Evaluations of supervisees: Brief commentary and research report

A fairly substantial body of literature has investigated sources of variability in counselor performance ratings. No comparisons of supervisors' and external judges' evaluations, however, have been reported. In this study, individual supervisors (n = 27) evaluated their counseling students (n = 43), who were at three training levels (first practicum, second practicum, and internship). External judges rate audiotapes of students' actual counseling sessions. The correlation between the two ratings was not significant. Follow up analyses of variance revealed that, while external judges' ratings increased across training levels, supervisors' evaluations of second practicum students were significantly lower than those of their less or more experienced counterparts. Results seemed to support Holloway's (1984) assertion that supervisors' evaluations of counseling performance are influenced by their interactions with students during supervision sessions