Assessing High Students Career Development Needs and Evaluating

Assessing High Students’ Career Development Needs and Evaluating the Efficacy of Career Development Interventions: A Pragmatic Approach Using Free Tools Chris Wood, Ph. D, NCSC woodc@seattleu. edu Seattle University Washington School Counselor’s Association Conference February 28, 2009

Why? What if we organized math curriculum in the same fashion that we structure career development interventions? Ability → Placement Career Maturity → Career Development Activity What are the major problems facing greater implementation of career development activity?

Free Tools Free Career Assessments: www. vocopher. com http: //www. onetcenter. org/tools. html Curriculum/Activities: http: //www. k 12. wa. us/navigation 101/curriculum. asp x http: //missouricareereducation. org/curr/cmd/guida nceplacement. G/lessons/index. php Occupational Information: www. onetcenter. org Data Analysis:

Career Maturity “The concept of career maturity has been used to describe both the process by which individuals make career choices appropriate to their age and stage of development and their ability to successfully resolve and transition through the specific tasks of each of these stages” (Brown & Lent, 2005, p. 358).

Career Maturity Inventory • 50 items – respondents indicate if they agree or disagree with each item • Raw Score is the total number of correct responses to the 50 items • Standardized mean for 8 th grade students is 35. 97, 9 th graders = 36. 50, 10 th graders = 37. 81 • Now available for free on www. vocopher. com

Career Development Inventory 120 items – 8 scales: CP = Career Planning – The degree of engagement in the career planning process CE = Career Exploration – Attitudes toward career exploration and usefulness of sources of career information DM = Decision Making – The ability to apply knowledge and insight to career planning and decision making WW = World of Work Information – Knowledge of occupational structure, range of occupations within professions, techniques for getting/keeping jobs, and knowledge of career development tasks

Career Development Inventory Composite scales: CDA= Career Development Attitudes (CP+CE) CDK= Career Development Knowledge and Skills (DM+WW) COT= Career Orientation Total (CP+CE+DM+WW) Additional Score: PO = Knowledge of Preferred Occupational group – Measures in-depth exploration that should precede training or education – Students choose an occupational group, then answer questions on job characteristics, psychological requirements, education, and training – Responses are ‘scored’ based on objective occupational data from Dictionary of occupational

Tailoring Interventions/Activities What career development activity would be most appropriate for this person? What career development activity are they not ready for (lack necessary career maturity)? Discuss these examples: 1) Being taught the process of career decision making and the importance of career interest assessments. 2) Choosing a job shadow.

Tailoring Interventions/Activities What career development activity would be most appropriate for this person? What career development activity are they not ready for (lack necessary career maturity)? Discuss these examples: 1) Being taught the structure of the world of work (e. g. Data-People-Things or 6 work environments) and how to access occupational information (O*Net). 2) Choosing a career pathway.

Monitoring How do you measure progress in career development? Successful milestones and benchmarks (choosing a career path, an articulated educational goal/plan, etc. ) Improvement in career maturity scores (increased scores on CMI or CDI)

Evaluation How do you evaluate interventions or activities? Measure progress on career development construct of interest. Interventions/activities identified using an assessment such as CDI provide inherent post-test measure.

Tools for Analyzing Data Microsoft Excel add-in Ez. Analyze http: //www. ezanalyze. com/ Disaggregating Data – Needs Assessment Comparing Means – T-tests & ANOVA

Additional Resources Mental Measurements Yearbook – 17 th http: //www. unl. edu/buros/ A Counselor’s Guide to Career Assessment Instruments 5 th edition (2009) www. ncda. org

Jeopardy Alex Trebek and Chris Wood bring you …… WSCA Jeopardy

Jeopardy Answer: This aspect of a person’s career development is about how and where a person investigates careers and the person’s attitude toward this exploration. Question: What is Career Exploration?

Thank you! Chris Wood and Alex Trebek thank you for playing and we wish you good luck in the rest of the school year!

The End Questions? Comments? Thank you!