Using the Career Decision-Making System-Revised to Enhance Students' Career Development. (Special Issue: Career Development and the Changing Workplace)‪.‬

In this period of standards-based educational reform, much attention has been focused on the educational achievement of high school graduates. In the rush to achievement testing, schools may have lost sight of the 25 percent to 30 percent high school dropout rate over the past quarter century (Barton, 2002). Barton noted that many students, both graduates and dropouts, are deficient in career-planning skills as they enter the labor market or transition to postsecondary education. In the survey of high school counselors' career development competencies, Barker and Satcher (2000) found that counselors tended to overlook the need to implement career development programs, resulting in inadequate workplace training skills. They also noted that work-bound students received minimal counselor attention. In light of these findings, schools must provide career planning services to all students, including those who will be immediately entering the job market, with or without diploma. Dahir (2001) presented the rationale, developmental process, content, and implications for the National Standards for School Counseling Programs (Campbell & Dahir, 1997). She noted that the National Standards are designed to guide the development of the program content for student growth and achievement in the academic, career, and personal-social domains. There are three standards concerning career development: