Comprehensive Development School Counseling Plan & Website

COUN 5540 Key Assessment

Assignment Description

This is a key assignment for the School Counseling Program and aligns with the College of Education’s Conceptual Framework. Each student must develop a website that outlines a comprehensive K-12 school counseling plan, including the vision and mission of the school counseling program, how the program will be data-driven and accountable, and the role of the school counselor. The website must also provide academic and career planning resources for students and parents, present a crisis plan, and show the development of materials for program evaluation and needs assessment.

This assessment is aligned with the College of Education’s Conceptual Framework and a summary of how students scored on elements related to the conceptual framework are presented below. The mean scores for each element (e.g., Decision Making) by each year is presented, as well as a total mean score for each element and a total for each year. Each element is scored on a 5 point scale, with 5 being the highest possible score and 0 being the lowest possible score. The total number of students who completed the assessment is represented by n underneath each year.

Conceptual Framework Principle (CFP) / No. of questions related to CFP / 2007-2008
n=25 / 2008-2009
n=14 / 2009-2010
n=19 / Total mean score by CFP
n=58
Decision Making (DM) / 9 / 4.37 / 4.69 / 4.78 / 4.61/5.00
Creative/Critical Thinking (C/CT) / 5 / 4.29 / 4.53 / 4.71 / 4.51/5.00
Responsibility Taking (RT) / 9 / 4.37 / 4.66 / 4.87 / 4.63/5.00
Problem Solving (PS) / 8 / 4.27 / 4.47 / 4.65 / 4.46/5.00
Total mean score by year / 4.33/5.00 / 4.59/5.00 / 4.75/5.00

Summary

The data will be summarized by both year and conceptual framework principle. First, the mean score for each conceptual framework principle is well above the 80% mark. The highest mean score was found in Responsibility Taking where students averaged approximately 93%. The lowest mean score was found in Problem Solving where student averaged approximately 89%. Scores for Creative/Critical Thinking and Decision Making were at 90% and 92% respectively.

In summarizing by year, the data show a consistent trend of improvement. The lowest total mean score for all of the conceptual framework principles together was found in 2007-2008 (students averaged approximately 87%), and the highest total mean score was found in 2009-2010 (student averaged approximately 95%). It is important to note that the same professor taught the course each year, indicating that the expectations for students remained stable across the years of data.

The data show a focused and purposeful attempt to use the yearly results to improve instruction for the following year. Specific strengths that have been identified have centered around elements related to Responsibility Taking and Decision Making. Although improvement has been made within elements related to Problem Solving, the data continue to show this as an area of relative weakness when compared to other conceptual framework principles.