Relevance, the Missing Link A Guide for Promoting Student Success Through Career-Development Education, Training, and Counseling ACADEMIC/TECHNICAL DOMAIN WORKPLACE PERSONAL/SOCIAL READINESS DOMAIN DOMAIN The 2005 Massachusetts Career-Development Education Guide i ii iii We must educate today to prepare our youth for a future unknown to the wisest of men. John Fitzgerald Kennedy iv February 2004 Dear School and Program Administrators, Counselors, and Career Specialists: As part of our efforts to help students and workers acquire the skills necessary to compete in higher education and the workplace, the Department of Education and the Department of Workforce Development have come together to promote and strengthen career development education in the Commonwealth. An emerging body of research is showing that when career development education is integrated within the curriculum learners assume greater responsibility not only for their academic/technical success but their personal and professional achievement. Thus, through career development education we can equip our students with 21st century skills and attitudes that are relevant in the classroom, workplace, home, and community. A high quality career development education program involves an entire school or organization in illustrating the connections between education and the world of work. Many educators are already doing this by demonstrating the relevance of educational standards in the workplace, fostering the development of team building skills, and highlighting the value of assessment results for career planning. Yet, to date, across Massachusetts career development education occurs largely in an ad hoc and uncoordinated manner. We all want the same things for our students, solid transferable skills that will serve them for a lifetime. We believe that this mission is captured in the title Relevance, the Missing Link -- for in guiding students to value education as a means to an end, we supply a critical link to future success. To that end, we hope that this guide serves you well. Sincerely, David P. Driscoll, Commissioner, Massachusetts Department of Education Jane C. Edmonds, Director, Department of Workforce Development v The reward of a thing well done is to have done it. Ralph Waldo Emerson vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The Massachusetts Career Resource Network (MCRN) Advisory Committee has been the impetus for the development of this Guide. The members, on various committees listed below, have provided vision, expertise, and commitment in developing not only this Guide, but its companion website. Special thanks also go to Jeffrey Wheeler, State Director of Career and Technical Education, for his leadership and support of career development education for all learners, K-16. DESIGN TEAM: David Blustein, PhDProfessor, Lynch School of Education, Boston College Donna Brown School Counselor, Silver Lake RHS and Immediate Past President, Massachusetts School Counselor Association Karen DeCoster Education Specialist, Massachusetts Department of Education, Career and Technical Education Unit Theresa Howard, EdD Dean of Cooperative Education and Career Services, Holyoke Community College Monica Kelley Teacher, Haverhill Public Schools Keith Love STC Outreach Coordinator, Boston Public Schools Michael Nakkula, EdD Professor, Risk and Prevention Program, Harvard University Diana Robbins Vocational Director, Newton North High School Patricia Spradley STC Director, Springfield Public Schools REVISION GROUP: Jay Carey, PhD Director, National Center for School Counseling Outcome Research, University of Massachusetts, Amherst Ann Hughes-Thomas Education Specialist, Massachusetts Department of Education, Career and Technical Education Unit Lawrence Litwack, EdDProfessor Emeritus of Counseling Psychology, School of Education, Northeastern University Peter Maloy Program Coordinator, Massachusetts Career Information System, Massachusetts Office of Employment and Training John McDonough Director, Massachusetts Career Center for Technical Education Joel Nitzberg Senior Faculty and Coordinator, Cambridge College Community Building Project Deneen Silviano Jobo Communications Director, Lean Aerospace Initiative, MIT Keith Westri chConnec ting Activities Director, Massachusetts Department of Education OTHER CONTRIBUTORS: Janice Crocker Program Coordinator I, Massachusetts Department of Education, Career and Technical Education Unit Cal Crow, PhD National Training Support Center, America's Career Resource Network Marnie Jain Educational Specialist, Massachusetts Department of Education, Career and Technical Education Unit Vicky Magaletta, Title VII Bilingual Coordinator, Boston Public Schools Janice Manfredi Director, Center for Youth Development and Education Maureen McGoldrick Student Support Director, Edwards Middle School, Charlestown Jean Michaels Perkins Grant Administrator, Boston Public Schools Carol Woodbury Superintendent, Monson Public Schools and Past President, Massachusetts Parent Teacher Association Bob Vinson Labor Market and Career Information Consultant vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Executive Summary 7 Guide Part I: Massachusetts’ Career Development Benchmarks & 17 Competencies Introduction 19 The Academic/Technical Domain 21 The Personal/Social Domain 33 The Workplace Readiness Domain 40 Guide Part II: Evaluation 55 Introduction 57 The Need for Evaluation 57 Section 1: The Massachusetts Career Development Self- 63 assessment Section 2: Assessing Progress in the Academic/Technical Domain 90 Section 3: Assessing Progress in the Personal/Social Domain 94 Section 4: Assessing Progress in the Workplace Readiness 98 Domain Section 5: Moving From Evaluation to Action 112 Appendices A: CDE Terminology and CDE interventions 116 B: DOE Mission Statement /DLWD Mission Statement 124 C: Sample Career Development Interventions 126 D: Research Findings 136 E: The Role of Parents/Guardians 147 F: National and State Standards 164 National Career Development Guidelines 164 American School Counselors Association Standards 167 The Massachusetts Certificate of Occupational Proficiency's 172 Employability Benchmarks MA Work-Based Learning Plan 175 G: Resources & Strategies 176 H: Bibliography 184 viii The causes lie deep and simply—the causes are a hunger in a stomach, multiplied a million times; a hunger in a single soul, hunger for joy and some security, multiplied a million times; muscles and mind aching to grow, to work, to create, multiplied a million times. The last clear definite function of man—muscles aching to work, minds aching to create beyond the single need--this is man. To build a wall, to build a house, a dam, and in the wall and house and dam to put something of Manself, and to Manself take back something of the wall, the house, the dam; to take hard muscles from the lifting, to take clear lines and form from conceiving. For man, unlike anything organic or inorganic in the universe, grows beyond his work, walks up the stairs of his concepts, emerges ahead of his accomplishments. John Steinbeck, Grapes of Wrath, 1939 ix Executive Summary Guide Rationale Relevance, the Missing Link is Massachusetts’ first career development education (CDE) guide. It is intended to assist K-12 schools, colleges and universities in Massachusetts, One Stop Career Centers, adult education programs, and other service providers in the design, implementation, and evaluation of their career- development programs. The Guide is grounded in the belief that students∗ learn more and perform better when they are able to internalize relevant relationships between school and their lives. It promotes a data-driven approach to career development education based on research findings, national standards, and exemplary state and local models. Additionally, the Guide is aligned with the Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks and complements learning that is essential to passing the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) tests. To facilitate use of the Guide, tools and resources are presented in two main sections. Part I presents career development education (CDE) benchmarks and competencies in three domains: 1) Academic/Technical Development; 2) Personal/Social Development; and 3) Workplace Readiness Development. Part II, focused entirely on evaluation, emphasizes the importance of documenting program effectiveness and student outcomes. This section underscores the need to implement CDE interventions that are aligned with well-defined terminology and benchmarks, as well as the Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks. Understanding Career Development Education Throughout the Guide, the term career development is used to describe the lifelong process through which an individual comes to understand his/her place in the world of work. This development occurs in a variety of settings (e.g., school, home, workplace) and through experiences that either thwart or promote career awareness, career exploration and their applications. Career development interventions can be highly effective in emphasizing the overall relevance of education. Too often, there is a perception that schooling has little bearing on present and long-range goals. This can lead to student complacency, behavioral problems, and increased dropout rates. Career development education, however, cultivates future-mindedness and promotes student motivation and achievement.1 For some, such future-orienteering may be the only reason to stay in school, study for a test, or do a homework assignment. For a displaced worker, it may be the very reason to seek training in a new field. In fact, a quality comprehensive career development program can be the means for reducing the achievement gap, ∗ Throughout this document, the terms “student” and "learner" refer to learners of all ages, K-12 and beyond. 1 Meichenbaum and Bimiller, Nurturing Independent Learners, (Massachusetts: Brookline Books, 1998). (...) the results of the National Educational Longitudinal Study (NELS) (...) examined changes in the achievement of 25,000 eighth-grade students (1988) and followed them through the 12th grade (1992) (...) The most important factor to emerge from their analysis was one they called “student ambition and plans for the future.” Those students who had hopeful, but realistic, visions for themselves as being successful in the future had a much higher level of Academic/Technical achievement than those students who had 10 DRAFT: 4/28/05