E-mail this pageCACREP Accreditation Report
This report will address a comprehensive assessment of the three counselor education programs located within the Counselor Education Department, i.e., Student Affairs Professional Practice, School Counseling, and Community Counseling.
The report will: 1. identify each assessment method used and the time frame for the assessment; 2. summarize the strengths and challenges identified in each assessment method; 3. review implications; and 4. discuss the strategies the Department has used, or will use, in addressing the strengths and challenges identified.
Assessment methods utilized in this report
The following assessment methods and reports were used as the basis for compiling this comprehensive report:
- A table summarizing the mean scores, and number of students who passed, of students who volunteered to take the National Counseling Examination (NCE) during the past five years. (Note: The NCE is a national counselor certification examination which students graduating from a program accredited by the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP) are permitted to take during the last semester of their program.)
- A survey of program graduates from May 1995-December 1999 that were not undergraduates at SUNY Plattsburgh.
- A survey of all program graduates from May 1995-December 1999.
- A survey of site supervisors of practicum and internship students from the years 1998-2001.
- A survey of employment supervisors of program graduates from 1995-1999.
- The results of the comprehensive examination program within the Department of Counselor Education during the 2002-2003 academic year.
- The results of students completing all internship experiences during the years 1997-2003.
- A survey of internship supervisors each semester from 1997-2003.
- A survey completed by interns from 1997-2002 evaluating the supervision provided by internship site supervisors.
Summary of the assessment methods identified above
Assessment method 1 - NCE
A. This assessment program measured only the core areas of the counseling knowledge and skill.
B. Approximately one-half of all program graduates volunteered to take this examination.
C. Sixty students took the NCE during the past five years. The passing rate during this period was 88%. The passing rate during the last two years was 96%.
D. The mean scores show a persistent increase in the level of performance from 1998-2003. For instance, in April 1999, students exceeded the national mean scores in 4 of 8 areas for 1 of 3 categories of national mean scores. In April 2003, our students exceeded national means in all 8 areas for this one category of scores.
E. Students from Plattsburgh regularly score below the average when compared to students nationally in programs accredited by the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP).
Assessment method 2 - Program graduates that were not Plattsburgh State undergraduates, 1995-1999
A. The survey was limited to graduates who were not undergraduate students at SUNY Plattsburgh.
B. Twenty-nine graduates responded to this survey. The survey covered most of the objectives of all programs within the Counselor Education Department.
C. The core areas for knowledge and skill strengths perceived by these graduates were: helping relationships, social and cultural foundations, and professional orientation.
D. The core area for knowledge and skill challenges, i.e., areas of lesser strength, which should be addressed by the Department are in human growth and development, appraisal instruments and methods, and research and program evaluation.
E. The survey found other areas of strength to include the programs' abilities to help students develop an awareness of self, a commitment to professional growth, and a commitment to personal growth.
F. Areas which offer the faculty challenges are in the area of understanding the diverse needs of ethnic and cultural groups other than one's own, consulting, legal issues knowledge of the professional environment in which one is employed, and developing in students a commitment, and the skills, for professional leadership.
Assessment method 3 - Program graduates, 1995-1999
A. The results were similar in most respects to those of assessment method 2.
B. Forty-three students responded to this survey.
C. Knowledge strengths in the core area of the programs include, helping relationships, group work, and professional orientation.
D. The skill strengths in the core area of the programs include group work and career development.
E. The challenges for the program faculty in the area of core knowledge are in the areas of career and lifestyle development, appraisal instruments and methods, research and program evaluation, and human growth and development.
F. The greatest challenges for the program faculty in the area of core skill development include professional orientation, research and program evaluation, appraisal instruments and methods, human growth and development and counseling diverse groups culturally different than one's own group.
G. The greatest strengths, as perceived by survey respondents, in areas other than the core area include counseling theory, counseling methods, counseling process and models, awareness of self in the counseling process, the development of a commitment to professional growth and a commitment to the development of personal growth.
H. The greatest challenges for the faculty, and areas considered not as well developed by the graduates, include addressing the diverse needs of clients from different ethnic and cultural groups, consultation, legal issues, and knowledge of the professional environment.
Assessment method 4 - Site supervisors, 1998-2001
A. Twenty-two individuals who were site supervisors of our practicum and internship students during the years 1998-2001 completed this survey.
B. The respondents responded to a 5-point scale with 5 being a high rating. All the mean responses scores were at least a level 4.0, which indicates that respondents perceived our clinical students were at least prepared adequately in all areas.
C. The stronger areas of preparation were indicated as students having a commitment to high ethical standards, personal and professional growth, and involvement professional organization and activities pertinent to the work environment.
D. Students were also seen as strong in individual counseling skills, developing the counseling relationship, and the counseling process.
E. Respondents perceived challenges for the faculty in the areas of developing students' commitment to professional identity, professional leadership, and program evaluation.
F. Challenges for the faculty in terms of developing skills in students remain in the areas appraisal instruments and methods, consultation, and working with specific populations.
G. The respondents also perceived additional challenges remain in helping students develop a knowledge of their professional environment and a knowledge of the needs of an increasingly multicultural and pluralistic client base.
Assessment method 5 - Employment supervisors, 1995-1999
A. Twenty-three employment supervisors of program graduates between 1995 and 1999 completed this survey instrument.
B. The results indicated that respondents rated the graduates a mean score of 4.9 on a scale of 1-5 with 5 being high.
C. Employment supervisors perceived the greatest strengths of graduates to be personal counseling skills and a commitment to professional and personal development.
D. The greatest challenges for the faculty are to help counselor candidates develop a greater knowledge of their professional environment and work responsibilities.
Assessment method 6 - Comprehensive exam, 2002-2003
The Department of Counselor Education recently revised its required comprehensive examination structure. The comprehensive examination s required of all students and must now be successfully completed prior to the start of the internship experience. In the past, it was taken during the internship. Students have two choices: 1. they may take the Counselor Preparation Competency Examination, a national standardized examination; or 2. respond to four comprehensive essay questions to be answered in a four-hour block of time.
A. Ten students completed these examinations during the academic year 2002-2003. Six passed, 2 failed, and 2 were able to pass with additional remedial assignments.
B. No record was kept of the areas of difficulty.
Assessment method 7 - Internship completion from 1997-2003
Each intern is required to be formally evaluated by a site supervisor as well as a program faculty member in order to successfully complete the experience. Only one intern was not able to successfully complete this experience during the last six years. A few interns were able to successfully complete the experience with additional requirements.
Assessment method 8 - Internship supervisors, 1997-2003
Internship site supervisors completed 94 evaluation forms for the internship experience from 1997-2003. (Note: Some supervisors may have completed the form more than once.) Site supervisors indicated they all received copies of our Internship Guidelines. They are satisfied with the assistance and contact they have received from the Department. One-quarter of the supervisors would like introductory meetings to clarify intern needs, consultation on the supervisory process, or mid-semester evaluations in conjunction with the Plattsburgh State supervisor. The supervisors rated the preparation of interns a mean score of 8.9 on a 10-point scale with 10 being high. The largest single area of suggested improvement is "classroom teaching." This was suggested by 20% of the respondents. Most of the comments or requests were favorable and reflected a satisfaction with the internship program and with SUNY Plattsburgh counseling students.
Assessment 9 - Interns evaluating site supervisors, 1997-2003
A. One hundred forty-four interns from 1997-2002 completed evaluations of their site supervisors.
B. The items were rated on a seven-point scale with 7 being the high score.
C. The mean rating on each of the 22 items was at least a 6.2. This indicates that interns perceived their supervisors as providing a high quality of supervision.
D. The supervisors strengths seemed to be in providing criticism without unnecessary threat, providing freedom for interns to develop their own counseling rationale and counseling style, giving suggestions and support when needed, keeping out of the intern's way when the intern was able to operate on their own, working well with the program supervisor from Plattsburgh State and other professional personnel.
E. The challenges for the Department are to help supervisors provide constructive criticism more effectively and helping supervisors assist interns develop alternative counseling strategies that they might use with their clients.
Summary of the assessment reports described above.
The comprehensive assessment reports identified above found students in the counselor education programs are well prepared and successful in their professional lives. Specifically, the strengths of the programs are in the areas of helping students develop counseling relationships, commitments to the profession of counseling, personal and professional growth, and to high ethical standards, and a greater sense of personal awareness. Students now regularly exceed the mean scores for one of three categories of national mean scores on the NCE and pass the examination at a high rate.
The areas identified in the assessments, which require additional attention from the faculty, include the development of knowledge and skills in human growth and development, appraisal instruments and methods, research and program evaluation, legal issues, and understanding the needs of culturally diverse groups. The faculty should also attend to developing an increase in the knowledge of students' professional environments.
Students now generally score better than the national means for one category of the NCE. However, they regularly score below the mean when compared with graduates of other CACREP accredited programs. The challenge will be to improve the scores of students on this examination while maintaining a full enrollment in all counseling programs. The faculty also faces the challenge of motivating a greater percentage of students to take the NCE.
Interns believe that their site supervisors are highly effective in providing supervision for them. They believed that the supervisors were strong in seven separate areas. They also found their supervisor to be weaker in two specific areas.
Implications
The results imply that the counselor education program faculty members are doing commendable work in preparing students for the professional counseling world. Most graduates are perceived as functioning at a high level by their employment supervisors. Graduates and clinical site supervisors rate counseling students' experiences as acceptable in all areas and outstanding in selected areas. The one single area identified as "classroom teaching" suggests that school counseling interns might need additional experiences in working with classroom size groups. Nevertheless, there are additional challenges clearly identified through these assessment reports.
The passing rate for the NCE is high, but not perfect. Students score well when compared with some national means and appear less favorable when compared with students in other CACREP accredited programs around the country.
One primary implication is that there is additional work required of the counselor education faculty to improve the preparation of its graduates. This includes coursework and practicum and internship supervision.
Departmental changes instituted and those planned for the future
The Department recently made several changes in its curricula to respond to the needs identified in these reports. For example, the course on social and cultural diversity was reduced from 3 credits to 2 with additional work in this area spread through all courses in each program rather than concentrated in only one course.
A new course has been added to the program requirements in the area of human growth and developments. The course in consultation was dropped as a 1-credit course with the content to be included more appropriately in program specific courses. The school counseling program has included more work with classroom size groups in an effort to respond to the recommended review of our work in "classroom teaching." Our instructor in appraisal instruments and methods has also made an effort to address concerns in appraisal by introducing new texts which relate more closely to counselors' usage of appraisal instruments. He has also tried to introduce more assessment instruments for review in the class.
As noted above, the comprehensive examination was changed and required prior to the initiation of the internship. It addition, the oral component of the examination was eliminated. The purpose of this change was to identify students' lack or preparation while there is still time to provide remedial assignments for the students. Some deficits were not fully addressed in the past due to the close proximity of graduation.
The faculty members plan to review the scores on the NCE in order to determine how best to improve them. This may involve a review of admissions requirements as well as strengthening students' performances in each course in the programs.
The faculty also plans to review the areas identified as challenges by the various reports, Reports are currently being reviewed to strengthen the school counseling curriculum. The Students Affairs Professional Practice Program was just added this year and the Student Affairs Practice in Higher Education Program (College Counseling) dropped. A new program in Mental Health Counseling is planned. This program will speak directly ot the requirements of licensure and may replace the community counseling program.
The Department Clinical Coordinator has indicated that she will develop continuing education sessions once again for site supervisors. This is an area which was dropped two years because of budget restrictions.
Questions, Comments, Suggestions?
If you would like more information about counselor education at SUNY Plattsburgh please contact
Dr. Stephen Saiz, Chairperson
Office: Ward Hall 107F
Phone: (518) 564-4170
E-mail: stephen.saiz@plattsburgh.edu