Chapter 3 and Ekstrom

This week I was quite pleased with the topics that were being covered in Chapter 3 and throughout the Ekstrom article (2004).  It was a change to have most of the concepts be a review for me rather than learning brand new information.  Unlike many of my classmates, I felt somewhat at ease that the statistical concepts are a part of this class.  Instead of taking the Research Methods class as many school counseling students do, I chose to take a Statistics class because of my past experience with it and my love of math.  I did really well in the class and afterwards felt that I had a strong understanding of the material and the connections within the material.  This chapter felt very much like a review of my entire Statistics class condensed to give a brief overview.  I feel it was important to have this information in our textbook and so close to the beginning as well because of its importance within assessment.  These concepts build on each other and become valuable when interpreting and understanding the tests and results within schools.  As school counselors it is crucial for us to speak this language and be able to have a conversation with students, teachers, parents and administrators about assessment. I believe that having this previous knowledge and foundation will benefit me within this class and my practicum.

I found the article for this week's reading to make some very insightful points about the role of school counselors in relation to assessment and other important characteristics of our job.  The introduction of the article presented previous research that had been done with all educators within a school in regards to their background, training, and expertise with assessment.  Teachers, school administrators and school counselors were all surveyed and it was found that school counselors had the greatest knowledge of assessment.  It was "found that counselors had a better understanding of assessment information than teachers and secondary school principals, especially in regard to test selection, validity, communication of test results, and ethical practice" (Ekstrom, p. 25, 2004).  This statement told me a few different things about assessment.  First of all this confirmed just how important assessment is to a school counselor's role and what strengths we can bring to a school setting.  It also told me that other professionals within the school are not as informed as they should be especially about things that are becoming so crucial to a child's success.  Finally, I was somewhat shocked that this research found that teachers were coming to school counselors for help in these areas.  Teachers use assessment on such a regular basis that I believe they should have the background in ethical issues, communicating test results and even just understanding how assessment works.  Knowing this could be beneficial to a future job or internship because my knowledge of these topics brings a different perspective to the school.  Another quote that really stuck out to me within the article was: " 26% of the responding counselors did not feel that evaluating their strengths and areas needing improvement in assessment and evaluation and developing a plan for personal and professional growth was part of their professional responsibility" (Ekstrom, p.29, 2004).  This completely confused me.  I firmly believe that any professional should be constantly trying to improve themselves professionally and personally.  It made me wonder if part of this plays into why many school counselors get stuck doing things they aren't supposed to be doing or why some other professionals do not have a good view of our role.  I will always strive to better myself and one of those ways will be to gain a better understanding for assessment and its benefits.

Drummond, R. J. and Jones, K. (2010). Assessment Procedures for Counselors and Helping Professionals. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc.

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.