Blog 7

The vignette at the beginning of Dollarhide and Saginak’s (2012, p. 108) chapter 7 reminded me of my journey from undergraduate to graduate school. While at LVC, I heard many alumni’s stories about entering graduate school in psychology and feeling that our classes at LVC (especially Dr. Manza’s) prepared them so well for grad school that they hardly felt an increase in workload. They shared stories about classmates who did not even know what APA was, let alone how to write a literature review. Although the work I did at LVC was exhaustive, I feel lucky that I didn’t have any culture shock when entering Millersville’s program. This relates to the vignette because I am guessing that the counselors who were flabbergasted at the idea of data and accountability did not have a Guidance Program Development class similar to ours, or else they would be prepared (and dare I say, excited?) to be collected data and administering evaluations of their programs. Once again, I feel relieved that we are able to construct a CSCP under the supervision of a professional so that when it comes time to do so in our professions we will be knowledgeable about the process.

            I found it interesting to read about the evolution of accountability because it fit into some of the historical theories that we’ve learned in other class, namely the concept of vocational guidance Career Development (Gysbers, 2004). The evolution also showed how the three domains of ASCA came about: career development in the 20’s, academic achievement in the 30’s, and finally the social/personal aspect in the 70’s (however most of the article focuses on the first two domains). Gysbers allowed us to see the progression of data collection from being just an idea to becoming part of a research design, which is profiled in the final examples of empirical studies. I enjoyed the summary of accountability that Gysbers split into three parts: counselor mindset, guidance program results, and taking action. This exemplifies the idea that collecting data and seeing change is not enough. We, as the new generation of school counselors, need to change the mindset surrounding accountability so that it no longer elicits a groan from our colleagues.

Dollarhide, C.T., & Saginak, K.A. (2012). Comprehensive school counseling programs (2nd Ed.). New York: Pearson, Inc.

Gysbers, N. C. (2004). Comprehensive Guidance and Counseling Programs: The Evolution of Accountability. Professional School Counseling, 8(1), 1-14.