Ethical Use of Assessment - Research Paper Example

As a function of this, this particular analysis will seek to analyze the way in which school counselors are employing a new variety of risk assessment tools in order to draw inference on key levels of violent tendencies or anti-social behavior. Naturally, such models are not in and of themselves a perfect or all encompassing tool due to the fact that many individuals who have exhibited the type of sociopathic tendencies that have become the thing of nationwide news never exhibited any known or verifiable symptoms; however, it is nonetheless a key area of growth into which the high school counselor can seek to polish his/her skill level as a means of seeking to draw down the very real level of risks that currently exists within our current educational system.

Naturally, one of the most important functions of this particular tool of violent risk assessment is to help to provide a level of information with regards to the propensity of a given student to display potentially harmful behavior both to themselves, their loved ones, or those within the educational environment. As a means of reviewing the effectiveness of such an approach, a litany of studies has sought to measure such a determinant within the recent past. Several of these studies, such as the one Bernes and Bardick, indicated that school bullying was oftentimes a key determinant of violent behavior that is one of the few warning signs that the school counselor has the ability to be aware of (Bernes et al 2007).

In such a way, seeking to implement the given assessment tools to both of the affected parties within a situation in which bullying takes place is a fundamental starting point in seeking to provide insight into one of the key and causal areas that affects upon the level of violence. Other studies have indicated that despite violence prevention efforts, one of the most powerful mechanisms in which school officials can seek to both deter and understand the existence of violent behavior and its precipitating factors is to ensure that the seriousness and extent of violent and pre-violent behavior within the student body is a determinant that is thoroughly and thoughtfully weighed by the shareholders within the process (McAdams 2011).

With regards to the ethical concerns of enacting such an assessment tool, there are few if any that have been uncovered as a function of the research that has been employed within this brief analysis. Moreover, the fact of the matter is with regards to the application of the assessment tool, the ethical concerns that are presented with regards to utilizing such a tool are far outweighed by the ethical concerns of not implementing it at all. In other words, the dangers associated with not putting into place such a tool of analysis are far greater than the ethical concerns that might be endangered by putting one into place (Cawood 2010).

Lastly, with respect to how such a tool of assessment would integrate with different ethnic and culturally diverse groups, the level of assessment and the individual assessment tools that have thus far been listed work across these groups and provide the same level of inference. This in and of itself is important to note due to the fact that few of the other assessment tools that could be put into place or utilized by a high school counselor would have the same level of