Before reading the chapter on
statistics, I had some fears about the topic. I have never before taken a course on statistics. My only
instruction in statistical concepts was about three years ago in my Research
Methods course, which consisted of a brief, simple explanation during part of a
single class period. However, as I
read through the chapter I became slightly more at ease. Much of the vocabulary was familiar,
and I realized that many of the concepts are those that I have taught either
for middle school science or math.
I realized that my fears stemmed from the symbols used for mean,
summation, test score, number of cases, etc. The formulas
used for things like mean and variance looked slightly frightening until I saw
the one for the Pearson r formula;
describing that as frightening is an understatement. There is a reason I am not a statistician!
After reading the chapter I also
feel more confident in my understanding of standard deviation. Standard deviation is a term that I see
often when looking at evaluation results for my students, but have tended to
skip over. I knew that it related
to the bell curve and the distance from the mean, but actually seeing it in
graphic form on page 55 of Drummond & Jones (2010) helps it make more sense
to me, as I am a very visual learner.
The step-by-step explanation of how to find standard deviation makes
finding it more manageable, but after trying to reason through it I realize
just how much I really do not understand it. For me to really understand
something I need to understand the “why,” or the process. The “why” for standard deviation is
beyond me, but at least I have a better understanding now of what it means!
In trying to understand some of the
statistical concepts I tried to relate them to tests with which I am familiar:
PSSAs. Thinking about how the
PSSAs relate to scale, I was wondering if the performance levels of PSSAs
(advanced, proficient, basic, and below basic) were examples of interval
scales. Since values on an
interval scale cannot be multiplied or made into ratios because one interval
might have a different value than another, I thought it might make sense. For example, you cannot say that
“advanced” is not twice as good as “basic;” their values are based on ranges of
scores. Also related to PSSAs is
the concept of regression. During
our indescribably exciting (no sarcasm here) data day each year to process and
plan using PSSA data, we look at predictions of student performance for the
next PSSA based on the previous three scores. I wonder if the predictor scores are based on regression
measures of relationship because they analyze relationships among test scores
in order to predict another.
The
article raised some questions for me as well. Ekstrom, Elmore, Schafer, Trotter, & Webster (2004)
stated, “67% of a group of 423 ASCA members considered testing and assessment
an important or very important part of their work.” In addition, “An earlier survey of secondary counselors
found they frequently administered their schools’ testing program and helped
students and parents interpret test information” (Ekstrom, Elmore, Schafer,
Trotter, & Webster, 2004). This reminded me of a class conversation with Dr. Garner in
one of the Theory and Practice classes.
She said that a counselor’s job should not be to proctor tests, as this
type of duty takes away from their duty to counsel students. Much of what has been described as
counselors’ roles in assessments are roles that, for the past 6 years, I have
viewed as the school psychologist’s role.
I’m sure that this varies from district to district, but I wonder how a
counselor can be an important support for a caseload of 400+ students if a
major component of her job is to administer and interpret assessments. Ekstrom,
Elmore, Schafer, Trotter, & Webster (2004) addressed my concern when they
acknowledged “Although 65% of the responding counselors said their work
involved scheduling testing or assessments, many in the field feel this is not
a wise use of expertise and not an appropriate activity for a professional
school counselor.” While I believe
that counselors should play a part in utilizing appropriate assessments and
understanding implications of the results, I hope that scheduling,
administering and interpreting assessments is not at the forefront of my duties
when I take on the role of a counselor.
Drummond,
R. J. and Jones, K. (2010). Assessment procedures for counselors and
helping
professionals. (7th ed.). Upper Saddle River,
NJ: Pearson.
Ekstrom,
R.B., Elmore, P.B., Schafer, 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.
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