Assessing High Students’ Career
Development Needs and Evaluating the
Efficacy of Career Development
Interventions: A Pragmatic Approach
Using Free Tools
Chris Wood, PhD, 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.k12.wa.us/navigation101/curriculum.aspx
http://missouricareereducation.org/curr/cmd/guidan
ceplacementG/lessons/index.php
Occupational Information:
www.onetcenter.org
Data Analysis:
www.ezanalyze.com
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
items – respondents indicate if they agree
or disagree with each item
• 50
• Raw Score is the total number of correct
responses to the 50 items
• Standardized mean for 8th grade students is
35.97, 9th graders = 36.50, 10th 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 titles
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
EzAnalyze http://www.ezanalyze.com/
Disaggregating Data – Needs
Assessment
Comparing Means – T-tests & ANOVA
Additional Resources
Mental Measurements Yearbook – 17th
http://www.unl.edu/buros/
A Counselor’s Guide to Career Assessment
Instruments 5th 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!