Assessment practices in counseling
Here is some food for thought!
A while back I wrote a book chapter on assessment in counseling and included information about program evaluations. It’s really interesting because program evaluation can be considered research and assessment and just plain program evaluation
Here is a case study that was included. This may help you think about some of the aspects of program evaluation:
The agency needs to “prove its worth”!
You were recently hired at a non-profit counseling center as a quality assurance counselor and as part of your role it is your responsibility to conduct a program evaluation. You are vaguely aware that you need to collect some data but where to begin is the question. The goal of program evaluation is to create a systematic assessment which will work to improve the quality of services or the programs of the agency. The first step involves determining your goal and then creating a plan to collect objective and subjective information. There are several questions you must ask as you create the program evaluation. Who are your stakeholders? Are you focusing on specific programs with the agency? Are you going to utilize a formative or summative evaluation? Would using test results be helpful? Will you utilize surveys, interviews, observations, or focus groups? Questions such as these guide the evaluation with the goal of accountability for the counseling profession.
References:
Foster, L.H. (2020). Assessment practices in counseling. In D. Capuzzi and D. Gross (Eds.), Introduction to the counseling profession (8th ed.). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
