Career Mapping: Charting a Course Towards Increasing Student Ownership

in College & Career Planning

Researcher’s Background:

Why This Study?

Why This Study?

• 2013 Texas Legislative Session: House Bill 5– New Foundation High School Program—provide more

flexibility– Personal Graduation Plans as a requirement– 5 Industry Endorsements– Performance Acknowledgements—Industry

certifications . . .

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

• Remediation: Higher Education’s Bridge to Nowhere” by the Complete College America organization (2012)– “More than 50% of students entering two-year colleges

and nearly 20% of those entering four-year universities are placed in remedial classes.”

– U.S. students starting in college remediation courses, this report shows “Fewer than 1 in 10 graduate from community colleges within three years and little more than a third complete bachelor’s degrees in six years.”

– For Texas, 51% of the students entering a two-year college and 22.5% entering a four-year college are enrolled in remediation courses.

– As far as completing an associate’s or bachelor’s degree in Texas, the results are the same as previously mentioned at the national level.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

• To determine if Personal Graduation Plans, with the incorporation of programs of study and other career components, can be used as a mapping tool in increasing students’ ownership in their own college and career planning

PURPOSE FOR THE STUDY

• Three objectives:– To examine the success of the various career exploration

and planning activities implemented by secondary school counselors in order to increase students’ ownership in college and career planning;

– To determine the impact of PGPs developed by the secondary counselor, student and his/her parent(s) in increasing their value of an education, as well as the importance of students furthering their education and training beyond high school; and

– To determine how secondary counselors utilized career and technical education teachers (CTE), specifically Family & Consumer Science (FCS) teachers, in developing a program of study for particular career pathways to help students further confirm their career path beyond high school in five FCS career cluster areas.

PURPOSE FOR THE STUDY

REVIEW OF THE LITERATUREChapter Two:

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORKSTheory of Self-Efficacy

(Bandura)

Whether a person chooses to perform or refrain from

performing a task

Counselor’s confidence in their ability to provide

career counseling

Receiving the appropriate career development and

training

Learning from experience

Life-Span, Life-Space Theory of Career Development (Super)

Career development is a lifelong process

Stages of Career Development

Tasks to be accomplished in each stage

Career maturity is necessary to make effective career decisions and develop

a successful career plan

PERSONAL GRADUATION PLANS

Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) in 2004, which created IEP’s—provided a transition plan

Introduction of Individual Learning Plans (ILPs) as an education initiative through NASSP in the 1996 “Breaking Ranks” report. In 2007, Education Commission of the States stated ILPs were being mandated in 20 states

National Collaborative on Workforce and Disability for Youth (NCDW), the Boston University School of Education, and other non-profit agencies began conducting research on the effectiveness of ILPs

ILPS help with various student outcomes

CAREER DEVELOPMENT & PLANNING

Been around since the beginning of the Vocational Education Movement in the late 19th and early 20th century due to the Industrial Revolution

Increased the need for vocational guidance due to a large number of immigrants from nations with poor economic opportunities, which was also occurring with people migrating from rural to urban areas

Dramatic change in family structures—increasing number of women and children entering the workplace

Various career development theories and practices began to deal with the social, political, and economic forces shaping the national environment

• Quantitative:1. Did the specific career development and planning

activities provided to students from the school counselor cause a significant difference on any of the career planning outcomes for increasing students’ ownership in college and career planning? If yes, in what areas?• Null Hypothesis: There is no significant difference on any

of the career planning outcomes for students receiving the specific career development and planning activities from their school counselor.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

• Quantitative:2. Did the career development and planning

workshop cause a significant difference in school counselors’ level of self-efficacy in career counseling? If yes, in what areas?• Null Hypothesis: There is no significant difference

on the level of career counseling self-efficacy for school counselors as a result of the career development and planning workshop.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

• Qualitative:3. What components of the PGP process did

secondary school counselors believe increased students’ ownership in college and career planning, as well as the value of their education?

4. How did secondary school counselors utilize career and technical education teachers (CTE), specifically Family and Consumer Sciences teachers, in developing a coherent program of study for particular career pathways to help students further confirm their career path beyond high school?

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

• Mixed Methods:5. How did the qualitative outcomes explain

the quasi-experimental results?

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

METHODOLOGYChapter Three:

• Employed the Explanatory Sequential Mixed Methods Design– 1st Phase: Collecting and analyzing quantitative data– 2nd Phase: Implementing qualitative data designed

to help explain the initial quantitative results• Two reasons:

– Strength in drawing on both quantitative and qualitative research and reducing the limitations of both approaches

– Maximized the interpretations of the data to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the research questions

RESEARCH DESIGN

• Population consisted of secondary school counselors in 1A-6A schools in Region 17

• Sample consisted of school counselors who were approved and agreed to participate in the study

• Second sample consisted of secondary HS students chosen by their respective school counselor to take the Career Planning Scale assessment

SELECTION OF SAMPLE

• Control Group—HS students not chosen by the school counselor to participate in specific career planning activities based on their Career Planning Scale assessment results in designing their PGP

• Experimental Group—HS students chosen by the school counselor to participate in specific career planning activities based on their Career Planning Scale assessment results in designing their PGP

SELECTION OF SAMPLE

Quasi-Experimental Design Approach

Aimed at evaluating interventions and it did not use randomization

Purpose was to demonstrate causality between an intervention and an outcome

This study used both pre-intervention and post-intervention measurements

Use the Non-Equivalent Group Design to select groups that are as similar as possible to fairly compare the treated group and non-treated group

QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH AND DESIGN INSTRUMENT

Career Planning Scale (CPS) by Dr. John Liptak

Help students identify, choose, plan for, and develop an effective career plan

Mirrors the career planning process and allows school counselors to quickly and efficiently gather information about students career planning readiness

Contains 48 career planning skills statements divided into six scales: Self-Knowledge, Knowledge of the World of Work, Knowledge of Occupations, Career-Decision Making, Career Planning, and Career ImplementationProvided strong evidence of reliability and validity in previous research studies

QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH AND DESIGN INSTRUMENT

Career Counseling Self-Efficacy Scale (CCSES) by O’Brien, Heppner, Flores, & Bikos

Measures secondary school counselors’ self-efficacy in providing career counseling

Contained 35 items in five categories rated on a 5-point Likert scale, as well as six demographic questions

Determined the professional development training provided for counselors in October

Four graduate studies were conducted to show strong evidence of reliability, validity, and factor structure of the CCSES

QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH AND DESIGN INSTRUMENT

Grounded Theory Design

Used to generate a theory that explains, at a broad conceptual level, a process or an interaction about an essential topic

Researcher uses multiple stages of collecting, filtering, and categorizing the data to draw new meaning (theory) from the data

Constant Comparison Method is a process that involves taking one piece of data (i.e. interview) and comparing it to all other pieces of data that are either similar or different. This method integrates four stages.

QUALITATIVE RESEARCH DESIGN AND INSTRUMENT

Explanatory Sequential Mixed Methods

Two-phase project: Quantitative results inform the types of participants to be purposefully selected for the qualitative phase and the types of questions that will be asked

Pre-test survey data was collected from secondary school counselors to develop the appropriate career development and planning training

Next, it was followed up with a qualitative interview with each school counselor to help explain the pre-test and post-test survey responses

MIXED METHODS RESEARCH DESIGN

• Career Counseling Self-Efficacy Scale::– Pre-test in October 2014• Career Mapping Research LiveBinder

– Post-test in May 2015

DATA COLLECTION--Quantitative

• Career Planning Scale:– Pre-test in November 2014– Meet four times with students to complete

various career planning activities– Post-test in May 2015

DATA COLLECTION—Quantitative

• Qualitative Component:– One-on-one, informal and open-ended

interviews with secondary school counselors in May 2015

– Twelve interview questions– Interviews were audio recorded– Written field notes– Additional data counselors felt free to share

DATA COLLECTION--Qualitative

• Quantitative:– Paired-samples t-Test used to determine the

differences between the pre- and post-test groups’ scores on the CPS and CCSES

– Used Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software for analyzing the results

– Level of significance of .05

DATA ANALYSIS

• Qualitative:– Constant comparative method in Grounded

Theory• Data was coded into themes, then categories,

and then conclusions were formed

DATA ANALYSIS

Category 1:CounsTime

Category 2:CareerPlanActiv

Category 3: PGPProcess

Category 4:CCPOwnership

Codes Codes Codes Codes

Time to implement career activities/ resources

College activities HB 5 understanding w/ parents and students

Clarification of what ownership means

More time in classrooms Career activities

Coherent sequence with college degree plan

Paradigm shift for students and parents

Provide time and resources

Identified steps to meet career goals

Focus more on programs of study

Taking dual credit increased ownership

More time for PGP student meetings

See importance of an education

Forcing students and parents to have career conversations

Administrators and teachers supportive

• Mixed Methods:– Explanatory Sequential Design Method• The quantitative and qualitative results were

examined separately in this approach• The CCSES quantitative results were then used to

plan the qualitative career development and planning training for school counselors• The CPS and CCSES quantitative results also

helped determine the types of qualitative interview questions

DATA ANALYSIS

• Quantitative Results:– 1st Research Question:

• 263 students participated in the experimental group from 8 high schools

• Results showed an increase (p<.05) on four of the six CPS outcomes for students receiving the specific career development and planning activities from their school counselor

• Null Hypothesis was rejected because the experimental group did benefit from receiving career planning activities by school counselors related to their CPS results

RESULTS

Quantitative CPS Results:

RESULTS

Career Planning Scales High Schools Experimental Group

Pre-Test Experimental Group Post-Test

N Df M SD M SD Sig. (2-tailed) t

Self-Knowledge 8 7 18.68 .99 19.86 1.13 .014 3.25*

Knowledge of World of Work 8 7 16.07 1.21 17.22 2.00 .168 1.54

Knowledge of Occupations 8 7 16.25 1.30 18.23 1.29 .021 2.96*

Career Decision-Making 8 7 15.51 .94 17.28 3.27 .144 1.65

Career Planning 8 7 14.02 2.04 16.65 1.82 .045 2.44*

Career Implementation 8 7 14.41 1.40 16.74 1.37 .003 4.54*

• Quantitative Results:– 2nd Research Question:• Results showed there was a significant increase

(p<.05) in their level of self-efficacy in career counseling for all career counseling activities due to the career development and planning workshop treatment• Null hypothesis was rejected

RESULTS

• Quantitative CCSES Results:

RESULTS

Pre-Test Results Post-Test

Results

Career Counseling Activities N Df M SD M SD Sig. (2-

tailed) t

Individual & Group Counseling Skills 8 7 2.24 .27 3.08 .10 .000 7.91*

Individual/Group Assessment 10 9 1.81 .34 2.90 .21 .000 11.78*

Information/Resources 5 4 1.69 .24 2.98 .28 .000 13.91*

Diverse Populations 7 6 1.19 .14 2.79 .28 .000 23.70*

Ethical/Legal Issues 5 4 2.00 .26 3.38 .23 .000 45.47*

• Qualitative Results:– 3rd & 4th Research Questions:• Included 10 interviews with secondary school

counselors to assess the effectiveness of the PGP development process with students• Four major themes were pivotal in increasing

students’ ownership in college and career planning based on the coding of the interview transcripts and other data. The PGP as a:– Self-awareness and career exploration tool;– College- and career-driven mapping tool;– Decision-making and goal setting tool; and as a– Conversation tool

RESULTS

• Mixed Method Results:– 5th Research Question:

• Confirmed how the qualitative outcomes explained the quasi-experimental results– PGPs make a significant difference in increasing students’

ownership in college and career planning:» Understand who they are and how this relates to a

particular career field(s) they may want to explore» Recognize the value of their education by taking

career-related courses and participating in extending learning activities to better prepare them for success at the postsecondary/workforce levels, and

» Spending time with their counselors for career counseling support and resources in making more informed career decisions towards successfully reaching their future career goals

RESULTS

• Importance of providing career development and planning activities at all levels of education (Super’s Theory)

• Importance of increasing counselors’ self-confidence in career counseling (Bandura’s Theory)

• Importance of students seeing value in their education so they stay engaged and motivated in school, which emphasizes the importance that a “one-size-fits-all” approach does not work and prepare students to be college and career ready

CONCLUSIONS

• PGPs are effective in increasing students’ ownership in college and career planning:– Identify and develop their interests, skills,

and talents in narrowing down their career preferences;

– Make connections to their learning and the application of that learning necessary for success in a particular career pathway; and

– Measure what is important for achieving college and career success.

IMPLICATIONS

• When career-driven PGPs are implemented effectively:– Complete buy-in by campus administrators,

faculty, and parents;– Key part of a students’ educational

experience in helping them choose the appropriate career path beyond high school; especially if they are shown later to be successful at the postsecondary/workforce levels.

IMPLICATIONS

• Career & Technical Education Programs:– Increase enrollment in CTE courses because it is

multidisciplinary and encompasses many career fields;

– Programs of Study (POS) have been developed for most career fields to help students take advantage of the opportunities available relevant to their career interests;

– Provide professional development training for CTE teachers in developing POS for CTE-related courses, which emphasizes the importance and purpose for taking specific CTE courses; and

– CTE teachers needs to work more collaboratively with school counselors.

IMPLICATIONS

• Secondary School Counselors:– Follow the ASCA model that emphasizes

counselors cannot work in isolation;– Possibility of school administrators removing

some non-counseling duties due to the importance of the PGP process for students (time factor);

– Faculty experiencing students who are engaged in their classes because students have a better understanding of the value of their courses through POS; and

– Faculty and school counselors becoming valuable partners in meeting students’ needs.

IMPLICATIONS

• Secondary School Counselors:– Collaboration would provide a better

learning environment for students, as well as increase parental involvement, because of complete buy-in of the PGP process by all campus educators;

– Parents would see the need to make career development and planning a priority; and

– Community would receive college and career ready students who are excited to become involved and apply what they have learned to real world situations or problems.

IMPLICATIONS

• Secondary School Counselors:– Based on overall CPS results:• Drive professional development for counselors,

as well as all campus educators, in learning how to integrate career development and planning into curriculum; • Promote student gains to justify the importance

of collaboration between all campus educators in the PGP process; and • Serve as the perfect instrument for developing

students’ career maturity throughout high school.

IMPLICATIONS

• High School Programs:– Increase student performance in classes;– Increased scores on college entrance exams;– Increased number of students taking and

passing career-related industry certifications; and

– Improved academic motivation, engagement, decision-making and personal accountability.

IMPLICATIONS

• Economy/Workforce:– Less shortage of workers in technically-skilled

fields that are high demand, high wage, or high skilled;

– Decreased cost to the taxpayer due to students working in high-paying jobs that help them sustain a good living; and

– Decreased number of individuals seeing the need to do something illegal to make ends meet and end up in our prison systems.

IMPLICATIONS

• Career Development and Planning Training:– Offer this training in June for counselors while

they are still on duty and hold them accountable for implementing the training they received with students; or

– Offer secondary counselors to participate at the regional or state level AchieveTexas Professional School Counselor Academy, or

– Offer this training in collaboration with CTE teachers at regional education service centers to increase the opportunity to understand each other’s roles.

RECOMMENDATIONS:

• Career Development and Planning Training:– Modify the Career Counseling Self-Efficacy

Scale for CTE teachers to determine how confident they are in helping students with the career development and planning process

– Offer this training for new CTE teachers at their respective conferences to increase their self-efficacy in the career development and planning process

RECOMMENDATIONS:

• Career Development and Planning Activities:– Give school counselors time to implement career

development and planning activities;– District and school administrations should be

compliant with the Texas Education Code §33.066 and take away the responsibility of administering and/or assisting with state-mandated testing instruments; and

– Provide awareness through professional development to counselors and CTE teachers of career development resources and employability skills embedded in CTSOs’ lessons.

RECOMMENDATIONS:

• Programs of Study:– Provide training for CTE teachers and school

counselors to learn how to develop effective POS for the career pathways associated with their CTE field; and

– Consider partnering with local postsecondary institutions to possibly provide career-related dual credit courses for students either online or providing a place for them to teach on campus.

RECOMMENDATIONS:

• PGP Research Study:– Consider replicating this study at later times to

determine if the same results occur; – Consider doing a longitudinal study that includes

CTE teachers and school counselors as a team;– Provide professional development for district and

school administrators on the results of this research study; and

– Promote the Career Planning Scale assessment to be administered to all students on every high school campus in assessing their career planning readiness.

RECOMMENDATIONS:

QUESTIONS