Advanced Assessment in Counseling

PREREQUISITE:  None

This course prepares students to administer, score, interpret, and report on objective assessments used in counseling practice. Instruction covers objective personality and emotional or behavioral tests for children, adolescents, and adults; objective intelligence measures in the Wechsler and Woodcock-Johnson families; objective academic achievement measures in the Wechsler and Woodcock-Johnson families; and objective behavioral, trauma, substance use, and marriage or family assessments. Students learn psychometric quality and test construction principles; the scope of practice and legal requirements for licensed professional counselors in Texas; and collaboration with psychologists, neuropsychologists, psychiatrists, psychiatric mental health nurse practitioners, and other counselors. The course emphasizes hands-on administration, scoring, interpretation, and reporting using training materials or approved practice data. The capstone is a Comprehensive Mental Health Evaluation and Treatment Plan that integrates all assessments with a diagnostic clinical interview and record review. The report includes a counseling treatment plan aligned to theoretical orientation and evidence-based guidelines, with referrals as appropriate. Responsible and transparent use of artificial intelligence for workflow support is incorporated, always with human verification and never as a substitute for professional judgment.

UPON COMPLETION OF THE COURSE, THE STUDENT WILL BE COMPETENT IN:

• Selecting and justifying objective instruments for personality, behavior, intelligence, academic achievement, trauma, substance use, and marriage or family assessment that fit a stated counseling purpose and population.
• Administering, scoring, and interpreting objective measures in a supervised educational setting with correct procedures and developmental and cultural sensitivity.
• Writing clear, stakeholder-ready results and interpretations that are within the scope of a Texas-licensed professional counselor and that do not represent the work as a psychological evaluation.
• Explaining score scales, norms, percentiles, and confidence intervals, and connecting results to counseling decisions and referrals.
• Evaluating reliability and validity evidence for instruments, including internal consistency, test-retest, factor structure, and, where applicable, measurement invariance across groups.
• Describing test design and construction, including item writing, piloting, dimensionality, and standard setting, so that students can read and critique a technical manual.
• Identifying threats to validity, including response style concerns and noncredible effort, and documenting limitations and cautions in reports.
• Planning and justifying technology-based or remote assessment workflows that follow recognized guidance for security, comparability, and accessibility.
• Defining role boundaries and collaboration paths among counselors, psychologists, neuropsychologists, psychiatrists, psychiatric mental health nurse practitioners, and other professionals, and stating when referral is required.
• Integrating multiple sources of data, including interviews, collateral records, and objective measures, into a single Comprehensive Mental Health Evaluation and Treatment Plan with clear recommendations and outcome monitoring.
• Using artificial intelligence in a bounded and transparent way for literature scans, checklists, table generation, and formatting with human verification and privacy protections.
• Defending assessment decisions and interpretations orally and in writing with legally defensible documentation that reflects ethical standards and institutional policy.

ACQUIRED SKILLS:

• Administer, score, interpret, and report objective assessments within the scope of a Texas Licensed Professional Counselor, including personality, emotional or behavioral, intelligence, academic achievement, trauma, substance use, and marriage or family instruments
• Demonstrate proper procedures and documentation for all administrations using supervision and educational data only, ensuring ethical and legal compliance
• Evaluate psychometric quality, including reliability, validity, dimensionality, and fairness across populations, and apply this knowledge to test selection and interpretation
• Explain fundamental principles of test design and construction, item writing, pilot testing, and standard setting, and use these concepts when reading or critiquing a test manual
• Apply principles from the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing to support validity arguments and identify threats to validity such as response bias or noncredible performance
• Interpret test results in context of developmental level, culture, and presenting problem, connecting findings to clinical decision-making, counseling treatment planning, and referral