Week 11 Discussion Response to Classmates
Please no plagiarism and make sure you are able to access all resources on your own before you bid. Main references come from Neukrug, E. S., & Fawcett, R. C. (2015) and/or Encyclopedia of Counseling (2017). You need to have scholarly support for any claim of fact or recommendation regarding treatment. Please respond to all 3 of my classmates separately. You need to have scholarly support for any claim of fact or recommendation like peer-reviewed, professional scholarly journals. I need this completed by 02/07/20 at 5pm.
Expectation:
Responses to peers. Respond to who have proposed different ideas from your own.
THREE PEER RESPONSE POSTS should contain at least 150 words. No references are required for Peer Response posts. Please note that responding to your peers is required by the classroom, which means a substantive post (150 words min.) and one that contains detail and thoroughness. Also, please note that just merely answering the Main Discussion post with 2 references is not an automatic 100.
1. Classmate (M. Jon)
School counseling has always been of interest to me. I never considered how much of an important role assessment play in counseling our students. This course helped me to understand that every assessment is not the best for everybody. School counselors use a variety of assessments including but not limited to needs assessments, use of time assessments, scoring assessments, evaluations, behavior assessments, career inventory assessments and many more. Counselors are responsible for assisting students in evaluating their aptitudes and abilities through the interpretation of assessments and standardized tests. The American Counseling Association (ACA) statement title Responsibilities of Users of standardized tests, urges counselors to be aware of differing purposes for testing and reminds is to consider the limitations of tests for any purpose and to evaluate the costs of not testing or using alternative methods of gathering the information needed.(Schaefer, 1995)
The roles of a counselor identified by Schafer and Mufson (1993) imply that counselors should have certain skills related to assessment and these are organized into three areas: pupil assessment, program evaluation, and basic research. Pupil assessment includes types of assessment, assessment systems, test administration, test reporting and interpretation, test evaluation and selection, formal and informal methods of assessment, methods for using assessments and ethics of using assessments. Program evaluation includes, needs assessment, formative and summative evaluation, sources of evaluation, research validity, disseminating information and research ethics. And basic research includes locating and obtaining relevant research reports, reading and summarizing research reports, and evaluating validity of instruments and research design. (Schaefer, 1995) These roles help school counselors identify and evaluate developmental problems and external factors that may affect student success. School counselors use the information they gather in these roles to work with school decision-makers and other advocates to make sure that students and families are aware of and receiving all the educational opportunities and services that are available to them. This course and the information provided have given me an insight into how important it is to evaluate the assessments that we are asked to give the students to make sure that they are not biased towards certain groups and to make sure that all students are provided the opportunity for success.
Reference
Schafer, W.D. (1995) Assessment skills for counselors. Eric Digest Retrieved from https://www.counseling.org/Resources/Library/ERIC%20Digests/95-02.pdf
Schafer, W. D. & Mufson, D. (1993, March). Assessment literacy for school counselors. Paper presented at the American Counseling Association Convention.
2. Classmate (J. Boo)
School counselors’ major duties are to counsel students, complete student assessments, consult, provide information, administer tests, and research and evaluate to improve one’s skills for the counseling profession (Schafer, 1995). School counselors help students to be prepared academically and emotionally. This course has helped me to understand the role of school counselors and how assessments play an integral part of their duties in helping students. Student assessments help to determine what students need to learn and how they learn. School counselors must be skilled in determining what assessments are best for their students and how to interpret them in order to plan activities and intervention.
Working as a school counselor in communities that are marginalized, it is important to know what types of assessments are best for these communities. There is bias in tests that affect women and minority groups disproportionately (Neukrug & Fawcett, 2015). The validity and reliability of assessments are important when selecting for minority students. Utilizing assessments that have sound research procedures with good validity and reliability and are relevant to the situation and interpret within the cultural context (Neukrug & Fawcett, 2015). We must encourage and promote social change by advocating for more inclusive assessments where students with diverse backgrounds are included in the development of these assessments. It is important to network with organizations that advocate for multicultural counseling in the field of counseling. Having the tools to properly assess students of different background helps me as a counselor to better serve my students.
Resources
Neukrug, E. S., & Fawcett, R. C. (2015). Chapter 2: Ethical, legal, and professional issues in assessment. In The essentials of Testing and
Assessment: A practical guide for counselors, social workers, and psychologists (pp. 21-41). Stamford, CN: Cengage
Learning.
Schafer, W. (1995). Assessment skills for school counselors. Retrieved from https://www.ericdigests.org/1996-2/school.html
3. Classmate (S. Kim)
Before taking the course, I wasn’t aware of the importance of choosing the right instrument for different clients and about all the different laws and regulations about them. The only assessments I would use with my clients were the assessments provided from the department and I would use the same assessment with all my clients regardless of their ages, ethnicity, or any other background information. Learning about all the different assessments and how to check for its reliability and validity was interesting. However, I find it more interesting that there are so many different laws and regulations about choosing the right assessments and the rights of clients for having access to the right assessments. Some of the laws I could refer to in the future includes Civil Rights Acts, the laws asserts that any test must be valid for job in question, Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) which bans discrimination for individuals with disabilities and asserts that accommodations for testing must be made, and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), the legislative assure the rights of students to be tested for learning disabilities in schools at a school system’s expense (Neukrug & Fawcett, 2015). Being aware of the presence of the different laws and regulations and how and when to apply them, I would be able to help the client to get the full benefit of what the laws and regulations asserts them and protects them from any unfair treatments.
Reference
Neukrug, E. S., & Fawcett, R. C. (2015). Chapter 2: Ethical, legal, and professional issues in assessment. In The essentials of Testing and Assessment: A practical guide for counselors, social workers, and psychologists (pp. 21-41). Stamford, CN: Cengage Learning.
Required Resources
Neukrug, E. S., & Fawcett, R. C. (2015). Chapter 9: “Intellectual and Cognitive Functioning: Intelligence Testing and Neuropsychological Assessment.” In The essentials of Testing and Assessment: A practical guide for counselors, social workers, and psychologists (pp. 190-220). Stamford, CN: Cengage Learning.
Neukrug, E. S., & Fawcett, R. C. (2015). Chapter 11: “Clinical assessment: Objective and projective personality tests.” In The essentials of Testing and Assessment: A practical guide for counselors, social workers, and psychologists (pp. 247-280). Stamford, CN: Cengage Learning.
