Psychometric Properties of the Cayci College and Career Readiness Scale

Abstract

Background and Purpose:

Earning a college degree helps youth acquire higher income, generate opportunities for career advancements, and attain a better quality of life. School-based interventions to promote college access are needed. Increasing college enrollment, however, cannot be addressed without first understanding the motivations, attitudes, and beliefs youth have relation to their educational and occupational aspirations. Few measurement tools have been developed and tested to evaluate college and career readiness among middle and high school youth. Recognizing this gap, this study examines the psychometric properties of the Community and Youth Collaborative Institute (CAYCI) College and Career Readiness (CCR) scale, exploring the initial factor structure of this 14-item measure.

Method:

This study used cross-sectional survey data from 2,060 middle and high school youth. Data were collected as part of larger battery of tools used in school improvement planning processes in 29 schools in Central Ohio. The 14-item CCR scale was one instrument incorporated in the broader tool and was designed to evaluate students’ level of college and career readiness. All 14 items were measured using a 5-point response format ranging from 1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree.Five multiple imputations were pooled into one dataset to account for missing data. The analytic strategy involved item descriptive, as well as exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses using Lisrel Version 9.2.

 Results:

Descriptive results revealed two items had limited variability and were removed from further analyses. The EFA on the remaining 12 items revealed one underlying factor (eigenvalue 6.479), accounting for 54% of the variance. All CCR items had factor loadings ranging from .61 to .81. A CFA was then used to test whether the 12 loaded on a single latent variable. Based on an examination of the modification indices and item squared multiple correlations (SMC), five items were problematic and therefore dropped. The final version of scale demonstrated a reasonable overall fit, SB χ2=125.19, df= 14, RMSEA = .08, with all 7 items loading on the latent factor (completely standardized factor loadings ranging from .64-.83, SMC = .41-.69).

Conclusions and Implications:

Results of the psychometric testing indicated initial support for the factorial validity of the 7 item CCR scale. The use of this measure could provide social workers with valuable information about student perceptions of college and career readiness; and, in turn, may document specific areas to prioritize in school social work practice. This measure may be used in future research to examine how schools are preparing students for college and beyond. Researchers should continue to examine the use of this measure in multiple settings, and in relation to other variables that may be related to academic success in secondary and postsecondary education.