Instructions: You have been asked to help design a career assessment program for your students. What are one or two assessments [formal or informal] you would use with your students? Make one original post and then respond to one classmate’s post. You will make a total of two posts.
34 thoughts on “Assessment Forum – September 2024”
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One assessment that I would use with my students is an interest assessment. Interests are the hobbies and passions you want to pursue in life. This aspect of a career assessment is important because it helps determine which careers and tasks you may enjoy. When you enjoy the work you do, you can remain more attentive and productive and experience higher job satisfaction.
Considering how your behaviors reflect on your activities throughout the day. Another assessment that I would use with my students is a personality assessment. I would use this hand in hand with the interest assessment. Knowing which traits, you have is not necessarily a guiding factor in determining your career, but it can help you get a better idea of which jobs suit your personality the best. For example, if you enjoy communicating with people and have more extroverted personality traits, you may want to pursue a career as an event planner.
I love when the students talk about those things that they are passionate about. I allow them to talk about the now and tie that passion into their studies and get them to think about what Major or career outcome available to them if they continue on that path. For example, if they enjoy writing that can lead to a English major and possibly an Author, teacher or reporter.
I too enjoy the interaction with the students comparing their results and discussing how their strengths and passions will correlate with their career choices. I feel that makes them even more determined to do what is necessary to continue to build on those passions and strive to get to the finish line to pursue their goals.
Well said, Mrs. Tolbert. Both you and Ms. Wooden make excellent points here about the relevance in using the tools for better understanding and direction affordances these offer for our students!
Yes, I like this because sometimes what a person likes to do or is passionate about, if that’s one of their strentghs as far as for that job, it will definitely work out for the best. They say if you love your job it’s not “work”.
I agree with you, I would also use an interest assessment to help students determine what their likes and dislikes are when it comes to choosing a career path. It would help to determine the correct path that they should take which would help them pursue a career that interests them the most.
Here are two methods of measuring student learning: Summative or Formative assessments:
Summative assessments – tests, quizzes, and other graded course activities that are used to measure student performance. They are cumulative and often reveal what students have learned at the end of a unit or the end of a course. Within a course, summative assessment includes the system for calculating individual student grades. These types of assessments can assist in collecting tangible data.
Formative assessment - any means by which students receive input and guiding feedback on their relative performance to help them improve. It can be provided face-to-face in office hours, in written comments on assignments, through rubrics, and through emails. This type of assessment is more engaging and allows for bonds and relationships to be established with the clients/scholars.
I would use both of these assessments based on my time, space and group dynamic. Most importantly having the ability to gather required expected outcomes. (Always remembering the “Why” we do what we do.)
I like that you would use both summative and formal assessments with your students. Students are able to take assessments like tests and quizzes independently, and then come to you for a formative assessment where you can engage with the students and learn more about what they like and what they are thinking they would like to do, to help guide them further. This helps form relationships with the students which is so important in the work we are doing.
I spent some time looking at the O*Net website and searching through the tools that are available there. I really liked the O*Net Interest Profiler. I took the assessment myself to see how it worked. The assessment consisted of a variety of 60 different interests, and it gave options of “strongly dislike”, “dislike”, “not sure”, “like” and “strongly like”. Each option had a smiley or frowning face to go along with the options. I thought that part would be easy to understand for most people. Once you go through all 60 interests, the assessment comes out with your results. The results were also easy to read and understand. The results are grouped into the following- realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising, and conventional. There is a numerical score that is attached to each interest which tells the individual taking the test which interests ranked higher for them.
The next step is for the individual to look at education options, in other words, “job zone”. There is an option to look at the individual’s current education level or they can look at the education they plan to get in the future. Then they look at how much or how little preparation they may need to get a career they are interested in. In other words, they can select entry level with a high school diploma or GED all the way up to a Graduate degree with extensive experience and knowledge. So, they can find a job that is entry level now, but they can follow that career path up until they have a Graduate degree, if needed. Once the job zone is selected, a list of different careers pops up. Once the individual selects one career, the next page lists things such as what workers in this career do on the job, along with what knowledge, skills and abilities it requires. Information also includes what type of personality is needed, what technology might be used on the job, education needed, and job outlook. There is also another option to explore more where it lists careers that ae like the one that has been chosen.
I liked the O*Net Interest Profiler due to its simplicity. The assessment was easy to understand when going through the interests, was easy to rank scores, easy to look at job zones and the career facts were easy to read and interpret. I felt that this assessment was fun and interesting and would be something that students would like to complete. The assessment itself doesn’t really tell students what to do; instead, it gives them several options to look at and explore based on some of their interests. Students would also need to understand that their interests may change over time, and this is not a final assessment by any means, especially if they don’t identify with any of the potential careers listed.
It was also a free resource.
I definitely found the Onet interest profiler interesting as well. Pretty simplistic and easy to use and understand.
The assessment tool I would use with my students is the Traitify career assessment. This is what I believe SWN and its employment specialists use. I believe the two most important features of an assessment tool to be the questions asked and the results or feedback system at the end. The interface is really simple with pictures and a two-answer approach to each question. The results and feedback given was found to be accurate, detailed, and easy to understand and apply.
That is an interesting choice that I have not considered. I will have to check it out. I like assessments that give detail feedback. It allows students to get a perspective on what challenges they may face and how to rise above them.
The assessment that I would use with my customers would be the informal assessment. Informal assessments allow the customer to familiarize themselves with their strengths and knowledge. With this information, there can be room for improvement and further research can be done to build upon those strengths. There is also less pressure on the customer to take an informal assessment which could potentially have them willing to be thorough in their answers and completion to share their results compared to their peers. It’s like meeting the customers where they are and leading them to better pastures.
I also like the informal assessment and helping someone find their strengths to build on. I agree it is less pressure vs a formal assessment like a test etc.
I agree with you the informal assessment is a no pressure assessment that students or adult customers can take without over thinking or feeling overwhelmed with the word assessment.
I like informal assessments as well. They can be fun and sometimes used as a break, a game, an icebreaker. They can help you get to know students without the pressure of a test.
I would utilize assessments tied to Achieveworks in Naviance. I like that they lean on highly regarded theorists, such as John Holland. I appreciate that each inventory captures and reports a myriad of metrics further building on each individual student (client) profile. As others have mentioned this does help guide and engage students during every part of the career continuum as they come to better understand themselves and opportunities available. It is beneficial that parents, teachers, counselors and colleges can see these metrics. Data driven decisions yield better results and give us the opportunity to improve and adjust along the way!
I also like the Achieveworks assessment. I actually like all the assessments that Naviance uses. After spending time doing a deep diving into Naviance and all the career components it provides students with, I am glad it the tool of choice for our school system.
I believe that for what we are doing as In-school Career Coaches this is the most interactive program I have ever been a part of. students are engaged excited about the assessments, ask questions, and want to know more. They look forward to the next career session for their class. Overall Naviance has been and is a great way to guide students down the road to success.
I would use a formal assessment. A formal career assessment is a structured and systematic tool designed to provide individuals with a comprehensive understanding of their skills, interests, values, and personality traits in relation to potential career paths. This assessment typically involves a series of standardized tests, surveys, or activities that participants complete to gather objective data about various aspects of their professional profile. By employing a formal and standardized approach, this assessment aims to offer a reliable and unbiased evaluation, ensuring a robust foundation for career decision-making.
The process of a formal career assessment often includes in-depth analyses of the individual’s strengths, weaknesses, and preferences, offering a holistic view of their potential in the professional landscape. Through the gathered data, career professionals can provide personalized recommendations and insights, guiding individuals toward suitable career options. The structured nature of a formal career assessment adds credibility to the results, making it a valuable resource for individuals seeking clarity and direction in their career journey.
It is always a great tool to use a formal assessment as they do capture in-depth information about the students. It makes it much easier to find a student a match that will benefit them in the long run. We always say that making a career out of something you love will make the job easier and through a formal assessment as you stated would be excellent for that.
The type of assessment that I would use is an interest profile assessment, which would be helpful to individuals to identify their passions, preferences, and strengths and ultimately determine and guide them towards a career path that would align with their chosen interests. In understanding what motivates and engages students, I would be able to help them make more informed decisions about their education and career goals, which would help lead them to greater success by doing what they are passionate about.
I think that is a great assessment category to utilize with our students as they love to express what they like to do and how their passion which helps us form connections with them as we are able to discuss h0w they can incorporate their passions into their career decisions.
The assessment type I would utilize is the interest inventories as they are developed to help identify and understand their interest patterns. For example, the lessons we used with our students to identify their strengths and weaknesses through the Naviance assessment helped open the students’ eyes into understanding that there are jobs they would be successful at that relate to their passions that they may not have considered or have been aware of. These types of assessment can form better connections with the students then lectures from teachers or parents as they decide what to do with the knowledge they have learned and whether they want to utilize their finding to help change their decision for the future
The assessment I would use for my students would be the ONet Interest Profiler. Especially working with high school students, I feel it is the best way to see their interests and how that can be applied to their future efforts. It is a very simple assessment that focuses on you likes and dislikes. I myself found it helpful and accurate with the career matches for where I am at currently in life. I also loved how it broke down certain careers to highlight the passion and interests as the reason for the match. Also allowing students to view the educational requirements as well as possible salaries nationwide can allow them to see what is out there for them.
As a career coach I work with students ranging from 6th grade all the way to 9th. At this age, students are just starting to discover who they are. What personality traits they have, what values and beliefs they hold, what truly interest them. They have no sense of life span and their roles in the world. For this reason, I choose to use an assessment that is based on the Holland Code and using RIASEC. There are assessments on both Naviance and O-Net that would work for this. Naviance also has an assessment called Intelligences. This assessment lets students know what strengths they have. Whether they are strong in intrapersonal or interpersonal skills. Whether they are strong in kinesthetics or the arts. It also lets them know what their emotional intelligence is. Once they’ve completed this assessment, Naviance gives them a list of strategies to practice, keeping them strong in the areas they excel as well as to improve on the areas that they do not. A lot of students are surprised what their strengths are, and it makes me happy to watch them light up when they discover something new about themselves.
I agree, watching students light up when they discover something new about themselves is rewarding. For a middle school aged student, the exploration of careers can be exciting and a very formative experience for them. I think Career Days and Guest speakers are my favorite way to provide real-world insight and introduces them to a range of careers. Naviance is probably one of my favorite tools to use as well. I think all of these activities are age-appropriate, interactive and spark a lot of curiosity, which makes our job as career coaches very exciting.
When designing a career assessment for my high school students, I would use a self-reflection worksheet to help students reflect on interests, strengths and values. Questions would include favorite subjects, hobbies and activities they enjoy doing. In a school environment, you encounter a wide range of personalities, so by helping a student understand their own personality traits, I can then help guide them down potential career paths. Once interests and traits are understood, I would then be able to develop and inventory where students can list their current skills, both hard and soft. This can include academic skills, technical skills and interpersonal skills. In addition to the assessments, I could also invite professionals from various fields to talk about their careers. This would allow the students to ask questions and engage in informal conversations to learn about different industries. I could create and design a hands-on activity or project that would expose the students to different career paths and then do a peer discussion on what they learned. I think that job shadowing opportunities, or virtual company tours would also be a great interactive way to get students excited about possible career opportunities. This would then give the students the chance to give feedback, express uncertainties and seek guidance on their next steps. If I wanted to avoid any worksheets, I could do an online assessment using Naviance, such as the Career Interest Profiler. This platform allows the students to be comfortable in a relaxed setting and offers a much more well-rounded approach. I think taking a more informal approach allows students to do more self-discovery without a rigid structure of standardized tests. The Career Interest Profiler would also give back valuable information, recommending students to potential colleges, trade schools, scholarships, potential jobs related to their field of study or interests. All this data can be used to help guide and direct a student to making the right decision based on their goals and aspirations.
Before taking the assessment/s I would provide a brief introduction and remind student that there are no right or wrong answers. I would remind them that careers may last a span of 40 years or more so to take their time and give each answer appropriate consideration. In choosing my assessment plan, I would try to break down the plans into separate components. First, I would do the interests section to help determine what they enjoy. I would then suggest we take the top three and i
The Interest Assessment would include several different considerations that would indicate current lifestyle and invoke thought about the student’s future lifestyle. Areas that would be considered would include location and desired location. There would have to be a balance of what was more important. For example, if a student wanted to work for Wall Street but wanted to live in the rural area they had grown up in, they would need to evaluate which was more important. Other area would be family., sports, leisure activities, how do they enjoy travel, The life career rainbow has a wide range of elements which I find appealing ..
K.D.2 would put more emphasis on skills and knowledge to achieve more of a business approach. For this design, I would be more direct and use the Compass activity as a model to build me plan on. I area of their work. would utilize this model for clients/who had been in the work force and were not planning on leaving the industry. Perhaps an actor who wanted to find the best part of the country or world to find work. I would identify the locations and try to get some information about the style in contrasting cities or country. Perhaps a stage style actor would prefer New York as where a person who aspired to the movies might want to move to L.A. The emphasis would also be on older workers, Veterans. and people who were changing careers.
The assessment I would use is Interest Assessment. Working with middle school students this assessment would get them to start think about their future and realizing school goes by quickly. Letting them know the many different options they have and having them set small goals they can achieve lead up to a career path they choose.
My career assessment program would include both formal and informal assessments. I would use the O*Net Interest Profiler for the formal assessment, or another interest assessment tool as well as a skills assessment tool like the Intelligence Assessment in Naviance. I like the skills and interests assessments because it can connect students to careers that involve something they are interested in or something they are good at. It gives them a good place to start when thinking of careers, that way it’s not so much of a guessing game. I think students enjoy it as well because it’s all about them and what they like or what they are good at. They like to see their results and if it sounds like them or not. For an informal assessment I would use a forced choice game like, “Would You Rather?” I think that it’s a good opportunity to get students up and moving sometimes or to take a break from working. It’s also fun and can be used as an icebreaker. It gets you thinking and introduces students to real decisions they will be making in their future.
In the position of In-school Career Coach I think the first thing towards the assessment would be to find where the student is in their area of life. So, I would start with the Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs and Career Development to establish a base line. Here the
O*Net online. Their assessments are an excellent tool to start the coaching process. Why reinvent the wheel it is easy to use, and results are good foundation. With this said in school we are using the Naviance program which covers a wide area of topics which at this point students are engaged, responsive and excited..
Understanding where the student is at the present time is very important. Regardless of NBA player, rapper, or vetinarian it doesn’t really matter because I truly believe in the power of “now”. Ask me as a youngster I wanted to be a Hotel Manager! Why? Because at that time we went on family vacations and I loved riding elevators and running up and down the empty hallways. Ironically, I became a school teacher. Far cry from Hotel Mgr…..If you follow the path your Most High makes for you along with your calculated decisions, ethics and morals (if you’ve learned any) then life will pretty much show it’s face to you. It’s simply a feeling mixed with experience. Just my thoughts