Which occupation to pursue is one of the more consequential decisions people make and represents a key developmental task. Yet the underlying developmental processes associated with either individual or group differences in occupational choices are still not well understood. This study contributes toward filling this gap, focusing in particular on…

The explorative study reported here describes youth participants in three animal science-related career development events from 2010. Variables included students' self-efficacy, task value motivation, career interests, and to what extent they utilized resources in preparation. It was concluded that all three groups were self-efficacious,…

Initially administered in 1961, the Career Maturity Inventory (CMI) was the first paper-and-pencil measure of vocational development. The present research revised the CMI to reestablish its usefulness as a succinct, reliable, and valid measure of career choice readiness, with a few theoretically relevant and practically useful content scales for…

When Superintendent Denise Juneau took office in 2009, there were 2,423 students who dropped out of school, and Montana had a dropout rate of 5.1 percent. Inspired by the early successes of the Graduation Matters Missoula initiative, Superintendent Juneau launched Graduation Matters Montana in 2010. Graduation Matters Montana is a statewide effort…

The present study aims at unravelling the myriad of student-level (i.e., gender, socioeconomic status [SES], academic self-concept, achievement, ability, and occupational interests) and school-level (i.e., gender composition, maths composition, and SES composition) determinants of option choice in the academic track of secondary school in…

In this article, the author discusses a transition program at the Iowa School for the Deaf (ISD) that helps students learn to search for, find and keep jobs. ISD's personal and career development (PCD) classes, which began in the fall of 2005, are required for the school's ninth through twelfth graders. The goal is to ease transition from school…

Using the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS:88) data sets, the complex phenomenon of intra-individual and inter-individual differences in and the potential predictors of those differences on career aspirations development over a 12-year period was analyzed. Results indicated that 73.1% of the total growth (change) in adolescents'…

This study analyzed the longitudinal development of occupational aspiration prestige scores over a 12-year period (Grade 8 to 8 years postsecondary) to better understand this aspect of career choice from adolescence into adulthood for people with high-incidence disabilities. A curvilinear trajectory was detected where aspirations increased during…

Super (1990) proposed that the psychological determinants of career development attitudes are time perspective, self-esteem, and causal attributions. The present study analyzed the effects of these determinants on the career development attitudes of 320 students from grade 9 and 300 students from grade 12. The analysis of the data using structural…

This study tested the hypothesis that self-efficacy in career roles moderates the relation between perception of career barriers and career planning, in a study with Portuguese students, 488 in Grade 9 and 517 in Grade 12. The results supported the hypothesis only among Grade 9 girls, showing that perception of career barriers leads to less career…

Nationally, millions of students in grades 7-12 are at risk of dropping out of high school because of low literacy skills, poor attendance, and class failure. The absence of a college- and career-ready education for these students is a civil rights and social justice issue that the federal government cannot ignore. Unfortunately, many of these…

Career development is integral to students' academic and social-personal development, and addressing students' needs in this area is recognized as an important responsibility of the professional school counselor. However, efforts to address students' career development tend to be lacking or services are provided in a disconnected manner. This…

Project FUTURE is one component of a multifaceted approach in the Northwest Texas region to target Hispanic and African-American youth, encouraging them to go through school with a desire to complete education programs leading to professional credentialing in teaching. Project FUTURE inspires students to believe that they can attend Texas Tech…

The 21st century career tech school brings together academics and career skills for a complete education. This article describes the new Romeo Engineering & Technology Center (RETC) in Romeo, Michigan. The 90,288-square-foot facility accommodates up to 720 students in grades 9-12, and sports a building design that evolved through a detailed,…

Every two years the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) administers the DoDEA Customer Satisfaction Survey (CSS) to all parents with children attending DoDEA schools and all 4th-12th grade students enrolled in a DoDEA school. Parents were asked to complete one survey for each school in which they had a child enrolled. The purpose of…