Blog 3
While I was reading the article I was disappointed that we, as school counselors, seem to be on a hamster wheel of sorts dealing with the same types of technical issues that prevent us from doing our jobs better. I feel that the idea that instrumentation much like various learning difficulties must be approached in student specific ways. By this I mean- not every instrument will accommodate or even assess the different learning needs of one student to a different student. It is impossible to create 15 or even 100 instruments that will assess broadly. Each learning difficulty has specific deficit areas and will require something that is sensitive to that fact. I feel that our job is limited because like most things- learning difficulties are attempted to be placed into compact boxes. Like most things in life this will not work.
It was encouraging that the article directly challenged school counselors both future and current to be more aware of what we need to do as competent professionals and also raising awareness that we need to “cheerlead” harder than we have been. The field of school psychology, as well as educational standards in general is always growing and expanding. Much like we as future counselors are always asked to continue to grow, change, and analyze these changes, our field and the instruments used must have the same scrutiny placed upon them.
I am curious to see how much of the issues we are discovering within instrumentation are due to increased awareness that they are not as student centered as they should be or is it because our education systems are continuously being challenged to be more streamlined and effective for testing/funding purposes. I really think it is more from the testing/funding perspective which is upsetting but regardless, the first steps towards change are having there be raised awareness. I hope to gain clarity during class about more action based assessments. I was glad most of the article talked about more action based assessments since these are more geared towards implementing something, checking to make sure the results yielded are what you are looking for and then revamping anything that is not getting you the end result you desire. I want to learn more about retrospective assessments because when I was reading about them they sound a lot like pre/posttest assessments and I would also be curious to see what their validity/reliability issues were and if they are the same as pre/posttest assessments.
While I was reading the article I was disappointed that we, as school counselors, seem to be on a hamster wheel of sorts dealing with the same types of technical issues that prevent us from doing our jobs better. I feel that the idea that instrumentation much like various learning difficulties must be approached in student specific ways. By this I mean- not every instrument will accommodate or even assess the different learning needs of one student to a different student. It is impossible to create 15 or even 100 instruments that will assess broadly. Each learning difficulty has specific deficit areas and will require something that is sensitive to that fact. I feel that our job is limited because like most things- learning difficulties are attempted to be placed into compact boxes. Like most things in life this will not work.
It was encouraging that the article directly challenged school counselors both future and current to be more aware of what we need to do as competent professionals and also raising awareness that we need to “cheerlead” harder than we have been. The field of school psychology, as well as educational standards in general is always growing and expanding. Much like we as future counselors are always asked to continue to grow, change, and analyze these changes, our field and the instruments used must have the same scrutiny placed upon them.
I am curious to see how much of the issues we are discovering within instrumentation are due to increased awareness that they are not as student centered as they should be or is it because our education systems are continuously being challenged to be more streamlined and effective for testing/funding purposes. I really think it is more from the testing/funding perspective which is upsetting but regardless, the first steps towards change are having there be raised awareness. I hope to gain clarity during class about more action based assessments. I was glad most of the article talked about more action based assessments since these are more geared towards implementing something, checking to make sure the results yielded are what you are looking for and then revamping anything that is not getting you the end result you desire. I want to learn more about retrospective assessments because when I was reading about them they sound a lot like pre/posttest assessments and I would also be curious to see what their validity/reliability issues were and if they are the same as pre/posttest assessments.
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Blog entry 2:
I found this article to be interesting and vastly different from the experiences I have had with my own school counselor in high school. Mrs. Ghettle was predominantly utilized for career decisions post high school. I never saw/heard of her doing any types of assessment or even running group counseling sessions. When I was assessed or had 504 meetings with my mother it was only with the School Psychologist. I did not attend most meeting so maybe she was present in some of the meetings that I did not attend. Unfortunately, Mrs. Ghettle’s position seems now, to have been a waste. I know Annville did not utilize her in the best way to aid students. I’m not sure she would have had the competency that I will walk out of this program with but I’m sure she could rely somewhat on her almost 20 years of experience.
I felt relieved to know that my experience was most likely different form others in my position as the article cited research from 1999 where counselors were more effective and utilized in assessments than teachers and secondary school principals. Through reading this chapter (which I loved as I just had stats last year) I was reflecting a lot on my blog from last week. I know it was basically seething with hatred for assessments and the mental/emotional strain it places on its clients. I guess, in retrospect- most of the assessment is about how it is given and the perception of the client going into the assessment. Obviously, because of my experiences I will be paying special attention to my client’s pre-assessments etc.
Chapter 3 was a very easy to understand overview of the statistical work that we will be expected to know and utilize during assessments. I was a little worried upon signing up for this class that the statistical portion of this class would be presented (via the book) in a more difficult manner. I found their instruction to be presented more in laymen’s terms.
I was pleased that the chapter 5 (sorry I got a little ahead) did such a good job covering internal consistency reliability as I think this is one of the most important parts of an assessment next to making sure the person who is doing the assessment is also qualified and understands the instrumentation. Effective administration, scoring and internal reliability will be the most crucial parts of preforming an assessment that will actually benefit the client.
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Baker Blog 1: Chapters 1,2,17
In writing this first blog, parts of what I talk about will be repeated from what I shared in class. I mentally struggle with thinking about assessments being part of my job because I firmly believe that as a counselor it is my job to not put people in boxes. Even though I can personally speak from the benefits of being assessed and having accommodations, I still have always been discontented that my style of learning is placed into a box. I didn’t realize that the reason Assessment has been changed from testing is that assessments, while those terms are used interchangeably, does encompass a lot more than just administering tests. I think that as a future counselor, I will strive to make sure that all students who I give assessments to will hopefully have better experiences than I had. I enjoyed finding out that assessments also include collecting information from various sources not just what the applicant can reproduce under pressure.
I found the pre-screening process to be one of the most invasive parts of the assessment. I know that this is a crucial part to an assessment because it allows you to gather information from the client and it also gives the client some power in expressing (if able) their concerns with difficulties in learning/understanding. I just can’t get over the feelings I remember about how the screening for possible depression and ADD just made me feel more defective. I didn’t find them to be helpful. I can recognize that the woman who was doing my re-evaluation was not the most personable and obviously her personality and general disposition could be affecting my feelings of this overall process. I was too young during my first evaluation to really remember feeling stupid or upset. I remember feeling frustrated but I knew the man who did my assessment for years previously because he started meeting with me for ADD. He had been meeting with my brother for years before so we had a pre-established relationship.
When reading the part in chapter 2 about computer-based testing I find myself feeling concerned about what the test truly can tell us about the individual. Obviously as I am a testing outlier- most of my concerns about tests in general are geared towards individuals that might not perform as well on a computer due to lack of instruction/understanding what directions are given. I know that as a future counselor I will be appreciative of computer based tests because they will provide ease of access, scoring and interpretation. I thought I remembered reading that the results of using computer-based and pencil and paper tests proved that you could not be used interchangeably? I could be misremembering but regardless I know that I struggle more with computer based tests. Obviously, again, my experience has skewed my experience with assessments etc. so I can only hope that during this semester I will become more educated about the benefits of assessment to help outweigh my clinging bitterness.
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