Assessment Tests And The Role Of Schools Counselor In Assessment

Running head: ROLE OF SCHOOL’S COUNSELOR 1

Assessment Tests and the Role of School’s Counselor in Assessment

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ROLE OF SCHOOL’S COUNSELOR 2

Assessment Tests and the Role of School’s Counselor in Assessment

Ability Testing: Academic Aptitude and Achievement

The aptitude test is one of the commonly applied assessment tools by schools counselors.

Defined merely as ‘the natural way to do something’, the proponent of the aptitude test is not

known, but it dates to so many centuries ago. It is applied together with the achievement test to

identify and place the gifted and talented students in specific educational programs. For instance,

the Modern Language Aptitude Test is used to evaluate and measure the potential of a student in

the mastery of foreign languages. Similarly, the Differential Aptitude Test is used to determine a

student’s ability in various fields such as numerical reasoning, verbal reasoning, special relations

and mechanical reasoning (Shea et al., 2001). The results obtained from these tests are valuable

to the school counselor since they are to guide the students on the right career path.

In schools, the school counselor can use the scores to guide students in choosing the

appropriate courses. A high score in a mechanical reasoning test will guide the student towards

engineering and designing courses. Also, a high score in tests that measure speed, problem

solving and accuracy may guide the students to enroll in Finance, Computer Science and many

other fields that require attention to details. The students will, therefore, focus on majoring in the

specific areas that suit their abilities.

Personality Assessments

Over the ages, the human being has used personality tests in understanding the full

potential of individual human beings. According to Kline (2013), a personality test has a lot of

benefits to the students; it increases productivity, improves the socialization skills, assists

teachers in identifying the teaching approaches to their students and help students achieve their

full potential in academic performance and co-curricular activities. The school counselor uses the

ROLE OF SCHOOL’S COUNSELOR 3

Big Five Factor personality assessment test to determine student’s personality traits. Each of the

students shows individual scores that are used to assess their abilities, and the classroom teacher

can use the results to improve the performance of the respective students.

The classroom teacher may find it problematic to incorporate the varied and diverse

results from the Big Five Factor test. However, the teacher can decide to be lenient with the

lessons, assignments and syllabi to provide an equal learning environment for all the students in

the class. Hadas (2011) argues that though the teacher may find it difficult to change their

teaching methods, they may modify the classroom tasks and assignments as well as making

detailed lesson plans. The leniency will allow the teacher to give room for the accommodation of

students who may be very weak or very strong academically to adapt to the objectives of the

lesson.

Career and Life-Planning Assessments

Career and Life-Planning Assessments traces its history to the father of career

counseling, Frank Parson who developed the theory of trait and factor. The school counselor

applies the theory in assisting students to identify their interests and skills necessary for choosing

careers (Tracey, 2014). In elementary level, the school counselor focuses on helping the students

to develop skills essential in decision making in the course of their academic life. In middle

school, the school counselor, in support of other stakeholders like teachers, parents and the

administration, creates an environment that supports the students to achieve their academic

success. In high school, the school counselor makes deliberate effort to guide the students in

career planning. Furthermore, students are assisted to overcome personal issues that may affect

their academic success. They also help students in planning their career after graduation. The

ROLE OF SCHOOL’S COUNSELOR 4

different levels of Career and Life-Planning assessments work towards guiding the student to the

right job after graduation.

Assessments of Intelligence in Schools

The intelligence test is used to measure the problem solving and thinking skills among

students. First published by Alfred Binet (1905) the objective of the test is to identify students

who require special help in adapting to the curriculum (Gale, 2015). The assessment aids in the

realization of the child's full potential. The school counselor often compares the IQ results and

the achievement tests. The comparison allows the identification patterns of strengths and

weaknesses in similar areas across the two different tests. If there exists a consistent gap, more

are done to single out the specific problem. Using the results, the school counselor can, therefore,

advise the classroom teacher and the parents on the weakness or strength of the student.

The most appropriate intelligence assessment method for a school counselor is the

Wechsler Intelligence Scale test. The test is not only suitable for students between 6-17 years,

but it also divided into 15 areas of study. The total score for all the fifteen areas is added to give

a Full-Scale IQ score (Scale and Petermann, 2015). The subtotal for the other areas is also added

to give results for working memory, verbal comprehension, processing speed and non-verbal and

fluid reasoning. The primary objective of the intelligence test is to identify gifted children and

also determine the cognitive strength and weakness of the students. The school counselor is,

therefore, able to give recommendations on any special needs that each student may have for the

classroom teacher and other stakeholders to act.

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References

Gale, C. L. (2015). A Study Guide for Psychologists and Their Theories for Students: ALFRED

BINET. Gale, Cengage Learning.

Hadas, M. (2011). Incorporating learning style and personal preferences into an oral

communication course syllabus. (ED519104).

Hays, D. G. (2014). Assessment in counseling: A guide to the use of psychological assessment

procedures. John Wiley & Sons.

Kline, P. (2013). Handbook of psychological testing. Routledge.

Scale, W. A. I., & Petermann, F. (2015). Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-(WAIS-IV)(dt.

Version.

Shea, D. L., Lubinski, D., & Benbow, C. P. (2001). Importance of assessing spatial ability in

intellectually talented young adolescents: A 20-year longitudinal study. Journal of

Educational Psychology, 93(3), 604.

Tracey, T. J. (2014). From Trait-and-Factor to Person-Environment Fit Counseling: Theory and

Process. Career Counseling: Contemporary Topics in Vocational Psychology, 1.

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