I found Chapter 7 to be one of the most valuable chapters so
far in Drummond and Jones (2010). This
chapter laid out the appropriate steps to selecting assessment instruments and
strategies and provided some helpful charts to going through this procedure. The list of assessment resources provided a
very thorough foundation as to where you can begin to look for different
assessment strategies. As a school
counselor, I will be able to benefit from lists such as this when I am looking
for the best resources to use for each of my situations. I also think I will be able to use the steps
to evaluating an assessment instrument.
These pieces of information have given us important things to consider
and look for when determining which assessment to use for our students.
I felt that this Chapter from Drummond and Jones (2010)
related quite nicely to the Studer, Oberman & Womak (2006) article which
talked about a school counselor's accountability. "Accountability means 'being responsible
for one's actions...and documenting effectiveness through measures of
professional activity outcomes'" (Studer, Oberman, & Womak, p. 2,
2006). A school counselor needs to
persist in their field to make sure that other professionals within their
building understand the importance of their job. One of the ways to stay accountable is to
assess your students to collect data and find where you are benefiting
them. Because of the large number of
assessment instruments and placing you can find them, it is crucial that school
counselors understand how to evaluate an assessment and consider the best tool
for each situation. Chapter 7 demonstrated
these needs to help improve a school counselor's accountability. Something I did find interesting from this
article was the different views school counselors have had previously on accountability. Part of the problem with our field is that so
many school counselors have not collected data appropriately because they are
concerned with what this accountability will do to their current position. In particular it could show we are not as
beneficial as we hope or that we are so beneficial that we would be expected to
do more. I think these are both areas we
need to risk however in order to benefit our students. We know we can help and we should fight for
that right.
On a side note, I wanted to briefly mention my experience
with the Piers-Harris 2 Self-Concept Scale.
I thoroughly enjoyed having the opportunity to explore an instrument so
closely and even have the chance to administer and score a test. When Dr. Baker had brought up moderating
variables, I thought I would look into it further in my manual. They define moderating variables as "a
variable that may affect scores on a test independently of the construct that
the test is supposed to measure" (Piers & Herzberg, p.20, 2002). During the revision of the second edition of
the Piers-Harris, the researchers paid particular attention to looking at these
possible moderating variables such as sex, ethnic groups, and SES. Because the researchers were able to use a
larger and more normative stratified sample based on the US population, these
variables are taken into account somewhat.
What they have found is that this test can be used for different groups
of people without those variables specifically affecting the scores. It was mentioned though that if a particular
moderating variable is of concern that more focus should be placed onto that
variable and determining its influence.
I am glad that I had the chance to review this more closely.
Drummond, R. J. and Jones, K. (2010). Assessment procedures for counselors and helping professionals. (7th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
Piers, E. V., and Herzberg, D. S. (2002). Piers-Harris 2: Piers-Harris children's self-concept scale. (2nd ed.). Los Angeles, CA: Western Psychological Services.
Studer, J.R., Oberman, A.H., and Womack, R.H. (2006). Producing evidence to show counseling effectiveness in the schools. Professional School Counseling, 9 (5).
No comments:
Post a Comment