Exploring Career Readiness in High School Assessments

• In Event: AERA Poster Session 10
  In Poster Session: Division D Section 1 Poster Session 3

Abstract

This paper represents a collaboration between a university research center and a state department of education. The primary goal of the project was to identify a set of career-readiness indicators and apply them to active high school math and English language arts (ELA) assessment items through qualitative coding and an exploratory study of work experience. Through the use of subject-matter experts, content-area experts, and cognitive laboratory interviews with students, the set was refined for math and ELA. A selection of items with larger numbers of career-readiness indicators was administered to three participant groups with varying levels of work experience. Preliminary results suggest an association between work experience and performance on test items with larger numbers of career-readiness features.

Authors

• Jenny C. Kao, University of California - Los Angeles

• Li Cai, University of California - Los Angeles