Counselor Education Courses in Program Evaluation and Scientific Research: Are Counselors Being Prepared for the Accountability Press?

Counselor education programs listed in Counselor Preparation 1980 were surveyed to determine the proportion of required coursework devoted to instruction in scientific research and program evaluation. Regardless of area specialization, department size, or academic unit in which the program is housed, responding counselor education programs were found to devote approximately twice as much required instructional time to scientific research as to program evaluation. A rationale and suggestions for change are presented.     

The SUNY Assessment Initiative: Initial campus and system perspectives

The State University of New York (SUNY) is in the process of implementing a remarkably ambitious and collegial system-wide assessment of general education and academic majors across its 64 campuses. The SUNY Assessment Initiative is founded upon a balanced view of assessment as both accountability and improvement as well as the utilization of best assessment practices. Another fundamental component is the critical role of faculty governance in the assessment of student learning outcomes, at the campus and system levels. This paper explains the rationale underlying the SUNY Assessment Initiative, describes specific procedures and processes involved in its implementation, and provides a preliminary report on its status.     

Contracting in Consultation: Training Guidelines and Examples

Proposals for expansion of the role of the counselor to that of behavioral scientist, deliverer of indirect service, and consultant are cited as precedents for this discussion. The need for training materials related to specific consulting skills is suggested. Contracting, a specific skill component of consultation, is operationally defined. Guidelines for conceptualizing contracts along with case examples are offered as a basis for training modules for counselor education courses in consultation.     

THE APPLICATION OF A FACTORIAL DESIGN TO THE STUDY OF CULTURAL BIAS IN GENERAL CULTURE ITEMS ON THE NATIONAL TEACHER EXAMINATION1

This article describes a series of studies performed with the National Teacher Examinations which were designed to study the relationship between the cultural content of special sets of general culture test items and the performance of blacks and whites on these experimental items. Significant differences between the performance of blacks and whites were found in terms of black, modern, and traditional test items. A replication of the study with the same test items, and also with a different group of test items, is also described.