary of how this process works, and some of the topics that were introduced really interested me.  For example, I could see how choosing a norm group to measure testing results could be complicated.  If you take into account all of the different characteristics you need to consider in order to choose a norm, in some cases, I don’t even see how it is possible to create a consistent and fair testing or scoring process.  It just seems to me that there would always be some sort of bias or lack of sensitivity to many of the groups or people involved in the testing process.

            Drummond & Jones (2010) also states that, “it is reasonable to expect that instruments be revised at least every 10 years and that new norms will accompany the revisions (Thorndike, 2005).”  I bet an argument could be made that 10 years is too long to wait to change the norms and testing instruments.  I am also sure that some of the testing instruments out there probably haven’t been changed in 20 years or more.  All of this information throughout chapter 4 makes me believe that we should be treading very lightly and be extremely picky with how we choose to test or measure results for any future client or student.  It also shows how we should be treading lightly not to make assumptions or decisions about the client or student based on one set of results from an assessment.

Drummond, R.J. & Jones, K. (2010). Assessment procedures for counselors and helping professionals ( 7^th ed.). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education Inc.