Career Decision-Making System Revised

Unfortunately, this product has been discontinued.

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The Career Decision-Making System Revised self-assess middle and junior high school students’ abilities, work values school subject preferences.

Age Range: 12 and older
Reading Level: Fourth grade (Level 1), Sixth Grade (Level 2)
Other Languages: Spanish
Administration: Paper-and-pencil
Completion Time: 20-40 minutes
Scoring Options: Self-scored
Report Options: Interpretive Folder

The award-winning Career Decision-Making System Revised, earlier the Harrington-O’Shea CDM-R, provides a self-scored assessment that helps students and other career planners identify their occupational interests, values, and abilities – and match these dimensions to career options. This contemporary tool pinpoints career clusters and yields results that can be linked to future job area interests and opportunities. Career Decision-Making System Revised has been used successfully by millions of junior high and high-school students, individuals preparing to enter the job market, and veterans who are returning to the workplace or considering changing career directions.

What It Was Best Used For

Student Career Mapping: Helping junior high, high school, and college students understand their core subject preferences and align them with future career goals.

• Special Education Placement: Utilizing the simplified Level 1 booklet (written at a 4th-grade reading level) to support special education students in mapping out basic occupational paths.
• Workforce Re-Entry: Assisting veterans or individuals re-entering the job market in translating their capabilities into clear structural career avenues.
• Academic Curriculum Planning: Guiding academic advisors to assist clients in selecting high school courses, college majors, or vocational training tracks that complement their interest scores.

The CDM-R reports six interest area scores, each corresponding to one of the six RIASEC themes:

CDM-R RIASEC

• Crafts R – Realistic
• Scientific I – Investigative
• The Arts A – Artistic
• Social S – Social
• Business E – Enterprising
• Office Operations C – Conventional

Key Features

The CDM-R assesses users’ interests and helps them to self-assess their abilities, work values, and school subject preferences. Once career clusters are identified, the CDM-R provides a decision-making process for exploring specific occupations and learning about the education and training requirements. The CDM-R has received the Exemplary Practices Award from the American Counseling Association’s Association for Assessment in Counseling.

Level 1 – Level 1 is ideal for middle and junior high school students, and individuals with limited reading ability. It uses RIASEC scores to identify clusters for exploration, as does Level 2. It also shows them how to relate their abilities, values, and school subject preferences to occupations that they would like to explore. Users have found that this level is helpful with Special Education students.

Level 1 features

• 96 Interest Survey items that are easy to read (fourth-grade reading level) and be scored in less than 30 minutes
  Easy hand-scoring with all item responses on one page
• Single booklet that includes the CDM survey itself and interpretive information with updated job charts for the six CDM-R career interest areas that are organized into 18 career clusters

Level 2 – Level 2 is designed for high school students, college students, and adults with average or better reading ability.

Level 2 Survey Booklet

• Backed with research in the US and other countries demonstrating the effectiveness of the CDM-R with both males and females in diverse cultures
• Comprehensive inventory of 120 updated and gender-neutral items that yield results in 20-40 minutes.
• Easy administration and self-scoring by hand
• Level 2 Interpretive Folder
• For each job gives employment outlook through 2020 and required education/training level
• Provides direction for using CDM results in continuing one’s career exploration
• Lists college majors and training programs relevant to each RIASEC area
• Attractive and easy-to-use, allowing clients to use their two highest interest scores to suggest relevant career clusters for exploration, as follows:

CDM-R Career Clusters Organized by CDM-R Career Interest Area

Crafts
Manual
Skilled Trades
Technical

Scientific
Math-Science
Medical-Dental

The Arts
Literary
Art
Music
Entertainment

Social
Customer Service
Personal Service
Social Service
Education

Business
Sales
Management
Legal

Office Operations
Clerical
Data Analysis

Norms

The normative sample was controlled for age, gender, race/ethnicity, and geographic region. Special education students also were included in the sample.

© Pearson Canada Assessment, Inc.