Understanding and Enhancing Career and College Readiness SelfEfficacy

Understanding and Enhancing Career and College Readiness Self-Efficacy Stanley B. Baker North Carolina State University Robert R. Martinez University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill

Introduction • General definition of career and college readiness • Career ready: Possessing the content knowledge and key learning skills and techniques sufficient to begin studies in a career pathway • College ready: Being prepared in the key learning skills necessary to succeed in entry-level general education courses • Source: Conley, D. T. (2010). College and career ready. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. • Identifying importance in school counseling • Potential importance of self-efficacy in acquiring career and college readiness

Challenging Readiness Atmosphere • High school diploma less valuable • Knowledge in field and acquisition of skills more important than college majors • Multiple post-secondary pathways to career readiness exist today • Workforce requirements becoming more and more sophisticated • Employers often seeking individuals who can fill their specific job requirements • Current jobs disappearing while new ones appearing constantly

Readiness Challenge Attracting Considerable Attention (e. g. , . . . • Achieve, Inc. • ACT, Inc. • American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education • The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation • The Center for Mental Health in Schools • The College Board • The National Governors Association • The U. S. Department of Education

Importance in School Counseling • Goal is to serve all students (ASCA National Model) • Focus is on enhancing academic, career, and personal/social development (ASCA) • Academic and career development closely associated with career and college readiness • If emphasis is only on academic instruction and readiness, other personal/social readiness domains such as self-efficacy are overlooked • School counselors are well positioned to support the classroom teacher efforts to enhance career and college readiness academically

Defining Self-Efficacy • The ability to persist and succeed with tasks • The extent or strength of one’s belief to complete tasks and reach goals • Effects every area of human behavior • Factors that influence self-efficacy are (a) experience or attainment, (b) vicarious experiences (e. g. , social models), (c) social persuasion, and (d) physiological factors such as stress • Source: Bandura, A. (1997). Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. New York: Freeman

Career College Readiness Self-Efficacy Inventory (CCRSI; Baker & Parikh Foxx, 2012) • Developed original CCRSI in order to evaluate classroom guidance programming designed to enhance post-secondary education-going culture in a large, urban magnet high school—ninth grade participants • Decided to use the extant data to establish evidence of validity and reliability • Conducted exploratory factor analysis and ran alpha reliability coefficients • Four factors emerged, and the reliability coefficients were quite high • Resultant instrument reduced to 14 items; new study provided confirmatory factor analysis data that supported the exploratory findings

Resultant CCRSI Factors: • Meeting procedural and financial challenges associated with post-secondary education and future careers • Possessing positive personal characteristics that will enhance readiness • Believing that one possesses the competencies needed to be successful in the future • Believing that one has the potential to set and achieve future goals

Potential Importance of the Four CCRSI Factors • The four factors suggest important components to be considered when planning and developing classroom guidance intervention strategies to enhance the career and college readiness of students we are serving • The CCRSI can be used as an evaluation measure for these interventions • The CCRSI can also be used in individual and small group student planning and possible in individual and small group counseling • Applications of these ideas were implemented and evaluated

Promoting career and college readiness aspirations and self-efficacy: Curriculum field test. (in press). The Career Development Quarterly (Martinez, Baker, & Young) • Example of a classroom guidance strategy designed to enhance career and college readiness of adolescents • Goals of intervention • Setting, population, and sample • Content of intervention • Research design • Results • Implications for research and practice

The effects of customized individual counseling interventions on career and college readiness of adolescents in the foster care system(Doctoral dissertation @ NC State by Regina Gavin Williams (2016) • Example of using CCRSI factors for individual student planning • Goals of interventions • Setting, population, and sample • Content of intervention • Research design • Results • Implications for research and practice

Current Studies Designed to Understand Describe Lived Experiences of Former and Future Participants: Former Participants • Martinez and Baker: Understanding Rural Latino Postsecondary-Education-Going Aspirations • Conceptual framework • Setting • Participants • Research design • Status report

Current Studies Designed to Understand Describe Lived Experiences of Former and Future Participants: Future Participants • Herring and Baker: Perceptions of Sixth Grade Students About Their Readiness for Educational Opportunities Beyond High School • Conceptual framework • Setting • Participants • Research design • Status report

Thank You for Attending Our Presentation • Q and A • Related discussion