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NY State Standards: Career Development and Occupational Studies

Submitted by andrewstillman on Mon, 01/01/2007 - 8:24pm.
Average: 5 (1 vote)

I thought it would be helpful to have a state standards document handy, since I'm pretty unsure of how to word the learning goals for a career explorations unit...

Here's a link to a good overview of the NYS standards, with "best practices" recommendations for classroom teachers.

Below are the bare bones standards...a rather tall order for a single unit.

Commencement Standard 1: Career Development

Students will be knowledgeable about the world of work, explore career options, and relate personal skills, aptitudes, and abilities to future career decisions.

Performance Indicator 1: Students complete the development of a career plan that would permit eventual entry into a career option of their choosing.

 

Sample Essential Questions:

    • Have I realistically evaluated my career plan?
    • What basic academic skills are required in a variety of careers?
    • What resources are available for me to use to learn about the changing
    • world of work and its effect on me?
    • Why are successful job-seeking skills required in a competitive marketplace?
    • What information is required on a postsecondary application?

 

Students will:

  1. Key elements of a career plan should include the student’s documenting the following:
    1. Personal data
    2. Knowledge
      1. Who am I?
        1. Interests
        2. Abilities
        3. Areas to strengthen
      2. Where am I going?
      3. How do I get there?
    3. Skills/Application
      1. Foundation skills
        1. Knowledge
        2. Application
    4. Culminating activity
      1. Activity description
      2. Self-reflection
    5. Review of student career plan
  2. Identify how basic academics relate to a variety of careers:
    1. Basic skills required by employers
    2. Assessed skills by state/national/private testing to enter workforce
    3. Promotional skill requirements
    4. Effective communication skills
    5. Specific technical skills needed for some jobs
  3. Identify resources for researching postsecondary and employment opportunities:
    1. Library
    2. Internet
    3. Networking
    4. Mentoring
    5. Newspapers
    6. Television/multimedia
  4. Identify procedures for successful job seeking:
    1. Understand the purpose for having a resume
    2. Compare and contrast resume styles
    3. Create a dynamic resume
    4. Understand and complete various application formats
    5. Compose a letter of application and/or cover letter
    6. Compose a follow-up interest/thank-you letter
    7. Develop interpersonal skills
    8. Participate in mock interviews
Performance Indicator 2: Students apply decision-making skills in the selection of a career option ofstrong personal interest.

Sample Essential Question:

What questions need I ask of
practitioners in my field of choice to
help me determine if this field is right
for me?

Students will:

  1. Apply self-knowledge of skills, interests, and abilities:
    1. Detail personal skills into a priority list
    2. Detail personal interests into a priority list
    3. Compare priority lists to determine best career options
  2. Select a career option.
  3. Determine steps to acquire employment, enter postsecondary study, or both.
  4. Analyze labor market/employment data for selected careers in the local, regional, national, and global employment markets:
    1. Need
    2. Advancement opportunities
    3. Financial rewards
    4. Promotional aspects
  5. Reevaluate long-term goals.
  6. Identify action steps to obtain long-term goals.
Performance Indicator 3: Students analyze skills and abilities required in a career option and relate them to their own skills and abilities.

Sample Essential Questions

• What skills will an employer require of me in my chosen career choice?
• How do my skills match with my employer’s needs?
• Will I need postsecondary education for my career choice?

Students will:

  1. Determine an employer’s skill requirements for a selected career:
    1. Basic academic needs.
    2. Postsecondary requirements.
    3. Specific foundation skills required.
  2. Compare personal skills with determined employer skills and match to career choice.
  3. Compare present education with job to determine postsecondary training if needed.
Commencement Standard 3a: Universal Foundation Skills
Students will demonstrate mastery of the foundation skills and competencies essential for success in the workplace.

BASIC SKILLS

Performance Indicator 1: Students use a combination of techniques to read or listen to complex information and analyze what they hear or read; convey information confidently and coherently in written or
oral form; and analyze and solve mathematical problems requiring use of multiple computational skills.

Sample Essential Questions: • How do I know if I have all the academic talent that will be required in the world of work?
• Do I understand the importance of reading books for enjoyment and personal interest during my free time?
• Do I try to explore my creativity and develop opinions?
• Can I effectively communicate?
• Can I spell, use correct grammar, and express my written views intelligently?
• Am I an effective/active listener?
• Do I speak clearly so that I can be understood and heard?
• Are mathematical computations neat and accurate?
• Do I analyze information objectively and logically?
• Can I make important decisions resulting from data I have analyzed?
Students will:
A. Demonstrate competency in reading through strategies to:
1. Organize new information to support a decision in the workplace
2. Make generalizations and identify underlying concepts independently
3. Apply information from one context to many
4. Extract and synthesize data from many sources
5. Use insight to make generalizations and draw conclusions
6. Assess data and information for significance
7. Recognize and evaluate cultural values in text
8. Determine the meaning of unknown and technical vocabulary
9. Judge the accuracy of reports, proposals, or ideas of others
B. Demonstrate competency in writing through strategies to:
1. Use effective and appropriate writing styles
2. Present information selectively and make independent decisions
3. Write in unique and purposeful ways
4. Display high levels of writing skills in areas of specialized knowledge
5. Show originality in writing
6. Manipulate vocabulary for pleasing or striking effects
7. Use appropriate perspective based on the context
8. Use creative and insightful strategies
9. Compose and create documents (manuscripts, flowcharts, graphs, reports, etc.)
10. Develop note-taking skills
C. Demonstrate competency in listening and speaking through
strategies to:
1. Adjust and expand ideas and opinions by listening to others
2. Seek out, incorporate, and synthesize new information
3. Make judgments about the most effective way to present information
4. Present information clearly and logically to a variety of audiences
5. Take initiative in structuring group discussions
6. Influence group members through effective expression of ideas
7. Be open to a wide range of assessments
8. Develop personal standards and objective criteria to assess
a wide variety of oral presentations
9. Encourage and evaluate diverse and complex oral presentationsD. Demonstrate competency in mathematical operations through strategies to:
1. Make generalizations that will apply to all similar data
2. Express mathematical concepts orally and in writing
3. Use logic to create new situations and predict outcomes using similar relationships
4. Determine the appropriate unit of measure
5. Develop procedures for using measurements in job situations and personal use
6. Conduct an experiment to simulate an event over a number of trials
7. Evaluate predictions based on outcomes of a probability model
8. Use statistics to make decisions and inferences based on data
9. Use charts, graphs, and tables to convey quantitative data

THINKING SKILLS

Performance Indicator 1: Students demonstrate the ability to organize and process information and apply skills in new ways.

Sample Essential Questions

  • Do I recognize problems and commit to solving them by acquiring
    knowledge and information?
  • Can I identify rules and apply them in work situations?
  • Can I draw conclusions when given facts?
  • Can I understand and use various technical materials?
Students will:
  1. Apply decision-making and problem-solving processes that affect groups or work procedures:
    1. Identify and isolate components of the problem
    2. Identify multiple alternatives for making a decision
    3. Define consequences in terms of time, costs, and outcomes
    4. Determine rationale for the decision made
    5. Evaluate the decision made and consider future applications
  2. Assimilate a variety of information and draw conclusions.
  3. Extract rules or principles from a set of objects or written text.
  4. Interpret and apply technical material.
  5. Determine conclusions when given a set of facts.
  6. Apply rules and/or principles to a new situation.
  7. Apply past knowledge about rules and/or principles to solve everyday problems.
  8. Prepare flowcharts, drawings that include dimensions and specifications, recipes, etc. from narrative descriptions.
  9. Create original applications or solutions.
  10. Initiate thought-provoking ideas to others.

PERSONAL QUALITIES

Performance Indicator 1: Students demonstrate leadership skills in setting goals, monitoring progress, and improving their performance.

Sample Essential Questions

  • Am I reasonable to work with?
  • Can I continually evaluate myself and commit to constant selfimprovement?
  • Can I make efficient use of available resources?
  • Do I strive to always try to do what I believe is right?

 

Students will:
A. Set goals for a group, team, or organization.
B. Accept and give constructive criticism.
C. Monitor progress toward goal attainment.
D. Exhibit self-control and respond to feedback unemotionally and
nondefensively.
E. Understand the impact of violating the beliefs and codes of an
organization or team.
F. Show awareness of impact of decisions on others.
G. Promote ethical behaviors in others.
H. Show initiative to accomplish goals.
I. Exhibit a level of concentration when given an unpleasant task.
J. Present ideas that may conflict with those of peers.
K. Demonstrate poise in unfamiliar situations.
L. Initiate conversation with unfamiliar people.

INTERPERSONAL QUALITIES

Performance Indicator 1: Students communicate effectively and help others to learn a new skill.

Sample Essential Questions:

  • Why is it important to remain in control and be objective during complaints and/or conflicts?
  • How can I display a willingness to help others?
  • Why are leadership qualities important to employees and employers?

Students will:
A. Assess performance and provide constructive feedback/reinforcement.
B. Deal effectively with objectives and change course of action, if warranted.
C. Use a variety of approaches for teaching a new skill and act as a
mentor to others.
D. Demonstrate leadership qualities.
E. Help others to apply concepts and theories.
F. Use active listening skills in a work situation.
G. Handle complaints and conflict in a work situation.
H. Set goals with a group, team, or organization.
I. Recognize and build on strengths of team members.
J. Act as a facilitator in a group activity.
K. Responsibly challenge existing rules and guidelines.
L. Understand others’ perspectives and see situations through others’
eyes.

TECHNOLOGY

Performance Indicator 1: Students apply knowledge of technology to identify and solve problem

Sample Essential Questions:
  • Can I troubleshoot and detect errors?
  • Am I current on technological advancements and their continual impact on my personal and professional life?
  • Do I demonstrate a true working knowledge of both modern hardware and software solutions?
Students will:
A. Use the computer as a tool for:
1. Word processing
2. Graphics
3. Gathering, organizing, and manipulating data and information
(e.g., spreadsheet, database, Internet)
4. Presentations
B. Interpret and analyze data.
C. Generate workable solutions to correct errors.
D. Maintain and troubleshoot technology.
E. Use a process to determine established procedures and applicable
constraints.
F. Break down component parts and identify underlying principles.
G. Establish new hypotheses or a more complete body of information.
H. Be aware of technological innovations in various career clusters.
I. Use technology to improve efficiency and performance.

MANAGING INFORMATION

Performance Indicator 1: Students use technology to acquire, organize, and communicate information by entering, modifying, retrieving, and storing data.
Sample Essential Questions:
  • Can I create meaningful, accurate, and interesting presentations using numerous methods and techniques?
  • Do I demonstrate organizational skills and objectivity?
  • What steps can be taken to ensure the accuracy of information?

Students will:
A. Acquire, organize, analyze, and communicate information, using
presentation software.
B. Choose format for display of information (e.g., line graphs, bar
graphs, tables, pie charts, narrative).
C. Transform data into different formats to communicate to
different audiences.
D. Determine when information must be created and edited.
E. Synthesize and integrate data or information from two or more
sources.
F. Pose analytical questions to determine information needs.
G. Use advanced systems to retrieve data and manipulate information.
H. Judge the accuracy and authenticity of information collected from
a variety of sources.
I. Explain complex information in understandable terminology.

MANAGING RESOURCES

Performance Indicator 1: Students allocate resources to complete a task.

Sample Essential Questions

  • Do I understand the universal importance of monetary value?
  • Can I identify the steps involved to get the job done on time and under budget, while meeting all project specifications?
  • Can I recognize individuals’ strengths and weaknesses?
  • Can I continually monitor project status and make adjustments quickly and when needed?
  • Do I recognize the value of time?
Students will:
A. Evaluate and adjust several schedules to complete a project.
B. Make decisions to track, transport, store, and distribute materials.
C. Match individual talents and workload.
D. Monitor performance and provide feedback.
E. Assess deficiencies in individuals’ abilities and recommend
strategies for improvement.
F. Make decisions depending on present and future resources.
G. Use appropriate accounting methods to track resources.
H. Utilize resources to reach maximum performance.
I. Make cost and revenue predictions and adjustments to a budget.
J. Integrate and evaluate new resources into an existing project.

SYSTEMS

Performance Indicator 1: Students demonstrate an understanding of how systems performance relates to the goals, resources, and functions of an organization.

Sample Essential Questions:

  • Do I try to understand situations on a global/macro level?
  • Do I demonstrate courage to continually strive for improvement?
  • Can I make changes based on relevant recommendations?
  • Am I flexible and reasonable in my decisionmaking?

Students will:
A. Function within the formal and individual codes of an organization.
B. Troubleshoot a system to ensure quality of a product or service.
C. Modify system design based on relevant feedback.
D. Evaluate and improve the system.
E. Know the relationship of systems performance and organizational goals.
F. Develop new and/or alternative systems.
G. Explain the logic for a particular system.
H. Identify how different systems interact.
I. Define new components of a system.

 

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