THE DEVELOPMENT AND VALIDATION OF A PROGRAM ASSESSMENT OF CAREER EDUCATION INSTRUMENT (PACE) FOR GRADES 7, 8, AND 9

This research study was undertaken to develop and validate a self-administered program assessment of career education instrument (PACE) to assess whether essential components are part of identified career education programs in grades 7, 8, and 9. In developing the PACE instrument it was necessary to address the following research questions: (1)Which common components of career education are considered essential for career education programs in grades 7, 8, and 9 by a jury of identified authorities? (2)Does the PACE instrument serve as a reliable instrument in identifying the existence of the essential components of career education?;The validation jury identified the following eight common components as being essential to career education programs in grades 7, 8, and 9: curricular fusion; teacher-in-service; career education coordinator; exploratory work experience; needs assessment; career resource center; career education plan; and an evaluation program. Once these essential components were identified, individual questions were developed for each component.;The PACE instrument contains two sets of subscales. One set is made up of the essential components of career education as identified by the validation jury. The questions that address these eight essential components form five distinct additional subscales: school; district; community; curriculum; and personnel. These are structural components common to all educational systems. The structural components form an internal matrix within the PACE instrument.;The PACE instrument was tested for internal reliability through a field test of identified career education programs in grades 7, 8, and 9. Following a request from the Office of Career Education these programs were submitted by the State Directors of Career Education as being representative examples of working career education programs in their respective states.;A two-stage process was used to identify the essential components of career education for grades 7, 8, and 9. First, a list of career education components common to career education programs from throughout the country was compiled. In the second stage the list of common components was submitted to a jury of authorities in career education. The jurors were asked to identify those components from the list that are essential to career education programs in grades 7, 8, and 9.;Of the total available population of 80 programs, 64 instruments were returned. Sixty were completed while four instruments were returned without any response. The total return rate was 80% (64 of 80).;The purpose of the field test of the PACE instrument was two-fold: (1)to establish the levels of reliability and internal consistency of the PACE instrument and both of its subscales and (2)to provide normative data on the present status of career education in grades, 7, 8, and 9 as reflected by the existence of the essential components of career education.;To establish the levels of reliability and internal consistency of the PACE instrument and both of its subscales an item to subscale and item to PACE-total correlation was computed for each item using the Reliability Package of SPSS. A review of the analysis of the internal reliability of the PACE instrument revealed the following findings. (1)In the essential component subscales, 48 of the 50 items were correlated with their respective subscales at the .05 significance level or higher. Of these, 47 were correlated at the .01 level of significance. (2)In the structural component subscales, 46 of the 50 items were correlated with their respective subscales at the .05 level of significance or higher. Of these, 40 were correlated at the .01 level of significance. (3)The total PACE instrument reliability analysis revealed that 48 of the 50 items were correlated with the total PACE instrument at the .05 level of significance or higher. Of these, 35 were correlated at the .01 level of significance.