Nebraska Career Information System Career Assessments and Interest Inventories

Good Morning,
Hope all is going as smoothly as possible during the end-of-the-year 
activities.

Have learned about statements are being made by NDE staff about the 
quality of the career assessments and inventories in computer-based 
systems other than the Nebraska Career Management System.  I want to 
reassure users that the quality of the instruments in CIS is as high as 
possibly can be.

The most commonly used career assessments and inventories link 
characteristics such as skills and abilities, knowledge, and traits of 
work or workers to occupations and clusters.  They are not set up to 
measure anything other than the weight or value of the link.  As a result, 
determining validity is challenging.  One of the methods commonly used to 
test validity is to compare individual results from one instrument to 
another instrument, such as comparing the results from the Self-Directed 
Search to O*NET Interest Profiler. 

In the development of the O*NET Interest Profiler, Work Importance 
Locator, IDEAS, New Occupation Sort, and SKILLS, authors used several 
methods to evaluate the reliability and validity of the instruments:  item 
and scale analyses, item intercorrelations, cluster analyses, test-retest, 
and comparison of results from two assessments.  The results showed that 
these inventories and assessments are valid and reliable.

Many of you use other assessments and inventories.  The creators of the 
most commonly used instrumentsâASVAB, COPS, and PLANâhave also directed 
considerable resources to establishing their reliability and validity.  If 
you are looking for more information about these instruments, go to CIS 
for Internet and then to Assessment Link.  The Overview includes the 
website for the developer/owner. 

The handbooks for O*NET Interest Profiler, Work Importance Locator, and 
SKILLS will soon be available on the  NCIS website (http://ncis.unl.edu) 
and, this fall, in Additional Resources, Quick Starts/Reference Guides on 
CIS for Internet.  For information about IDEAS, please, contact the NCIS 
for a hard copy of the handbook.  National Computer Systems does not 
provide electronic versions of their handbooks.

Please, if you have questions or concerns about the career assessments and 
inventories used by NCIS, contact me.  Be assured you are using some of 
the most reliable and valid career inventories and assessments that are 
available.

Thank you for the work you do with career education and planning.  Your 
work is appreciated.

LeeAnn

Nebraska Career Information System
421 Nebraska Hall
Lincoln, NE  68588-0552
402-472-5507
khill2@xxxxxxx

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