Standards of Care for Assessment in Group Work

The Standards of Care for Assessment in Group Work represent a collaborative effort between the Association for Assessment and Research in Counseling (AARC) and the Associaton for Specialists in Group Work (ASGW). The purpose of these standards is to address the distinctive aspects of group work assessment that group workers often overlook and may lead to ineffective or invalid assessment. Examples of these considerations include the overuse of one method of data collection (self-report) in group work assessment, the importance of using appropriate and culturally relevant assessments in groups with diverse members, and intentionally identifying the difference between assessing group process versus group outcomes. The committee’s goal was to develop standards that highlight the importance of pre-ferred practices in group work assessment and for counselors to use them in conjunction with other standards related to measurement and assessment in counseling.