week 7

            I couldn’t agree more with the premise this week from our text that affirms the importance of assessment.  As I have reflected in other blog posts, it is an essential tool for counselors to substantiate the necessity of having school counselors on staff.  Particularly in light of current budget constraints, school counselor positions are tenuous due to the fact that they are not mandated positions.  Therefore the onus will be on counselors themselves to demonstrate their own effectiveness, and therefore importance. in schools achieving their mission.  Additionally, other disciplines are being asked to provide data to show their effectiveness in the schools.  Counselors should expect no preferential treatment in this regard and no “free pass”.  If we want to be regarding as being as essential as other disciplines and types of staff, then we should be willing to subject ourselves to the same evaluative tools as other staff members. 

            As the text points, assessment is not simply to prove our effectiveness, and thereby importance, in the school system.  I believe assessment is, in its highest form, a tool for the counselor as he/she plans, tweaks, and develops programming.  Without this rhythm of assessment, intervention, and re-assessment, counselors would be flying blind when it comes to making good informed decisions in terms of program planning.  How else will we know what the most pressing issues are in the school, or how effective certain interventions may be? 

            As the text mentioned, school counselors have been and must continue to move into a different way of thinking about the work they do.  We must move from reporting process data to reporting results data.  When I interviewed counselors for our research project, I was struck by the way most of them told me how many students they saw, how many groups they ran, or what they did with their time.  While these are important aspects of assessment, they only tell part of the story.  Perhaps counselors are least comfortable or least familiar with assessment that focuses on results.  I began to think about how many jobs have traditionally talked more about process assessment, rather than results assessments. People may even use the lens of process when talking about their personal lives as well.  We might say I spent five hours cleaning, two hours cooking, I watched TV for an hour, read for an hour, and went to the gym for an hour.  Wouldn’t it be interesting if we all started looking at our days not just about how we spent our time, but about what impact all our activities had on our goals for our lives?  Perhaps this idea of results assessment involves more of a paradigm shift than one might think, moving from a way of approaching life that has been ingrained in us across the board. I am fascinated in thinking about the impact such a shift could make, not only in the school counseling profession but also in our personal lives as well.  I would imagine in all cases, it would serve to make us more goal-centered, more reflective, more intentional, and perhaps even more effective across the board.

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