Blog #8

            I am always surprised to hear feedback from people who have been in the school counseling field and talk about how much of their time is spent doing everything but counseling children.  While I have grown to accept the reality of many of the tasks I may be asked to do as a school counselor, I still would like to be able to take everything that I have learned throughout grad school and apply it to my job.  I am attending graduate school, specifically Millersville, for a reason.  I wanted to be able to provide myself with a good quality education, while also developing a good framework of counseling experience. 

I do understand the importance of assessment and standardized testing.   Although, I still have my doubts about how highly we hold the results of some of the tests.  I also think that it is necessary for counselors to play some sort of role within the testing process.  However, I do feel that the main role of the counselor within a school should never be overlooked.  I had the opportunity to speak to a school psychologist that works at one of the local school districts, and she told me that in her school district, school counselors play a big role in assisting with the standardized testing process, but very rarely do anything with assessments.  The entire assessment process was the role of the school psychologist.

Again, this information was not surprising to me, but it still discouraged me a little to think that I may never be putting into practice the information and the tools that I am learning throughout this course.  I thought to myself, why do they make this assessment course a requirement when we may never even use it?  Honestly, I was kind of bummed out to hear that I may not even be involved with the assessment process, but after some reflection, I truly understand the point of this course and why it is required for us.  I may not directly work with assessments once I get into the field, but I am still going to have to understand how the process works.  There are several ways that I will be able to apply my basic knowledge of assessments in schools, even if it is simply assisting with the standardized testing process.  Another example of applying my knowledge about assessments would be the following.  If a student who just took an assessment test comes to me upset about the results, I will be able to empathize with them, and will also be able to educate them about the importance of not focusing on the results of one test.  Whatever the example may be, I have developed a greater appreciation for the reasons of why this course is required for us.

 

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