MEASURE Assessment

School Counselor Accountability

COUN 5560 Key Assessment

Assignment Description

This assignment has been identified as a Key Assessment for the School Counseling program and is completed in COUN 5560 (Internship). Students consult with their supervising counselor and principal to identify a need within the school that connects with the school’s mission and the Louisiana comprehensive school counseling model. Candidates then collect data on the need, design and implement an intervention that addresses the need, conduct post-intervention data, and share results with stakeholders. MEASURE is an action research model which teaches candidates how to build accountability standards into counseling programs. The process aligns with the ASCA National Model and the individual school’s goals for improvement.

*COUN 5560 is part of the curriculum for the redesigned 48 hour School Counseling program and was taught for the first time in the Spring of 2010. Prior to that time a 33 hour program was offered and candidates were not required to complete an Internship experience.

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) in 2009-2010 are presented, as well as a total mean score for each element and a total for 2009-2010. Each element is scored on a 3 point scale, with 3 being Target, 2 being Acceptable, and 1 being Unacceptable. 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 / 2008-2009 / 2009-2010
n=5 / Total mean score by CFP
n=5
Decision Making (DM) / 4 / *N/A / *N/A / 2.95 / 2.95/3.0
Creative/Critical Thinking (C/CT) / 2 / *N/A / *N/A / 2.90 / 2.90/3.0
Responsibility Taking (RT) / 3 / *N/A / *N/A / 2.93 / 2.93/3.0
Problem Solving (PS) / 4 / *N/A / *N/A / 2.95 / 2.95/3.0
Total mean score by year / *N/A / *N/A / 2.93/3.0

*Course taught for the first time in the Spring of 2010 as part of redesigned program

Summary

The mean score for each conceptual framework principle is well above the 80% mark and all students scored at the Target or Acceptable levels. The highest mean score was found in Decision Making and Problem Solving where students averaged approximately 98% for each category. The lowest mean score was found in Creative/Critical Thinking where students averaged approximately 96%. The score for Responsibility Taking averaged approximately 97%.

These results should be interpreted with caution given the relatively small sample size and only one year of data. However, generalizations can be made concerning students’ performance. The results suggests that candidates are able to make contributions to solving real-world, education problems by using data and have integrated the conceptual framework principles into their accountability practices.