Assessment development is a complex, multifaceted process. In the United States, the development of assessments for professional certification and licensure includes a deep dive into the responsibilities, tasks, and behaviors utilized by the professionals in their daily professional engagement. This deep dive is known as a job analysis.

The job analysis is used to inform the creation of an examination blueprint, and examination content is developed based upon that blueprint. This firmly links assessment of professional knowledge to the skills and expertise needed for safe and effective professional practice. It also ensures that certification and licensure examinations don’t simply assess that an individual has gained and holds knowledge from their training or education, but rather that an individual holds the knowledge necessary for the actual requirements for professional practice as determined by evaluating exactly what counseling professionals do in their daily jobs and engagement with clients.

For counseling, as the provider of the national examinations for certification and licensure, NBCC ensures that assessment development processes align with industry standards and best practices. In 2024, NBCC is launching the next job analysis for the National Counselor Examination (NCE) and National Clinical Mental Health Counseling Examination (NCMHCE)

Job analysis development for the NCE and NCMHCE will include, in part, interviews with counseling leaders, focus groups, survey development by subject matter experts (SMEs), and survey data collection and analysis. The job analysis will begin with a series of focus groups, ensuring that professional counselors are informing every stage of the assessment development process of the examinations for the counseling profession.

We are seeking counselors and counselors-in-training to participate in various in-person and virtual focus groups in all five ACES regions throughout the rest of 2024. Participants will share via an open dialogue their perspectives on the counseling profession, what it looks like to be a counselor today, and feedback to ensure we maintain and safeguard counseling standards and practices.

Upcoming focus groups include:

• University of North Carolina Greensboro (UNCG): Friday, September 13, 2024, 8 am–noon (breakfast will be served)
• North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (NC A&T): Wednesday, September 25, 2024, 10 am–2 pm (lunch will be served)

More dates and locations are forthcoming. You can apply to participate in the focus groups at https://www.research.net/r/MRZQMTZ.