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3 0 0 N. Z E E B R O A D . A N N A R B O R . Ml 4 8 1 0 6
18 B E D F O R D R O W , L O N D O N WC1 R 4 E J , E N G L A N D

7917793
SNYDER * RUTH ANN
EF FECT IV EN ES S OF E M P L O Y A B I L 1 T T - S K I L L
INSTRUCTION ON A C H I E V E M E N T B Y MICHIGAN
SEC ON OAR Y D I S T R I B U T I V E E DU CA TION S TUD EN TS .
MI C H I G A N STATE U N I V E R S I T Y * PH.D.*

COPR . 1978 SNYDER*
University
Microfilms
International

^

3 0 0 N. Z E E B R O A D . A N N A R B O R . Ml 4 8 1 0 6

Copyright by
RUTH ANN SNYDER
1978

RUTH ANN

1978

EFFECTIVENESS OF EMPLOYABILITY-SKILL INSTRUCTION
ON ACHIEVEMENT BY MICHIGAN SECONDARY
DISTRIBUTIVE EDUCATION STUDENTS
By
Ruth Ann Snyder

A DISSERTATION
Submitted to
Michigan State University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
Department of Secondary Education and Curriculum
1978

ABSTRACT
EFFECTIVENESS OF EMPLOYABILITY-SKILL INSTRUCTION
ON ACHIEVEMENT BY MICHIGAN SECONDARY
DISTRIBUTIVE EDUCATION STUDENTS
By
Ruth Ann Snyder

The purpose of the study was to determine the value
of including employability skills modules in the distributive
education curriculum.

Specifically,

the investigation was

designed to explore the following major questions.

(1) Do

the students who receive employability skills training via
the modules of instruction score higher on the post-tests?
And,

(2) Are there student characteristics which may affect

student achievement on the post-test scores?
The employability skills taught and tested were:
1.

The writing of positive fact based statements
proving the student's ability to do the job, get
along with people, and exhibit dependability.

2.

The writing of a cover letter.

3.

Completing an application blank.

4.

Listing what to do and not to do during an interview.

5.

Writing a resume.

6.

Responding to interviewer's questions.

Ruth Ann Snyder
Three hundred eighty two distributive education
students comprised the sample.

The students were enrolled

in one of ten schools located within the Standard Metropoli­
tan Areas of Michigan.

Eight of the schools used the coop­

erative method of teaching distributive education while two
of the schools used the project method of teaching distri­
butive education.
The teacher-coordinators received inservice training
from the researcher on desired delivery of the employability
skills modules.

The teacher-coordinators administered the

employability skills modules to their students during a ten
day period using group instruction.

The teacher-coordinators

then post-tested the group who received the instruction as
well as another group of distributive education students who
had not received the employability skills instruction.
The post-test was developed by the researcher.

The

post-test that was delivered by the teacher-coordinator had
been checked for face validity and internal reliability.
The data were analyzed both descriptively and statistically.
Information was supplied to the researcher of class­
room incidents which might affect achievement.
of sex, method of instruction,

grade level,

The variable

school size

and community type were also examined.
The following conclusions were supported:
1.

The employability skills modules made a significant
difference in student achievement on the measures

Ruth Ann Snyder

of: how to write cover letters,

how to behave

during an interview, and how to write a resume.
The materials did not make a significant difference
on the measures of how to write positive statements
about their ability to do the job, get along with
others and be dependable; how to complete an appli­
cation blank and how to respond to an interviewer's
q ue st i o n s .
The employability skills materials or delivery
apparently are in some way directed toward assisting
female students in attaining higher scores on the
post-test.

The females scored higher on every item

on the post-test.
The employability skills materials might be
successful in either the cooperative method or
project method of teaching distributive education,
given the conditions of the study.

The findings

reported no significant difference between the
mean scores of students in these groups.
Students in the sample who were enrolled in the
classroom of a school with an enrollment of 708-1429
pupils achieved a higher mean score on five of the
thirteen items.

This suggests the possibility of a

relationship between school enrollment and student
a c h i e v em en t.

Ruth Ann Snyder
The junior students scored higher than the senior
students on the post-test.

This suggests a rela­

tionship between grade level and achievement on the
post-test or use of materials.
Increased amounts of inservice received by the
teacher-coordinator may result in a greater degree
of achievement by the students receiving the instruc­
tion.

The study found that the students in the

control classrooms of the two teacher-coordinators
who received more than four hours of inservice
received higher post-test scores than treatment
groups on twelve of thirteen items on the post-test.
The employed students scored higher more often on
the post-test.

Therefore,

there must be some rela­

tionship between employment,

the test, and/or the

materials.
The one school in an urban community achieved the
highest mean on seven of thirteen post-test items,
which suggests the possibility of a relationship
between the type of community in which the school
is located and student achievement on the post-test.
The fluctuations in the numbers of students who
completed the post-test items varied from 59 percent
to 99.2 percent which suggests a relationship
between the length or type of evaluation activity
on the post-test.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I am sincerely grateful to Dr. Peter G. Haines who
served as chairman of the guidance committee and director
of the investigation.

He has guided me throughout my

doctoral program with professional advice and encouragement
to set and attain challenging goals for myself.
For their guidance,

time, and availability,

I thank

the committee members, Dr. George Ferns, Dr. William
Farquhar,

Dr. W. J. E. Crissy,

(deceased),

and Dr. Clifford

O. Jump, who as former director of the Calhoun Area Voca­
tional Center was extremely supportive in assisting with my
attainment of this advanced degree.
I am indebted to Mr. Robert Harberts, director of
the Calhoun Area Vocational Center, and his staff,
cooperation,

for the

time, and resources given during the pursuance

of this degree.
Special thoughts of gratitude go to my parents,
Melvin and Dorothy Avery; my son, Matthew;

and my husband

Larry, who encouraged me to pursue this degree and continued
to inquire of its progress.
A very special thank you is extended to my friends as
well as the instructors,

students,

pated in the study.
iii

and raters who partici­

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
LIST OF T A B L E S .............................................. vii
Chapter
I.

II.

THE P R O B L E M ......................................
..................................
Introduction
Statement of the Problem
....................
Purpose of the S t u d y .........................
Need for the Study
.........................
Delimitations of the Problem
................
Limitations of the Study
....................
Assumptions ....................................
Definition of Terms ...........................
Procedures for the S t u d y ....................
M e t h o d ....................................
P o p u l a t i o n ................................
Participants
.............................
Instrumentation ...........................
Analysis of D a t a .........................

1
3
6
6
7
8
8
9
13
14
14
15
15
16

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND RESEARCH . . .

18

Introduction
..................................
Historical Training Programs in Employ­
ability S k i l l s .............................
Contemporary Programs .........................
Employer Implications for Content of Employ­
ability Skill C u r r i c u l u m ..................
Other Implications for Content of Employ­
ability Skills Curriculum ..................
Review of Related Studies ....................
Implications of Prior Research
................
III.

1

18
25
27
34
40
45
47

P R O C E D U R E S .......................................

48

Introduction
..................................
M e t h o d .........................................
P o p u l a t i o n ....................................
S a m p l e .........................................

48
48
50
52

iv

Chapter

Page
The Selection of the Participants . . . .
The P a r t i c i p a n t s .........................
Hypotheses to be T e s t e d .......................
Instrumentation ................................
.......................
Post-Test Construction
Reliability Analysis
. . ......... . . . . .
Data C o l l e c t i o n ................................
Teacher Inservice .........................
Delivery of Instruction ..................
Administration of Post-Tests
...........
Rating Post-Test Employability
Skills Survey ...........................

52
53
56
59
61
62
64
64
64
66
66

Analysis of D a t a ......................

70

IV. F I N D I N G S .........................................

71

Introduction
..................................
Relationship of Instruction and Achievement
on Specific Employability Skill
M a t e r i a l s ....................................
Other Factors Affecting Student
A c h i e v e m e n t ..................................
Descriptive Information About
Participants
................................
Summary

71

V. SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS

...

Introduction
..................................
The P r o b l e m ....................................
The P u r p o s e ....................................
Delimitations of the S t u d y
Limitations of the S t u d y ....................
Related Research
..............................
Population and Sample .........................
H y p o t h e s e s ....................
Data Collection Instruments ..................
Analysis of the D a t a .........................
Findings and Discussion .......................
Summary of F i n d i n g s ....................
C o n c l u s i o n ....................................
Recommendations ................................

v

72
81
87
90
93
93
93
94
95
95
96
96
97
99
100
101
110
112
114

Page
APPENDICES
Appendix
A.

Employability Skills Survey .....................

117

B.

Survey of Distributive Educators Teaching
Employability Seeking Skills ................

125

C.

Class Data S h e e t ................................

127

D.

Survey F o r m .......................................

12 9

E.

Survey F o r m .......................................

132

F.

Employability Skills Survey .....................

135

G.

Implementation Checklist

.......................

14 3

H.

Memo to Participating Teacher-Coordinators

I.

Rater S h e e t .......................................

147

J.

Criteria for E v a l u a t i o n .........................

148

K.

Correlation Matrix of Post-Test Reliability .

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

.

.

.

..................................

vi

144

150
151

LIST OF TABLES
Table

Page

1.

Number of Students in Each Treatment and
Control Group from Each School Comprising
the S a m p l e ........................
54

2.

Profile of Sample Schools..............

.......

55

3.

Multivariate F Statistics to
Determine Inter­
action Between Method and Treatment.
. . .

73

4.

5.

Observed Classroom Means of Treatment and
Control Groups on Items 1, 2, and 3: Fact
Based S t a t e m e n t s ..................
74
Observed Classroom Means and Standard Deviations
on Treatment Group and Control Group for
Item 4: Writing an A p p li ca ti on Bl an k . . . .

6.

Observed Classroom Means of the Treatment Group
and Control Group on Item 5: Writing a Cover
77
L e t t e r ............................

7.

Univariate F Statistics for the Treatment Effect
on the Tests of Interview Behavior . . . .

8.

Observed Classroom Means by Group on Interview
79
Do's and Interview D o n ' t s ........

9.

Mean Scores of Treatment Group and Control
. . .
Group on Item 8: Writing a Resume

10.

11.

.

Observed Classroom Means and Standard Deviations
of the Treatment Group and
Control Group on
Items 9, 10/ 11/ 12, and 13: Responding to
Interviewer's Q u e s t i o n s ...........
81
Comparison of Mean Scores of Employed Students
and Unemployed S t u d en ts ...........
83

vii

75

78

80

Table
12.

Page
Comparison of Mean Scores of Male and Female
S t u d e n t s .....................................

83

Comparison of Mean Scores of Junior and
Senior S t u d en ts ...............................

84

14.

Comparison of Mean Scores by Size of School

.

85

15.

Comparison of Mean Scores by Community Type

.

86

16.

Report of Response by I t e m .....................

88

17.

Summary of Mean Scores by Schools Where
Teacher-Coordinator Received More Than Four
Hours of Inservice...........................

88

Comparison by Schools of Means of Treatment
and Control Groups on Employment Variables.

89

Occurrences in the School Day Which May Have
Affected the Student Achievement . . . .

90

13.

18.
19.

viii

CHAPTER I
THE PROBLEM
Introduction
Current employment statistics encourage distributive
educators to closely examine the curriculum in which they are
teaching.
May,

Present labor data show that for the month of

1978, unemployment was at 6.6 percent for the state of

Michigan while a month later joblessness rose to 7.0
percent.^

The number of persons who were unemployed was

409,200 in the month of July,

1976.

Information released by the Michigan Employment Security
Commission states that in 1970, employment for all occu­
pations was 2,968,800 persons, while the projected em­
ployment for 1980 is 3,7 30,400 which represents an annual
rate of change of 2 percent.
However, the data further
project annual openings of 182,500; growth openings of
66,200; and replacement needs for the same period of
116,300 o n l y. 2
Competition for job openings remains high; therefore,
it is of great importance that people be skilled in pre­
senting themselves in a positive manner prior to being

Michigan Employment Security Commission, Michigan
Labor Market Review (Detroit: Michigan Employment Security
Commission, July, 1978).
2
Michigan Employment Security Commission, Michigan
Occupational Outlook 19 80 (Detroit: Michigan Employment
Security Commission, November, 1975), p. 6.
1

2

hired.

The person seeking employment wants to create a

favorable impression.

The distributive educator is required

to assist students in securing employment.

The concern for

students being employed in a related field further stresses
the need for distributive educators to assist students to
gain employment in areas in which the student has been
trained.
There are 295 distributive education programs in the
state of Michigan.
education students.
method,

These programs serve 21,500 distributive
3

These programs utilize the cooperative

or the project method of teaching distributive edu­

cation, or a combination of both.

A program is viewed as a

high school building in which a distributive education cur­
riculum is administered as per state guidelines.
The cooperative method of teaching incorporates a
job experience component along with a related class.

It is

necessary that the student be employed to receive school
credit via the cooperative method.

The related class may

or may not be taught by the coordinator.

The class meets

for the equivalent of one period per day.
The project method employs a simulated activity in
the classroom laboratory.

This activity resembles the

realistic career goal work setting in which the student will

3

Telephone call to Michigan Department of Education,
Vocational-Technical Education Service (May, 197 8).

3
be involved as a high school graduate.

The student spends

a block of time, usually a minimum of two hours per day,

in

the laboratory which may be a model store or a school store.
There are some distributive education programs
which use a combination of the two methods.

A student may

be enrolled in a block class for two years.

The student may

participate in a laboratory experience the first year and
may participate in a cooperative experience during the
second year.
Thus, all methods require the placement of the
student.

The cooperative method employs this placement

component as an on-going activity while the project method
provides placement assistance at a later date.
Statement of the Problem
The problem of the study was to assess the effec­
tiveness of the inclusion of selected employability skills
in the distributive education curriculum as compared to the
variety of job-seeking skills currently being taught
s t u de n ts .
The activity of this study centered on measuring
the effectiveness of selected employability skills modules
developed as a part of an employability skills project
funded by the Michigan Department of Education.

The content

4
for these modules was adapted from Get A J o b , a book by
Carkhuff Associates.

4

One of the objectives of the employability skills
project was to develop and pilot test a set of model curri­
culum materials to use with students which encompasses the
validated list of employability skills.

This study focused

on student achievement in:
1.

Communicating facts that the student can do the
job, is dependable, and can get along with people.

2.

Completing all information requested on a job
application blank.

3.

Writing a resume.

4.

Responding to the employment interviewer's questions.

5.

Exhibiting desired behavior during the employment
interview.

6.

Writing a cover letter.
The research questions explored by the study,

of which were tested statistically,

some

include:

1.

How do the post-test scores of the students who
received instruction compare with the post-test
scores of the students who did not receive
instruction?

2.

How will the post-test scores of the treatment
group compare with the post-test scores of the
control group in being able to give positive state­
ments about their ability to do the job, get along
with people, and exhibit dependability?

4

Robert R. Carkhuff, Richard M. Pierce, Ted W.
Friel, and David G. Willis, Get A Job (Amherst, MA: Human
Resource Development Press, 1975).

5

3.

How well will the treatment group be able to
write a cover letter as compared with the control
group?

4.

How well will the treatment group be able to com­
plete the application blank as compared to the
control group?

5.

How will the post-test scores of the treatment
group compare with those of the control group on
being able to list what to do and not to do during
the interview?

6.

How well will the students who received instruction
in writing a resume score on the post-test as com­
pared to those who did not receive instruction?

7.

How will the scores of the students who received
instruction in how to respond to the interviewers
questions compare with the scores of those students
who did not receive instruction?

8.

How will the students who are enrolled in the project
laboratory method of instruction score on the post­
test as compared to the students who are enrolled in
the cooperative method of instruction?
Other questions which offered descriptive information

for further examination of the data included:
1.

How do the post-test scores of the employed students
compare with the post-test scores of those who are
not employed?

2.

How do the post-test scores of the male students
compare with the post-test scores of the female
students?

3.

Is there any significant difference of the scores on
the post-test scores of the students from the
different community types?

4.

How do the post-test scores of the senior students
compare with the post-test scores of the junior
students?

5.

Is there a significant difference in the post-test
scores among students from different sized schools?

6
Purpose of the Study
The purpose of this study was to determine the value
of including employability skills modules in the distributive
education curriculum.

It was anticipated that this study

would provide a basis for:
1.

Identification of employability skills content

to be included in curriculum which is taught to distributive
education s t u d e n t s .

The review of the related literature

assisted in identifying skills of most importance in jobseeking .
2.

Determining the effectiveness of the written

materials of employability skills training given the
s t u de nt s.
3.

Determining the conditions under which the

students score higher on the p o st -t es t .
teaching,

The method of

the sex of student, being employed or unemployed,

the grade level, the size of school and/or community type
in which the school is located may all be conditions which
might affect the achievement of the students on the po st ­
test .
Need for the Study
In the past, teachers have been involved in
designing and implementing curriculum which they felt was
most effective for the student.

In this age of accountabi­

lity, the teacher must be able to answer the question of
effectiveness to school administration,

students, employers,

7
and parents.

Success in placing students on jobs for which

they have been trained assists in documenting that account­
ability .
Job seeking skills are a part of the curriculum in
distributive education.

The utilization of job placement as

part of both the cooperative and project method of instruc­
tion creates a need for successfully teaching job seeking
skills.
Many publications are available for student use
which contain information on job-seeking skills, but the
researcher was unable to locate studies which measured the
effectiveness of such materials.
In the Fall of 1976 at the Calhoun Area Vocational
Center,

the Placement Advisory Committee agreed that the

content of such materials should teach the skills presented
to them by the researcher.

The committee,

comprised of

eighteen employers, wrote letters of support for these
materials.
Delimitations of the Problem
1.

The study was delimited to administration of th

employability seeking skills modules developed from Get A
Job. ^

^ I bi d.

8
Limitations of the Study
This study was completed with the following limita­
tions :
1.

Students already may have received employability

seeking skills as part of their curriculum in their other
classes.
2.

Students who were enrolled in their respective

distributive education programs were included.

Thus, those

students may have had particular characteristics such as
maintaining a certain grade point average which might be
reflective of enrollment procedures.
3.

Students

who received instruction other than in

groups were not to be included in
4.

Students

the study.

were removed from participation in the

study if they were involved in senior and commencement
activities and not available.
5.

Schools volunteered to participate and were

located in the standard metropolitan areas.
6.

Students volunteered to participate.
Assumptions

The following assumptions were established for the
purpose of this study:
1.

Students exhibiting employability skills will have
a greater possibility of being hired.

2.

Students enrolled in the distributive education
programs are employable.

9

3.

Group instruction based on teacher directed learning
activities

(all students working on the materials

at the same time with the teacher giving direction)
is the method for which the materials were written
and should be delivered.
Definition of Terms
The following definitions are provided:
Standard Metropolitan A r e a .— Defined by the Depart­
ment of Labor and utilized in employment studies by the
Michigan Employment Security Commission as being an area
which contains a population of 50,000,

including one or more

counties, wherein an employee may change employers and still
be able to commute to employment.

g

Distributive E du ca ti on .— Various combinations of
subject matter and learning experiences related to the per­
formance of activities that direct the flow of goods and
services,

including their appropriate utilization,

producer to the consumer or user.

from the

These activities include

selling and such sales-supporting functions as buying,
transporting,

storing, promoting,

research and management.

financing, marketing

Distributive education is comprised

of programs of occupational instruction in the field of

Trends
1975) .

6
Michigan Employment Security Commission, Area
(Detroit: Michigan Employment Security C o m m i s s i o n ,

10
distribution and marketing.

These programs are designed to

prepare individuals to enter, or progress or improve compe­
tencies in distributive occupations.^
Cooperative M e t h o d .— Cooperative vocational education
is used in vocational education programs for persons who have
successfully completed program performance objectives or are
enrolled in a vocational program that runs concurrently with
an on-the-job experience.

Through an arrangement between the

co-op coordinator and the employer, a student receives in­
struction on the job, required academic courses and related
vocational instruction in school.

These experiences must be

planned and supervised by the co-op coordinator and employer
so that each contributes to the student's education and to
his employability.

Work periods and school attendance may

be developed around any number of alternative time
schedules.®
Project-Laboratory M e t h o d .— The project laboratory
method is a dimension of in-school instruction for distri­
butive education programs which provides the opportunity for
many students interested in.distributive education.

This

7

U.S., Department of Health, Education and Welfare,
Office of Education, Vocational Education and Occupations
(Washington: U.S.O.E., Bulletin VE 80061, 1969), p. 19.

g

Michigan Department of Education, Guidelines for
State Approved Regular Secondary Cooperative Vocational
Education Programs (Lansing: Michiqan Department of Education,
1977) .

11

method centers around individually designed learning
activities which are coordinated with classroom instruction
and the student's vocational objective.

9

Employability Sk i l l s .--Those skills, knowledge,
behaviors,

and judgments needed to secure, maintain,

and terminate a job

advance,

(other than occupational or technical

s ki l l s ).10
Distributive Education Classr o om .— The state of
Michigan reimburses schools for the operation of three
types of distributive education programs if state guidelines
are met.
1.

These are:
Cooperative program where students meet one hour
for a related class and are employed fifteen hours
per week.

2.

Project laboratory program with students receiving
a minimum of two hours of instruction in a laboratory
se t t i n g .

3.

Combination with a school having some students in a
block period of instruction and other students on
the cooperative program.

9
Michigan Department of Education, Administrative
Guide for Vocational-Technical Education (Lansing: Michigan
Department of Education, September, 1974).
"^Addison Hobbs, Director of Vocational Education,
Letter issuing a Request for Proposal, Michigan Department
of Education, Vocational-Technical Education Service
(October 1, 1976).

12
School S i z e .--According to the Michigan High School
Athletic Association, Class A

(school size No.

1), Michigan

high schools have 1,430 or more students enrolled;
(school size No.
No.

3),

2), 708 to 1,429;

Class C

Class B

(school size

365 to 707.
Community T y p e s :
1.

Metropolitan Core Cities:

Communities are

classified as Metropolitan Core Cities if they meet at least
one of the following criteria:
a.

the community is the central city of a Michigan
Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area; or

b.

the community is an enclave within the central
city of a Michigan Standard Metropolitan
Statistical Area; or

c.

the community was previously classified as a
Metropolitan Core City.

2.

Cities: Communities are classified as cities if

they have a population of 10,000 or more and have not been
classified as a Metropolitan Core City or Urban Fringe.
3.

Towns:

Towns are classified as towns if they

have a population of 2,500 to 9,999.

Rural communities

impacted by large military installations nearby are also
classified as towns.
4.

Urban Fringe: Communities are classified as

Urban Fringe, regardless of their size,

if they meet at

least one of the following criteria:
a.

the mailing address of the community is a Metro­
politan Core City or a city unless it is on a
RFD Route; or

13
b.

the community is within ten miles of the center
of a Metropolitan Core City; or

c.

the community is within five miles of the center
or a city.

5.

Rural:

Communities are classified as rural if

they have a population of less than 2,500, or if their
address is an RFD Route or Town, City, Urban Fringe, or
Metropolitan Core,

and they lie outside the perimeter

defined above under Urban F r i n g e . ^
Inservice Tr ai n i n g .— The training received by the
instructors involved in the study on how to use the materials
in their classrooms.
Employed St ud e n t s .— Students who were working at the
time they were involved in the study.
Unemployed S t u d en ts .— Students who were not working
at the time they were involved in the study.
Procedures for the Study
The procedures for the study involved five areas:
(1) method,

(2) population,

instrumentation, and

(3) selection of sample,

(4)

(5) analysis of data.

^ T e l e p h o n e call to Michigan Department of Education,
Research Evaluation and Assessment Services (May, 1978).

14
Method
The review of related literature revealed that there
has been virtually no assessment of employability skills
obtained by students.

It was determined that a group be

given the treatment instruction in employability skills and
a post-test.

A control group did not receive the instruction

and was also post-tested.
Population
The ten standard metropolitan areas of the Michigan
Employment Security Commission were used as cities from
which the sample was gathered.

The number of classrooms

taught by the cooperative method and the project laboratory
method was known from data gathered via the State Department
of Education using minutes of class time as the criteria.
The ten SMAs and the number of classrooms taught in that
area f o l l o w s :
City/Area

Cooperative

Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti
Battle Creek/Coldwater
Bay City
Benton Harbor
Detroit
Flint
Grand Rapids
Jackson
Kalamazoo/Portage
Lansing/East Lansing
Muskegon/Muskegon Hts./Norton Shores
Saginaw
Upper Peninsula

Project
Laboratory

2
9
4
2
86
14
3
2
6
6
7
10
_9

0
2
0
0
0
3
2
2
0
2
1
2
_8

160

22

15
Twenty classrooms were involved in the study.

This

exceeds 10 percent of the total classrooms in the SMA which
would equal eighteen classrooms.

Those instructors and

their students who volunteered to participate comprise the
sample.
Participants
After the instructors voluntarily made a commitment
to participate in the study, they spoke to their classes
and asked for student involvement on a voluntary basis.
Students were not obligated to be a part of the study.

The

instructors then communicated the number of students per
class to the researcher so that it could be determined that
the contribution to the research would be significant.
Instrumentation
The Employability Skills Survey
used to post-test the students.

(Appendix A) was

This was developed by the

researcher after determining the skills taught in the
student employability skills materials that were to be
measured for effectiveness.
The instrument was checked for reliability by two
groups of students enrolled at the Calhoun Area Vocational
Center.

One group had received employability skills

training, the other group had not.
A questionnaire

(Appendix B) was developed to gather

the demographic information about the classes that would be

16

involved in the study.

The questionnaire was checked for

face validity by asking distributive education teachers at
the National Association of Distributive Education Teachers
meeting in Houston, Texas, to complete the questionnaire.
The information from that validity check allowed for modifi­
cations.

As a result, the "Class Data Sheet"

(Appendix C)

was used to gather demographic information in the study.
In an effort to validate the determination that the
resume,

cover letter, application, and interview were

activities of great importance in job seeking,

employers,

as members of the Placement Advisory Committee at the
Calhoun Area Vocational Center,
completed a survey form

Battle Creek, Michigan,

(Appendix D) which asked them to

check whether certain skills were needed in successful
job seeking.

This form was also completed by directors

of vocational education from forty states at the American
Vocational Association Convention in Houston, Texas.

All

were in agreement that these activities were needed to
become a h i r e e .
Analysis of Data
For the purpose of testing the hypotheses, the
classroom was the unit of analysis.

Students were aggre­

gated to form a classroom mean.
Analysis of variance was the major primary stati­
stical model to test the hypotheses.

The Finn multivariance

procedure was used for hypotheses testing.

17
The data collected from both the post-tests and the
demographic information sheets was analyzed with the
assistance of the staff at the Computer Center at Michigan
State University.

The SPSS

12

program was used for the

analysis to generate class means and descriptive information.
Descriptive analysis was employed to explore demographic
v ar i a b l e s .

12

SPSS is the Statistical Package for the Social
Sciences.
This is a computer program that has been adapted
for use at Michigan State University by Vogelback Computing
Center at Northwestern University.

CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND RESEARCH
Introduction
Historically,

educators have been concerned with

imparting knowledges and skills to their students.

This is

not enough to enable students to be successful and fulfill
their life goals.

As Kushner and Keily state:

Today's sophisticated job market requires improved
skills in the techniques of seeking and applying
for jobs.
While many job seekers have the necessary
academic and skill preparation, they soon discover
that they also must have the merchandising ability
to sell their total employability to the prospective
e m p l o y e r .1
Hoyt,

too, assures us that education is not enough.

We must do more to assist today's youth.
Career education will be a farce if it succeeds
in helping youth want to work, gives them the skills
required to work, but fails to help them find work
when they leave school.2

John Kuschner and Helen Keily, Preface to How to
Find and Apply for a Job (Cincinnati: South-Western Pub­
lishing C o . , 1975), p. iii.
2

Kenneth B. Hoyt, Questions For Resolution In
Career Education (Washington, D.C.: Chamber of Commerce of
the United States, August, 197 3).

18

19
The importance of being successful in finding a job
cannot be stressed enough.
The successful job search is a crucial point in life,
for the choice or outcome no doubt will affect the
future, not only of the searcher, but also that of
his or her dependents for some time to come.
Today
it is estimated that job changes are expected several
times in each worker's life— even (perhaps especially)
during the developing careers of successful people.
Seeking employment plays such a vital role in life that
it should be based on careful job preparation, training,
and planning.
Viewed as stepping stones in an overall
plan of career building, job seeking, job holding, and
progression in employment, assume appropriate signifi­
cance as matters of immediate and daily interest and
challenge.
Further,

it is necessary that youth be given infor­

mation which assists them in making a career choice based on
the requirements of the career and their personal abilities.
In 1976, when Secretary of Labor, W. J. Usery, Jr., announced
the publication of the 1976-77 edition of the Occupational
Outlook H a n d b o o k , he stated:
. . . providing students with accurate and comprehensive
career guidance information is vital if they are to
plan for careers suited to their abilities and
a s p i r a ti on s.4
These concerns have been reiterated in Michigan,
which is the focus of this researcher's study.

The 1975

Michigan State Plan for Vocational Education says:

3
W. L. Blackledge, E. H. Blackledge, and H. J.
Keiley, Preface to The Job You Want— How To Get It (Cin­
cinnati: South-Western Publishing Co. , 1975) , p"I Tii.
4
W. J. Usery, Jr., News (Washington, D . C . : U.S.
Department of Labor, May 27, 1976), p. 1.

20

" . ..

by 1980/ a minimum of 60 percent of all occupational
5
students will receive job placement services."
The possibility that there is a lack of application
of occupational and educational preparation in making the
transition to adult life roles is evidenced by the Michigan
Department of Ed uc a t i o n ’s Report of 1975, Secondary Voc a­
tional Education Follow-up Survey, which found:
. . . 39.4 percent were taught how to fill out an
application, 40 percent did not receive help from
school in finding a job, and 17.5 percent of the
graduates available for employment were unemployedseeking work.^
Vocational administrators also are viewing utiliza­
tion of such data as tools of measurement for occupational
programs.

Wenrich and Wenrich attest to this by stating:

If employment preparation is the major goal of
vocational-technical education, the placement and
retention of students in jobs is the paramount
measure of program effectiveness.7
The United States Office of Education funded nineteen
studies in 1974-75 with one of the areas of concern being
to gather information which would, as reported by William F.
Pierce in the National Business Education Yearbook of 1977:

Michigan Department of Education, The Michigan State
Plan for Vocational Education, 197 5-76 (Lansing: Michigan
Department of Education, June 4, 1975), pp. 74.
^Michigan Department of Education, M i c h i g a n 1s 197 5
Secondary Vocational Education Follow-Up Survey (Lansing:
Michigan Department of Edu ca ti on ), p. 7.
7

Ralph C. Wenrich and J. William Wenrich, Leadership
In Administration Of Vocational and Technical Education
(Columbus, O H : Charles E. Merrill Publishing Company, T 9 7 4 ) ,
p. 205.

21
" . . .

provide a basis for matching job requirements to
g
the skills of prospective workers."
Herr also states:
But so far, the education system has not fulfilled
its potential to help people integrate their planning
and preparation with the work that they will eventually
perform.
Career education, however, has been a major
force in altering the balance of educational purpose
to accommodate planning and preparation for work.^
Herr further relates the importance of having
possession of employability skills along with occupational
skills.
Employability skills are more generalizable than
occupational skills; they include the ability to
use available exploratory resources, engage in
effective interview behavior, work cooperatively
with others, communicate orally and in writing
with co-workers and supervisors, and plan educa­
tional and occupational moves.
If the worker does
not have these skills, then any occupational skills
that he or she may have are ultimately of little
value in obtaining and keeping a job.^-0
The place for teaching of such skills is questionable.
Wellington suggests that vocational guidance counselors
should assist with this process.

g

William F. Pierce, "Education for Employment,"
National Business Education Yearbook, Number 14 (Reston, VA:
National Business Education Association, 1977), p. 249.
9

Edwin L. Herr, "Decision Making and Employability
Skills and the Role of Cooperative Work Experience," DE
Today (Fall, 1977): 2.
10 ...,
Ibid.

22
Sometimes the counselee may need help with appearance,
behavior, interviewing, and so forth before applying
to a school or e m p l o y e r . H
Statistics regarding the availability and types of
job openings,

as well as the labor force available to work

as predicted for 1980,

further lend credence of the impor­

tance of training people how to get jobs.
The Michigan Employment Security Commission reported
in its Exploring Michigan's Employment Expe ct at io ns , 19601980:
By 1980, Michigan's population is expected to be
around 10.2 million, an increase of nearly 2.4
million, or about 30 percent from 1960.
About
85 percent of this growth will be in the popula­
tion fourteen years of age and over, and this will
mean a greater-than-proportional growth in the
labor force, nearly 40 percent between 1960 and
1980.12
Likewise,

the total number of annual openings for

all occupations in 1980 are predicted to be 182,500, of
which growth openings represent less than 70,000 positions.

13

This indicates a picture of more people than jobs.
The types of jobs available affect the employment
picture.

It is apparent that jobs in distributive education

^ A . M. Wellington, "The Vocational Guidance Process,"
National Business Education Quarterly 38 (Winter, 1969): 40.

12

Michigan Employment Security Commission, Exploring
M i c h i g a n 1s Employment Expectations (Detroit: Michigan Employ­
ment Security Commission, April, 1968), p. 4.
13

Michigan Employment Security Commission, Michigan Oc cu ­
pational O u t l o o k , 1980 (Detroit: Michigan Employment Security
Commission, November, 1975), p. 7.

23
may take a new bent.

Lowell A. Burkett,

former Executive

Secretary of the AVA, states:
Marketing and the efficient distribution of goods
and services are necessary to economic growth and
have a distinct bearing on vocational education.
It is my prediction that in the next few years
marked changes will occur in the distribution
mechanism of the economy and these changes will
open up new opportunities for employment.
As the
nation's productivity mounts and trade expands to
markets throughout the world, it will become neces­
sary to utilize faster and more efficient transpor­
tation systems, not only to deliver products with
greater speed but also to reduce costs.14
Another aspect of the changing work world is shown
by the concern for unemployed youth as demonstrated by our
current Congress.

It has increased its effort to pour

additional dollars from the Department of Labor into m u n i ­
cipal coffers in an attempt to put people to work.
brings about increased competition for jobs.

This

The educational

institution needs to be aware of such competition and be able
to give its students the skills of being able to "find and
secure employment."
When local schools assume complete responsibility
for placing their graduates, they are essentially
competing with the employment service for the same
j o b s .15
This mandate encourages the opportunity for voca­
tional educators to become partners in assisting youth in
the transition from school to work.
14

Lowell A. Burkett, "A Look to the Future," A me ri ­
can Vocational Journal 51 (May, 1976): 94.
Douglas Kats, "You and Your Local Employment
Service," American Vocational Journal 50 (October, 1975):

38.

24
. . . As long as the prime sponsor concept remains
intact, training and placement services will con­
tinue to be a function of local and state govern­
ments.
This increases the need for coordination
between education and the prime s p o n s o r . ^
What is needed,

then, are specific kinds of infor­

mation that can be applied to the job getting process.
Sheppard and Belitsky support this in saying:
It may be possible and feasible to modify the jobseeking behavior of any person through intensive
instruction, counseling, or reorientation, . . .
thus, a way of improving their job prospects.17
With the greatest number of youth unemployed being
non-white,

both sexes in the 16-19 year age group

the nations work force as of July 18, 1977),

(38.2% of

it is with

seriousness that we listen to David S a u n d e r 's findings when
he suggests that we administer to this group by trying to:
" . . .

encourage them to look for work in a more planned

way and to make more informed and conscious choices among
various job search methods."
Saunders,
youth,

in a national longitudinal study of male

examined the association between the job finding

techniques used and the various personal characteristics
of the youth.

The study concludes that black youth and poor

whites do not bridge the transition from school to work

^ D e a n Griffin, "Youth Employment: Can Vocational
Education Do Anything About IT?", American Vocational Journal
52 (October, 1977): 25.
17

Harold L. Sheppard and A. Harvey Belitsky, "Pro­
moting Job-Finding Success for the Unemployed" (W. E. Upjohn
Institute for Employment Research, April, 1968), p. 14.

25
successfully.

Because these youth enter the labor market

with educational and cultural limitations, they seek the
assistance of friends and relatives.

This is also very much

a limiting factor in their success in being hired.

18

The search of the literature related to employabi­
lity skills revealed that there has been virtually no empi­
rical studies completed.
publications available.

There are many "how-to" types of
Consequently, many survey studies

have revealed support for the content developed.
The researcher has attempted to review the literature
in relation to employability skills content and training
programs.
The review of the related literature and research
will concentrate on the topic in the areas of:

(1) histori­

cal developments of employability skills training programs,
(2) current programs in teaching employability skills,

(3)

employers recommendations for teaching employability skills,
(4) content implications and suggestions,

and

(5) related

studies.
Historical Training Programs in
Employability Skills
The major thrust for teaching job search techniques
began with the advent of cooperative education programming.

18

David N. Saunders, "The Company Youth Keep: An
Empirical Analysis of Job Finding Among Young Men" (Ph.D.
dissertation, Bryn Mawr C o l l e g e ) .

26
As the program developed,

it became apparent that a measure

of a successful program was determined by the numbers of
students employed.

Thus,

instructors began giving both

formal and informal instruction in the art of seeking,
securing, maintaining or terminating a job.
Outside of public education, the programs which were
funded through the Department of Labor and grew out of the
Manpower Development Training Act of 1962, included some
aspects of training in these skill areas for its clients.
The Work Incentive Program

(WIN) has documented a study to

determine which job search media are most often used by
their clients.

Their findings noted that:

Public employment agencies, more notably WIN, are
underutilized and held in relatively low regard,
despite their relatively high payoff: self-placement
continues to be the preferred mode of job search even
though it is associated with lower success r a t e s . ^
Vocational education is in a position to most appro­
priately assist with helping youth become employed.
Crank and Doris Crank state:

Floyd

"Vocational education always

has been concerned with helping people to get in a position
to earn money,

„20

..."

19

The Pay-Off to Job Search: The Experience of WIN
T er mi ne es . Final Report (Washington, D.C.: Manpower Admini­
stration Department of Labor, June 14, 1974), p. 4.
20

Floyd Crank and Doris Crank, Curriculum Development
In Education for B u s i n e s s , "Historical Perspectives of Edu­
cation for Business," National Business Education Y e a r b o o k ,
Number 15 (Reston, VA: National Business Education Association, 1977), p. 10.

27

Employability skills are an integral part of the
placement activity.

The scope of the placement activity

may vary according to the target population.

For example,

some schools may concentrate on placing junior or senior
students, while others may offer placement assistance for
part-time work for any student in the district.

The utili­

zation of these techniques is not new, nor is the identifi­
cation of such components as a part of the curriculum a
new idea.
Placement services are not alien to education; they
are not alien to vocational education; they are not
alien to continuing education.21
Contemporary Programs
Various types of models for training students in
Employability Skills have been developed.

These activities

are sometimes referred to as pre-employment activities.
Wasil developed a Model for School Pre-Employment
Activities which includes guides,

instructional units and

suggestions for conducting pre-employment clinics.
The Manpower Administration

22

(DOL), Washington, D.C.

Office of Research and Development through the Experimental
Manpower Laboratory at Colorado State University developed

21

Raymond A. Wasil, "Placement Services," American
Vocational Journal 51 (February, 1976): 52.
22
Activities

Raymond A. Wasil, Model for School Pre-Employment
(Akron, OH: Summit County Schools, 197 4).

28
a manual for use in the training of disadvantaged clients
to engage in the interview.

23

Some of the models and activities attempt to assist
the student in the transition from school to work.

The

need for this is cited earlier in this chapter and is
suggested by Sanders.
Sanders completed a study of 685 graduates in an
effort to analyze and compare the cooperative occupational
education and vocational-technical school programs and
graduates in the Springfield, Missouri, public schools.
Three of his findings give significance to the teaching of
employability skills.

They are:

1.

the cooperative education graduates emphasized
the development of desirable personal-social
c ha ra ct er is ti cs ,

2.

transition from school to full-time employment
is made more quickly and easily through
cooperative education programs, and

3.

cooperative education graduates tend to demon­
strate more desirable personality traits," work
habits, and a higher degree of occupational
c om p e t e n c y .2 4
Under development at the time of this study was the

Career Skills Assessment Program being planned by the

23

E. C. Keil and J. R. Barbee, A Job Intervxew
Training Program.
A Trainer's Manual, Final Report
(Washington: Department of Labor, 1971).
24

Lester E. Sanders, "A Comparison of Two Methods of
Preparing Youth for Employment.
Cooperative Occupational
Education Versus the Preparatory Vocational-Technical
School" (Summary of Ed.D. dissertation, Missouri University,
1967).

29
College Examination Entrance Board in a consortium with five
states— Georgia, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, and Ohio.
Robert E. Campbell describes the program, to be used with
both secondary and adult populations,
single-topic measures,

as consisting of six

two of which are contained in the

employability skills materials tested by the researcher
of this dissertation.

They are:

1.

Employment-Seeking Skills: Focuses on student
ability to locate and obtain a job, and

2.

Work Effective Skills: Focuses on work attitudes,
job holding and adjustment skills, and career
advancement skills.^5
An exemplary program in job development,

ment,

job place­

and follow-up, which included 855 seniors from a

three-county area in Missouri,

revealed that 63.4 percent

of the students were assisted in placement by friends or
relatives.

Likewise,

31.5 percent were assisted by their

own personal interviews.
hired varied,

The length of time to become

as 4 3.2 percent indicated it took from two

days to ten days of job searching to become hired.
There is a need for giving the students the skills in
job seeking since they are the people who will be applying
the skills.

Additionally,

educators need to assist students

25
Robert E. Campbell, "The Role of Education in the
Acquisition of Life-Career Management Skills," American
Vocational Journal 53 (January, 1978): 60.

30
with being able to recycle those skills in the event the job
searching process must continue or a job is terminated.

26

In 1975, the Arizona State Department of Education
published,

"Look to Learning:

Sixth Grade and Learn to Earn,"

Sixth grade, career education units, the skills of systema­
tically making a career decision,

and teaching students to

be able to list personal characteristics that are preferred
by employers are included in the materials.

27

Employment seeking activities have always been a
part of the distributive education programs.

The success of

these activities may vary by the degree of emphasis given
by the instructor.

To reinforce the concept that they have

been a part of these programs and that they should continue
to be a part,

it is necessary to view some of the comments

made in the literature.
Vivian stresses the need to meet the challenge of the
future in distributive education,

stating one of the

challenges as that of being able:
. . . to improve our placement performance.
A factor
closely related to vocational integrity is the
successful placement of our graduates in distributive
occupations related to their career objectives.
Reviews
by the Government Accounting Office and recent federal
legislation have reflected the growing emphasis on
evaluation.
One of the principle measures involved in

26

"Area High Schools Senior Survey Results"
MO: State Fair Community College, 1973), p. 24.
27

(Sedalia,

Beverly A. Cooper, "Look to Learning: Sixth Grade"
(Phoenix, Arizona: State Department of Education, 1975).

31

evaluation will be the placement and subsequent per­
formance of those who complete or leave vocational
education programs.2°
The Warmke study in 1960 at the University of M i n ne ­
sota,

surveyed the opinions of fifty-seven national leaders

in distributive education.
ment

His study emphasizes that

p lace­

activities are not new to distributive education and

that D. E. personnel should coordinate all students that
were

employed in D. E. jobs.

ment

activities the

When asked what student place­

D. E. coordinator should include, 39

percent responded that only D. E. jobs should be included,
but for the total school placement program.

29

The Weatherford study in 1974 surveyed thirty
leaders in distributive education to determine their opinions
on the importance of given issues to produce effective
operating procedures.

Seventy-three percent of the respon­

dents felt that students whose career goals require a fouryear college degree be given the least priority for enroll­
ment in distributive education.

Although it is to be noted

that the leaders commented that this group should not be
disallowed attendance in the program,

it would appear the

leaders felt that the majority of students would be seeking

28

Neal E. Vivian, "Meeting the Challenge in Distri­
butive Education," Business Education Forum 32 (January,
1978): 33.
29

Roman F. Warmke,
Monograph 102 (Cincinnati:
February, 1961), p. 34.

"Distributive Education Issues,"
South-Western Publishing Co.,

32
full-time employment.

Knowing this,

it would seem appro­

priate to include employability skills as a part of the
curriculum.
The attributes of the distributive education teachercoordinator become justification for assigning the respon­
sibility for teaching placement activities to that
individual.

White and Marley state:

By virtue of professional and technical experience
and education, the distributive education teachercoordinator is potentially best suited to perform
the job placement function in a high school.
Follow-up studies of graduates serve to alert edu­
cators to the services received by, and the needs of recent
graduates.

The 197 5 Secondary Vocational Education Follow-

Up Survey by Michigan Department of Education determined
that of the 53,667 respondents,

39.0 percent said a relative

or friend had helped them find a job; 27.1 percent said a
teacher or coordinator helped; while 7.8 percent said the
school placement office helped.

Thus, the most frequently

named source of help within the school was the teacher or
coordinator.

Outside of school,

use of the relative or

friend as a source of help in job placement has implications

30

John Wilson Weatherford, "Identification and Analy­
sis of Issues in Distributive Education," Monograph 127
(Cincinnati: South-Western Publishing Co., August, 1974),
p. 21.
31

Thomas R. White and Howard Marley, "Job Placement
Director: A Job for the DE Coordinator?", Business Education
Forum 29 (December, 1974): 19.

33
for content input of employability-seeking skills training.
Combining the two most often used sources,

it would appear

that there is some placement service offered but there
needs to be more employability-seeking skill training.
The most often mentioned type of help given the
graduates was that of being taught how to fill out a job
application with 39.4 percent response.

Other types of

help mentioned were referral activities rather than the
learning of an applicable skill in job-seeking.

This

points out that currently there is some placement activity
occurring.
In October,

1976, in Philadelphia,

13,088 students

were given "The Assessment of Functional Literacy" test.
One in seven seniors was unable to fill out the job application while 7.2 percent could not read a newspaper.
To enable students, as graduates,
employment,

32

to seek and maintain

they must have these necessary skills.

Felstehausen and Howell,

in a follow-up study of

188 graduates of Illinois Home Economics Cooperative Educa­
tion programs,

revealed that:

The Task Force recommends that schools place as much
emphasis on counseling, preparing, and assisting
students to find employment as is given to comparable

32
Students"

Enquirer and News, "Job Application Baffles
(Battle Creek, MI: December 12, 1976), p. D-7.

34
activities for students seeking admission to an
institution of higher e d u c a t i o n . 3 3
Employer Implications for Content of
Employability Skill Curriculum
The question of content of employability skills
curriculum is received by employers with some degree of
commonality.

The review of the literature found employers

and applicants agreeing on what skills are most successful
in aiding the job getting process.
In a study of employers, Cook and Lanham found:
. . . in companies of more than 100 employers, the
application blank ranked first; with the interview,
formal and informal, ranked second of 12 screening
devices.
Among the small companies (1-3 employees)
informal interview and references from previous
employees ranked first and second.
School sources
of information were relatively unimportant,
accounting for the lowest rank of 12 screening
devices.
Recommendations included specific preparation in
learning to complete a variety of job application forms as
well as a variety of mock interviews.
The Michigan State University Employability Skills
Project surveyed 134 employers.

They were asked to rate the

33

Joyce L. Felstehausen and Kathleen M. Howell, A
Follow-Up Study of Illinois Home Economics Job Training
Programs, Final Report (Charleston: Illinois State Board
of Vocational Education and Rehabilitation, September,
1971).
34

Fred S. Cook and Frank W. Lanham, Opportunities and
Requirements for Initial Employment of School Leavers with
Emphasis on Office and Retail Jobs (Detroit, MI: College of
Education, Wayne State University, 1966).

35
importance of listed employability skills as either:

(1)

very unimportant,

(4)

very important.

(2) unimportant,

(3) important, or

The results showed employers regard being

on time of great importance,

along with communicating,

selected items in making the decision to hire, and appear­
ance.

Other attributes of employees cited by employers

were: being dependable, doing things on time, being able to
follow directions,

and doing the job well.

35

Goodman surveyed thirty-eight businesses in New York
City to learn ratings given by personnel directors to
twenty-four employee traits.

The respondents were asked to

rate "those traits which were most often in need of improve­
ment or retraining for entry level and mid-management
employees."

The retailer respondents rated those areas as

f ol lo ws :
Rank No.

1: Initiative

Rank No.

2: Reliability

Rank No.

3: Attitudes

Rank No.

4: Oral Communication

36

This is similar to the findings of a 1975 Texas
study of 1,965 employers.

Reasons for rejecting applicants

included the inability of applicants to communicate during

35

Employability Skills Project Final R e p o r t , Insti­
tute of Agricultural Technology, College of Agriculture and
Natural Resources (East Lansing; MSU, 1977).
36

Jacob Goodman, "Job Performance: Improvement
Needed," Balance Sheet 55 (April, 1974): p. 304.

36

the job offer, while causes for terminating employees
showed,

"employee continuously makes costly mistakes and

does not follow instructions," ranking number three and four.
These employers also cited responsibility and the ability to
follow through on an assigned task, dependability,

the

ability to write and speak effectively, and the ability to
follow instructions,

in the rank order of 3, 4, 7, and 9, in

a listing of the ten improvements they felt were needed.

A

concern for productivity ranked first, while ambition/
motxvation/desire to get ahead, ranked number 10.

37

The Battelle study in 1968 lends support for two
major areas? the relationship of employer selection criteria
to the tightness of the job market and the verified criteria
used by the interviewer in selecting an employee.

The study

states:
As the job situation tightens, performance will be
expected to remain the same (since they tend to
reflect an i d e a l ) , while requirements may fall when
the market loosens.
The study goes on to say
. . . the neatness of appearance, the neatness,
completeness and truthfulness of the application
form,
and being able to improve the impression formed by the
employment interview,

as verified criteria used by employers

in selecting the job applicant.

37

This would be in agreement

Kenneth W. Brown, "V7hat Employers Look for in Job
Applicants," Business Education Forum 30 (April, 1976): 7.

37
with findings of other studies and would lend support for
the development of these competencies in the curriculum.
The Battelle study also speaks to the role of
vocational education,

stating:

Many of the qualifications needed by the socially
deprived fall outside the traditional vocational
education curriculum.
These include such things
as: how to seek work, how to act in the interview,
good grooming and health habits, the importance of
the police and credit records, and the importance
of dependability on the job.38
In a 1972 Iowa study involving forty-two firms,
twenty-six of the employers indicated the "lack of
experience" as reason

(other than lack of skill)

hiring prospective office employees.

for not

This could be an

indication that prospective employees need to be able to
communicate their strengths as related to being able to do
the job.

Likewise, of the forty-two firms in the study,

thirty-nine indicated they prefer to hire cooperative
graduates.

It might be inferred that distributive employers

might respond similarly.

39

In 1972, Korkowski and Krueger surveyed twenty
employers to determine the hiring standards for entry-level
38
W. Haider Fisher and Others, A Comparative Study of
the Employee Skills/Training Acceptable to Employers Under
Varying Degrees of Labor Market Stringencies (Columbus, OH:
Battelle Memorial Institute, June 1 4 , 1 9 6 8 ) , p. 32.
39

Norman F. Kallaus, An Office Employment Profile:
Job Entry Requirements, Behavior Patterns, Career Opportuni­
ties (Iowa City, IA: Iowa Business Education Association,
December, 1973), p. 33.

38
jobs in rural central Minnesota.

Of the fifteen characteri­

stics appearing on the rating scale, all of the employers
considered attitude as very important, while ability was
considered very important by 90 percent of the employers.
References, appearance,

and interests were found to be

considered to be of average or more importance by 90 percent
of the employers for hiring purposes.

Further,

the

recommendations included:
. . . that students should be helped to develop an
understanding of their aptitudes and skills in
merchandising these effectively on the job market.
Such training could easily be included in any of
the following school programs: individual and
group counseling, occupational information courses,
business courses, and distributive education
programs.
The recommendation that the student should "indicate
a desire to locate in a specific area" and that "students
should probably be given some training in human relations
activities in order to become more perceptive to the way
their behavior is interpreted by others" lends support for
incorporating mobility assessment and use of interpersonal
skills in the curriculum.40
In the Tri-Cities area of East Tennessee, conferences
were held with employing officials in twenty-six companies.
These officials represented over forty thousand employees
and gave information regarding initial contacts made by
40

Clifford Korkowski and Albert Grueger, "Entry
Level Hiring Standards in Rural Central Minnesota," Journal
of Employment Counseling (June, 1972): 61.

39
applicants, written application forms, and personal inter­
views.

Seventy-five percent of the employers considered an

application letter as a desirable way to approach a potential
employer; however,
frequently.

less than 10 percent receive these letters

Fifteen percent said they did not receive any

application letters.

All but two of the persons consulted

indicated that a data sheet should accompany the application
letter.

All company representatives indicated that all

items on

the application blank should be completed.
Several of the employers expressed concern about the

inability of young applicants to understand the "free"
enterprise system and the lack of appreciation for the
profit motive.
The study recommended that students be given prac­
tice in dramatizing the employment interview, with "insis­
tence upon the preparation of application letters with data
sheets."

It was further

receive this
program.

suggested that students might

information in a cooperative education

41
James Lockwood reviewed the literature between 1970

and 1975 in an attempt to discover employers'

41

expectations

Edna L. Gregg, "How Young People Hunt for Jobs,"
The Journal of Business Education (May, 1975): 324.

40
of recent library school graduates' qualifications.

The

search revealed that:
. . . there are usually a number of candidates who
qualify for each position and since the initial
screening is a most important part of the process,
a candidate needs to make himself stand out in a
positive w a y . 42
Other Implications for Content of
Employability Skills Curriculum
In 1960 at New York University a study by Stevens
of one-hundred job-seeking applicants showed that individuals
who were highly successful in getting a job in a short
period of time were characterized by these findings;
stic, well crystallized,

specific job goals with exhibited

independent self-actualized,
effort to get a job.

reali­

goal-directed behavior in their

It was noted they also incorporated

the help given them into their job-seeking techniques.

43

Harwood reinforces the need for preparing students
to be successful during the interview.
The purpose of educating students for job interviews
is to assist them in the process of self-actualization
and convey to others their resources and potential.

42

James D. Lockwood, Employers' Expectations of
Recent Library School Graduates: A Review of the Recent
Literature (Washington: U.S. Department of Health, Education
and Welfare, National Institue of Education, August, 1975).
43

Nancy D. Stevens, "Job-Seeking Behavior and Vo ca ­
tional Development," Paper delivered to American Personnel
and Guidance Association (April, 1971).

41

The implication is that if self-actualization is an outcome
of the interview, then the materials should begin laying a
base for this at the onset.

44

An Ohio study in 197 0 involved 642 workers from Columbus,
Omaha,

and New Orleans.

The study investigated the impedi­

ments facing youth in the transition from school to work.
One third of the respondents indicated they found their first
full-time job not by a process of planned search,
. . . it is also possible that if, as job seekers,
the respondents possessed certain salable skills,
the haphazard pattern characteristic of most of
.their job hunts would have minimized their chances
finding jobs congruent with their training and
s k i l l s .45
A developmental program supported by the Kentucky
State Department of Education involving 128 students in four
selected area vocational centers measured the students'

job

getting ability in a simulated occupational experience pro­
grams.

Of the graduates,

either m

94 or 73 percent were employed

a distributive occupation or a related occupation.

46

44

Richard K. Hardwood, "Educating Rather than
Coaching for the Job Interview," Journal of Employment
Counseling (December, 1974): 188.
45

A. P. G a r b m , Jerome J. Salomone, Dorothy P. Jack­
son, and John A. Bellweg, "Worker Adjustment Programs of
Youth in Transition from High School to Work" (Columbus, OH:
The Center for Vocational and Technical Education, Ohio
State University, December, 1970).
46

Clayton Riley and Clayton Omvig, A Development Pro­
gram Utilizing Simulated Occupational Experience in Distri­
butive Education (Lexington: Research Coordinating Unit,
N o v e m b e r , 1970), p. 16.

42
Quinn, at the University of Michigan Survey Research
Center,

in 1970,

surveyed 1,533 American workers at all occ u­

pational levels to determine how important they regarded
some twenty-five aspects of work.

The following items were

given in rank order:
1.

Interesting work

2.

Enough help and equipment to get the job.

3.

Enough information to get the job.

4.

Enough authority to get the job.

5.

Good pay.

6.

Opportunity to develop special abilities.

7.

Job security

8.

Seeing the results of one's work.

47

The implication of this outcome is that people must
have job goals and know about working requirements for jobs
If the person seeking work has knowledge of these aspects
of work, they will be better able to communicate their
strengths to the employer during the hiring process.
Babcock reports findings made by a former student,
Carol-Lisa Eigenberg,

as she went through the job seeking

process,
After one particularly severe depression, I went
through the New York City Yellow Pages under Graphic
Design and mailed thirty-five letter of inquiry and

47

Richard P. Quinn, et a l ., Turnover and T r a i n i n g :
A Social Psychological Study of Disadvantaged Workers (Ann
A r b o r : University of Michigan, Survey Research Center,
1970).

43

my resume.
This was a wild stab in the dark, and I
only got three replies.
But one of them led to the
job I now hold.
The inclusion of a development of an employer file would
be of benefit in seeking employment.

48

The Bulletin to Management, No. 1 3 5 5 , reports that:
Direct application to an employer is the most common
job seeking and search method used by all Americans,
regardless of sex, age, race, and occupational
category.
This, again, points to the fact that individuals need to be
trained in job seeking skills.

It appears that the inter­

view is most crucial to be included in employability
skills.

49
Harwood and Pate again support the need for knowing

interview techniques when surveying the ratings of 398
registrants of a university placement office with analysis
being made on behavior during the interview and student's
credentials.

The summary includes:

Perhaps job applicants would be advised to focus major
efforts on other aspects of career planning, pre­
interview preparation, such as the determination of
supply-demand ratios of the employment needs of organi­
zations, in addition to striving for favorable interview
im pression.50
48

Robert J. Babcock, "My Job?
It's not Terrific,
It's a Start," Journal of College Placement (OctoberNovember, 1970), p. 70.

but

49

Bureau of National Affairs, Inc., "Job Seeking
Methods Used by American Workers," Bulletin to M a n a g e m e n t ,
No. 1355 (January 29, 1976).
50

Robert H. Page, Jr., and Richard K. Harwood,
"Employment Interviews: How Critical," Journal of Employment
Counseling II (December, 1974): 176.

44
O'Neil and Nelson conducted a study of workers in
Illinois, via telephone,
skills

to identify occupational survival

(the basic knowledges, traits and competencies most

appropriate for workers to successfully maintain their
o cc up a t i o n s ) .

The results of the 589 telephone interviews

indicated:
. . . that certain skills are needed for all types of
careers, while others are specific to one or more
occupational classification (s). Additionally, most
workers indicated that they kept their jobs because of
salary or work satisfaction.51
Curriculum was being planned in Illinois,

in 1977,

by the Department of Adult, Vocational and Technical Edu­
cation.

The project identified twelve topics that might be

developed into instructional units to assist in teaching
occupational skills.

Of the twelve topics,

four were of

interest to this researcher because of their adaptability
in seeking work as well as maintaining it.
include:

Those four

interpersonal relations, on-the-job communication,

problem-solving,

and adapting and planning for the future.

52

The Michigan State University Employability Skills
Project utilized a survey instrument which asked 134

51

Sharon Lund O'Neil and Robert E. Nelson, "Workers
View Occupational Survival as a Combination of Skills,"
The Delta Pi Epsilon Journal XX (January, 1978): 13.
52

Robert E. Nelson, "Survival Skills: Mastering the
Human Aspects of Work," American Vocational Journal 52
(Washington: American Vocational Association, N o v e m b e r ,
1977): 65.

45
vocational education graduates to rank the skills they view
as:

(1) very unimportant,

(2) unimportant,

(3) important,

and

(4) very important,

in securing a job.

The graduates

responses revealed that all of the former students felt the
skill of being on time during the interview, being neat and
well groomed, as well as answering interviewer's questions
completely and clearly were important.
tance was being able to communicate.

Also of high impor­
Other areas of impor-

tance included being able to identify references.
Distributive Education graduates'

53

The

responses followed the

same pattern as that of all students surveyed.
Review of Related Studies
Thrash looked at three subject content areas to test
students previously enrolled and those not previously en­
rolled in the project method of instruction.

The major

conclusion drawn from this study was that there is no signi­
ficant difference in the rate of achievement on the three
content tests between the two groups of students tested.
Likewise,

54

Ferguson found that there was no signifi­

cant difference between scores of the project and

53

Employability Skills Project, Final R e p o r t , Insti­
tute of Agricultural Technology, College of Agriculture and
Natural Resources (East Lansing: MSU, 1977).
54

Jimmie Ford Thrash, "The Project Method m Distri­
butive Education Student Achievement in Selected Content
Areas" (Ph.D. dissertation submitted to Oklahoma State
University, May, 197 0).

46
cooperative method groups on tests of economic understanding
when comparing 467 students in grades 11 and 12 enrolled in
Distributive Education.

55

Rowe examined the scores of 1200 Arizona high school
students who had been instructed by either the cooperative
method or the project method.

56

The students were tested

on sales comprehension and economic understanding.

Rowe

found no significant difference between groups which co m ­
pared eleventh grade project distributive education students,
eleventh grade non-distributive education students,

twelfth

grade cooperative distributive education students and twelfth
grade non-distributive education students.

There was not

significant correlation between the characteristics of
socio-economic status— student's age— student's sex, and
scores attained on standardized tests measuring economic
understanding and sales comprehension.
The review of the related research and literature
determined the need of young people to be able to demonstrate
positive behaviors which would assist them with the job
seeking process.

This was supported by employers and surveys

55

Edward T. Ferguson, Jr., A Comparison of the Effec­
tiveness of the Project and Cooperative Method of Instruction
on Selected Competencies in Distributive Education at the
Secondary Level.
Research Report (East Lansing: Michigan
State University, April 1, 1968), p. 22.
^ K e n n e t h L. Rowe, "Development of Selected Marketing
Competencies Through Utilization of Two Methods of Teaching
In The Secondary School" (Ph.D. dissertation, Michigan State
University, 1969).

47
of hiring personnel who are able to cite the specific types
of behavior they desire in an applicant.
The review gleaned the information that employers
desire job candidates who are able to communicate verbally
giving positive facts about themselves.

They also desire

someone who has job goals, can complete an application
blank, and exhibits initiative,

reliability and a good

attitude during the interview.
The interview seemed to be a most important part of
the hiring process.

It was during this time that employers

make their final decision as to who will get the job.
Implications of Prior Research
The majority of the literature reviewed suggested the
competencies necessary for successful job seeking.

The com­

petencies which were identified can become a part of the
distributive education curriculum.
Communication,

responsibility,

proper interview

behavior and getting along with others surfaced repeatedly as
priorities to be demonstrated by job seekers.

These were

suggested in surveys of employers, as well as past job
applicants.
Thrash and Ferguson found no effect by method of
teaching in both of their studies.

There was no significant

difference in achievement by students when comparing the
methods used.

CHAPTER III
PROCEDURES
Introduction
The research procedures and methods utilized in c o n ­
ducting this study will be discussed in the following
sections:

(1 ) method,

ses to be tested,
and

(2) population,

(5) instrumentation,

(3) sample,

(4) hypothe­

(6 ) data collection,

(7) analysis of data.
Method
The purpose of this study was to determine the

effectiveness of selected employability skills materials.
The study was a quasi-experimental study.

The study was

that of examining a single variable which was the instruc­
tional materials.
Since the implementation of the treatment involved
two weeks of class time,

it was impossible to randomize the

selection of the participants.
Standard Metropolitan Areas

It was determined that the

(SMA's) of the Michigan Employ­

ment Security Commission would be a sound basis from which
to select the sample.
The number of cooperative method distributive ed u ­
cation classrooms and the number of project laboratory
48

49
method distributive education classrooms were determined
for the SMA's.

The researcher accomplished this by counting

the minutes of class time for each program in the SMA's,
using the information sheets of the Vocational-Technical
Education Service of the Michigan Department of Education
at their offices in Lansing, Michigan.

A minimum of 10 per­

cent of the classrooms in the ten SMA's was established as
a criteria for the number to be participants in the study.
The distributive education teacher-coordinators
were contacted via phone followed by an appointment to
allow them to peruse the materials and to make a commitment
to participate.

Twelve distributive education teacher-

coordinators agreed to participate.

Ten of those teacher-

coordinators completed all activities of the study.

One

teacher-coordinator was unable to complete implementation
because of end-of-the-year activities.

The other teacher-

coordinator failed to return the post-tests.
The teacher-coordinators were instructed through
an inservice program on the employability skill materials
by the researcher.

Implementation sheets and class data

sheets were explained, as well as directions as to how the
post-test should be delivered.
The materials were either sent or given to the
teacher-coordinators, with printed instructions as per the
inservice.

Additional descriptive data were gathered

about the classes.

50
The teacher-coordinators selected the two week
interval in May in which they would teach the instructional
materials.

They also anticipated when they would be a dmin­

istering the post-test.
Raters were selected and trained to evaluate the
post-tests which had been returned to the researcher by mail.
The training and the evaluation of the post-tests were two
separate events.
The data were punched on computer cards and run at
Michigan State University.

Initially, a reliability check

was made to determine internal consistency of the instru­
ment.

A reliability check was also made of the rater's

evaluations of the post-test to determine rater reliability.
The hypotheses were tested and additional descriptive data
were used to describe characteristics of participants.
Population
Since the materials dealt with employability skills
and since job getting is affected by job openings,

the focus

of the study was in the unit of the Standard Metropolitan
Areas which is utilized by the Michigan Employment Security
Commission.

The population was distributive education

classrooms in the Standard Metropolitan Areas, and numbered
182 classrooms.
Information on the distributive education enroll­
ments in the state of Michigan was limited.

Descriptive

information about students enrolled in cooperative programs,

51
project laboratory programs, different sizes of high
schools, or descriptive data about students was not avail­
able .
The distributive education programs are of three
possible forms in the state of Michigan.

A school system

may have any or all three types in operation.
The cooperative program is comprised of a related,
one period class with students working a minimum of 15
hours per week in their occupational goal area and receiving
credit.
The project laboratory method has the student
receiving a block of instruction

(a minimum of two hours)

and completing class activities in the laboratory relating
to the career goal.
A combination of these two approaches may be in
operation.

An example is the utilization of a two-year

block program by a student in laboratory experience during
the first year.

The second year,

the student would go out

on a cooperative work experience.
The ten Standard Metropolitan Areas of the Michigan
Employment Security Commission may be represented by 182
classrooms.

The cooperative method of instruction in these

10 SMA's comprise 160 classrooms, while the project method
of instruction comprises 22 classrooms.

It was not known

if there were any combination type distributive education
programs present in the ten SMA's.

52

Sample
The Selection of the Participants
The treatment to be evaluated in this study involved
giving instruction in employability skills to students over
a two week period of time.

It was impossible to randomize

the sample because of the scope of the involvement and the
necessity for the commitment by the instructor to be
followed through.
Those instructors in the SMA's who were members of
the Michigan Association of Distributive Education Teachers
were first contacted via telephone to ascertain their inter­
est in the study and their willingness to participate.
researcher sought 24 classrooms/ within 12 schools,
in the study.

The

to use

This would exceed 10 percent of the popula­

tion in the SMA's.
Eighteen teacher-coordinators were contacted.
Twelve agreed to participate in the study and would be able
to implement the materials in a treatment class.

They also

had available to them a class which was very similar to the
treatment class that could be used as a control class.
Thus, the participants in the study were those
teacher-coordinators and students who agreed to use the
employability skills materials in their classrooms under
certain conditions.

The participants in the treatment

group were asked to complete the employability skills
modules and a post-test, while the participants in the
control group were asked to only complete the post-test.

53
The Participants
The population within the twelve schools was r e ­
ported by the teacher-coordinators as 567 students.

The two

schools which declined to participate had an enrollment of
110 students.

Therefore, the number of students enrolled

in the classrooms participating in the study totaled 4 57
stu de nt s.
The total number of respondents within the sample
was 382 students enrolled in ten classrooms.
non-response was 16 percent

(see Table 1).

The rate of
This may be

attributable to administering the study during the spring
when juniors and seniors are involved in end-of-the-year
events.

Teacher-coordinators reported students being

absent because of special assemblies, picnics,
cap and gown measurement,

career day,

etc.

Table 1 shows the number of students reported by
teacher-coordinators as enrolled and the number of students
who were respondents to the post-test.

The number of 382

represents 84 percent response.
The descriptive characteristics of the classrooms
and schools which were examined as a part of the study
included amount of teacher-coordinator inservice received,
the teaching method used, the school enrollment and the
community type.

The number of schools in each of these

categories is presented in Table 2.

Table 1.— Number of Students in Each Treatment and Control Group from Each School
Comprising the Sample.

Treatment Group
School
Number

Control Group

No. of Students
Reported

No. of Students
Responding

No. of Students
Reported

N o . of Students
Responding

1

24

19

39

20

2

32

24

26

21

3

32

31

25

25

4

15

15

17

15

5

20

17

16

13

6

16

13

24

20

7

18

7

10

10

8

20

20

26

20

9

23

18

22

22

10

24

24

28

28

Total

224

188 = 84%

233

194 = 83%

Table 2.— Profile of Sample Schools.

Amount of Inservice
School
Number

Teaching Method

School Enrollment

Over
1430

Over Four
Hours

Five
Hours

Proj ect

Co-op

2 (20%)

8(80%)

4(40%)

6(60%)

7081429

365707

Community Type
Metro­
politan
Cities

Urban

Towns

Rural

1(10%)

1(10%)

1(10%)

1
2
3
4
5

6
7

8
9

10
7(70%) 1(10%) 2(20%) 7(70%)

56
Hypotheses to be Tested
There were six primary hypotheses to be tested.
The outcome was to answer the research question regarding
the effect of the materials on the student's ability to
exhibit identified behavior acceptable to job seeking.
get at this question,

To

it was necessary to look at the items

on the post-test and the behaviors requested on the p o s t ­
test.

It was also necessary to examine the relationship of

the items to each other.

The following hypotheses were

formed and tested using Finn's multivariate procedure.

The

alpha level was set at .05.
Question 1:

How will the post-test scores of the treat­
ment group compare with the post-test scores
of the control group in being able to give
positive statements about their ability to
do the job, get along with people, and e x ­
hibit dependability?

Hypothesis 1:

There is a significant difference between the
post-test scores of the students in the
classrooms which received instruction and
the post-test scores of the students in the
classroom which did not receive such instruc­
tion on the measure of how to give fact based
statements about their ability to do the job,
exhibit dependability, and to get along with
people.

The research measured the significance of the
difference which existed between the multivariates of the
students'

abilities to communicate they can do the job,

their abilities to exhibit dependability, and their abilities
to get along with others.
The correct filling out of an application blank was
mentioned in the review of literature as an important

57
job-seeking activity.

Hypothesis 2 was formulated and

tested to determine the effect the instructional materials
made in student's ability to successfully demonstrate this
activity.
Question 2:

How well will the treatment group be able
to complete the application blank as co m ­
pared to the control group?

Hypothesis 2:

There is a significant difference in the
post-test scores of the students in the
classrooms which received instruction and
the post-test scores of the students in
the classrooms which did not receive instruc­
tion on the measure of writing an appli­
cation blank.

Another job-seeking activity that was measured was
that of being able to write a cover letter.

Hypothesis 3

was formulated and tested to determine the effectiveness of
the materials to teach that job seeking activity.
Question 3:

How well will the treatment group be able
to write a cover letter as compared with
the control group?

Hypothesis 3:

There is a significant difference between
the scores of the post-tests of the students
in the classrooms which received instruction
and the scores of the post-tests of the
students in the classrooms which did not
receive instruction on the measure of writing
a cover letter.

Behavior of the job applicant during the interview
was viewed as critical in influencing the interviewer's
decision to hire or not hire.

Hypothesis 4 tested the

effectiveness of the materials in teaching interview
behavior.

58

Question 4:

How will the post-test scores of the treat­
ment group compare with those of the control
group on being able to list what to do and
not to do during the interview?

Hypothesis 4:

There is a significant difference between
the scores of the post-tests of the students
in the classrooms which received instruction
and the post-test scores of the students
in the classrooms which did not receive in­
struction on the measure of what to do and
not to do during the interview.

Hypothesis 5 measured the effectiveness of the
materials in teaching the students to write a resume.
Question 5:

How well will the students who received
instruction in writing a resume score on
the post-test as compared to those who did
not receive instruction?

Hypothesis 5:

There is a significant difference of scores
of the post-tests of students in the class­
rooms which received instruction and the
post-test scores of the students in the
classrooms which did not receive instruction
on the measure of writing a resume.

Hypothesis 6 was tested to determine the effective­
ness of the materials in teaching students to respond to the
interviewer's questions.
Question 6 :

How will the scores of the students who
received instruction in how to respond to
the i nterviewer's questions compare with
the scores of those students who did not
receive intruction?

Hypothesis 6

There is a significant difference between the
post-test scores of the students in the
classrooms which received instruction and the
post-test scores of the students in the
classrooms which did not receive instruc­
tion on the measure of how to respond to the
interviewer's questions.

Secondary questions were identified by two categories: The descriptive characteristics of the participant

59
schools and/or students and the method by which the students
were taught.

Therefore, the following secondary questions

may be answered from analysis of the data.
1.

What effect does the method by which students are
taught have in the achievement on the post-tests?

2.

What is the relationship between the descriptive
characteristics of the students and the school in
which they are enrolled and their scores on the
post-tests?
Instrumentation
The instruments involved in the study included the

post-test, class data sheet, and implementation checklist.
The instruments were used to gather information about
student achievement on employability skills and to give
demographic data about the students and the schools involved
in the sample.

The units of instruction tested in the

study were:
No. 3:

Shifting the Odds
Fact Sheet)

No. 4:

Win, Place,

No. 5:

Placing Your Bets

No. 6 :

Covering Your Bets

No. 8 :

Instant Money

Show

(Education and Work Experience
(The Resume)
(The Cover Letter)
(The Job Application Blank)

(The Interview)

The units of instruction were written at the Calhoun
Area Vocational Center in consultation with Carkhuff A ss o c i ­
ates as part of the Michigan State University Employability
Skills Project.

Each unit is composed of one module.

The

60
modules contain a sample of the product that the student
would be able to complete as an outcome of the skills
learned in the module.

Each unit then takes the student

through a step-by-step procedure in writing a product which
contains the information about the student.
The modules of instruction were selected by the
researcher from the complete set of materials developed in
the Michigan State University Employability Skills Project.
Support to this selection was given by the Placement
Advisory Committee at the Calhoun Area Vocational Center.
Support was also given by state directors of vocational
education from forty states.

The researcher made the choice

based on the appropriateness of the skill to the distributive
education program, the ease with which the instruction
could be facilitated in a like manner by all teachercoordinators,

and the measurability of the achievement of

the skill.
The researcher presented the study to be undertaken
at the placement advisory committee meeting in the Fall of
1976, at the Calhoun Area Vocational Center.

The committee

members showed support for the development of such materials
by completing a survey form

(Appendix D) which asked them

to check the skills needed in successful job seeking.
The forty state directors of vocational education
also completed the same survey form as they attended the
National Association of State Directors of Vocational
Education meeting at the American Vocational Association

61
Convention in Houston, Texas.

An overwhelming majority of

the responses indicated these skills were needed to become
employed, or to increase one's chances of becoming hired.
Members of the National Association of Distributive
Education Teachers were asked at the AVA Convention in
Houston, Texas, to complete a survey form

(Appendix E) which

lists job seeking skills and asks the respondent to check
whether the skill is important or not.

The eleven members

who completed the survey were teacher-coordinators and
teacher educators.

They agreed that the skills were impor­

tant.
Post-Test Construction
The post-test instrument was constructed by selecting
the products taught in the selected modules of content to be
tested.

The first post-test

(Appendix F) sought information

about the student and consisted of eight questions with the
test comprising thirteen parts.
The post-test was pilot tested at the Calhoun Area
Vocational Center involving a total of 37 students, who
were divided into two groups.

One group had received

instruction using the employability skills materials and
one group had not received instruction in the employability
skills materials.

The pilot test using the post-test

instrument revealed that because of the quantitative
measures, the students needed to be encouraged to write as
many answers as possible.

62

Following completion of the pilot by the students,
the data processing computer cards were punched.

Assistants

at the Office of Research Consultation assisted in writing a
computer program to check the internal consistency of the
post-test instrument.
Reliability Analysis
The measure of reliability used was Cronbach's
analysis of v a r i a n c e .1

It examines the common factor con­

centration for multivariate data and is another method of
expressing reliability based on a variation of the KuderRichardson test-retest method of determining reliability.
The Coefficient Alpha Reliability run revealed that
criteria needed to be tightened for the question on appli­
cation blank and the question on the cover letter.

The

scoring range of 0-1 was used for the application blank
while the cover letter was divided into sections for e valu­
ating.

Students were given points for numbers of sections

and the value received when accurately completed with the
range being 0-6 p o i n t s .
The questions were re-numbered.

Question 7D became

number 12 and was rewritten because of the students'

in­

ability to understand the word "deficits."
The pilot test found many students becoming di s ­
couraged because of the extensive amount of writing

1L. J. Cronbach, "Coefficient Alpha and the Inter­
nal Structure of Tests," Psychometrika 16 (September, 1951):

297.

63

required for the questions on application blanks, cover
letters, and resumes.

As a result, the questions on inter­

view behavior were interjected between the cover letter and
the r e s u m e .
The revised post-test

(Appendix A) that was used in

the study contained 13 questions.

The tests for the treat­

ment group were printed on green paper, while the tests for
the control group were printed on blue paper.

The two

colors were used to eliminate error when recording scores
on computer sheets.
The instrument for collecting the demographic data
was constructed by giving priority to the characteristics
which might suggest differences among learners using the
employability skills materials.
This instrument was checked for face validity by
asking the distributive education teachers who were attend­
ing the luncheon of the National Association of Distri­
butive Education Teachers meeting in Houston, Texas, to
complete the questionnaire.
were made in the instrument.
Data Sheet

As a result, modifications
From this activity, the Class

(Appendix C) was used to gather the demographic

information in the study.
The Implementation Checklist
developed by the researcher.

(Appendix G) was

The purpose was to allow the

teacher-coordinator to note any unusual occurrences during
the daily instruction which might have an effect on the
student achievement on the post-tests.

64

Data Collection
Teacher Inservice
The teacher-coordinators wh o had agreed to parti­
cipate in the study received a minimum of four hours of
inservice on the five units of instruction to be tested.
The teacher-coordinators were given enough of the modules
for each student that would be a member of the treatment
group.

Extra copies were given in the event the modules

became misplaced or became illegible.

Class Data Sheets

were given to the teacher-coordinators at the inservice
meeting.
The teacher-coordinators reviewed with the researcher
the content of each module as well as the product which
would be the successful outcome of completing the module.
The instructional modules to be used by the teachercoordinators in teaching the materials were written with
teaching guides for each page of the student materials.
The researcher met with five of the teachercoordinators at the Michigan Business Education Association
Conference at Grand Rapids.

The researcher made subsequent

trips to Detroit to meet with four teacher-coordinators,
and to Kalamazoo to meet with one teacher-coordinator.
Delivery of Instruction
Students were all working on the same modules at
the same time.

This allowed instructors to verbally guide

65
students through content and alleviated difficulties that
might arise w it h students who had reading disabilities.
Teacher-coordinators were further given written
instructions

(Appendix H) to maintain control among their

delivery systems.

The teacher-coordinators were asked to

complete daily implementation checklists in an effort to
determine any unusual occurrences during the treatment
period.
Each of the five modules were taught within one
class period.

Teacher-coordinators were asked to keep the

instruction as close to one hour per day as the school
schedule would allow.
The sequence of the modules to be taught was given
the teacher-coordinators.

They were asked to begin the

instruction on a Wednesday and complete instruction on the
last module on a Tuesday.

This was to be followed by a

post-test on Wednesday.
All of the teacher coordinators in the sample had
their materials and had been inserviced by May 5, 197 7.
They were allowed to select the ten day period during which
they would administer the materials.
The teacher-coordinators were asked to deliver the
materials to the students using the group instruction
method.

This would allow students to hear class discussion

relating to the materials on which they were working.
would also assist students who might have difficulty
reading the modules.

It

66
No additional media or audio-visual materials were
used to assist with the instruction.

The teacher-coordinators

were asked to use only the modules of instruction and to
document their instruction on the daily implementation
sheets.
Administration of Post-Tests
The post-test was to be administered the day of
class following completion of Module 8 .

Students were

given one hour in which to complete the tests.

Students

were not allowed to use any instructional materials during
the post-testing process.
Rating Post-Test Employability
Skills Survey
Rater S el e c t i o n :

The individuals selected as

raters were members of the Calhoun Area Vocational Center,
Area-Wide Distributive Education Teacher-Coordinator/
Instructional Staff.

None of the raters were involved in

teaching the materials as part of the study.

However, all

of the raters had received training in the implementation
of the employability skills materials as part of the
M ic hi ga n State University Employability Skills Project.
Each rater was asked to participate in the evaluation of
the post-tests.

It was determined, with the assistance

of staff at Michigan State University's Office of Research
Consultation, that at least nine raters were needed to
evaluate the post-test because of the need for averaging

67

their ratings.

The raters were divided into teams of

three, with three raters on each team.
assigned a group of questions.
rated three times.

Each team was

Each question was to be

The raters were selected on the basis

of their familiarity with the employability skills materials
as ascertained by the researcher, and their willingness to
participate in the inservice and evaluation procedures.
Rater Inservice;

Each rater received one hour of

inservice in criteria and evaluation of their assigned
questions.
forms.

Raters were presented sample completed survey

Raters evaluated questions and compared final

results with the researcher.
practice surveys.

Raters were then given five

Scores were compared with the research­

ers' desired evaluation.
Rating Pr oc e d u r e s :

The nine raters were divided

into three teams of three members each.

Each rater was

assigned a specific color of marking pen.
Team A evaluated questions 1, 2, 3, and 4.
evaluated questions 5, 6 , 7, and 8 .

Team B

Team C evaluated

questions 9, 10, 11, 12, and 13.
A scoring sheet was developed for each team
(Appendix I ) .

The sheet contained the names of students in

a left-hand column.

Sub-columns for each question were

within larger columns for each rater on the team.

The first

rater to use the scoring sheet began recording the evalua­
tions on the outer edge of the sheet.

When completed, the

rater turned back the portion of the grading sheet on which

68
the scores had been recorded.

This prevented the other

raters from viewing or being influenced by the previous
rater's evaluations.

The raters did not know if they were

evaluating post-tests from a control group or from a treat­
ment group.
The post-test surveys were grouped by school.

When

completed, each group of post-tests had a collection of
three sets of r a t e r s ' evaluations representing one set for
each team.
The raters were monitored by the researcher as to
the maintenance of criteria in the evaluation process.
Breaks were taken and refreshments provided to attempt to
lessen fatigue and rater error.
The nine raters all graded surveys from 9:30 a.m.
to 4:30 p.m.

Seven continued until 6:00 p.m.

Six raters

continued until 10:00 p.m.
Question C r i t e r i a :

The criteria

(Appendix O) was

established for the post-test based on the desired outcomes
of students.

The pilot test Coefficient Alpha Reliability

Run suggested that the criteria needed to be tightened for
the evaluation of the application blank and the evaluation
of the cover letter.
The criteria for the application blank was set at
rating the student at one point if all questions were c o m ­
pleted and a 0 point if there were uncompleted questions.
Questions that were not answered were recorded as no
response.

69
The criteria for the cover letter was set at a
maximum of 6 points.

The points were to be awarded for

specific kinds of information to be given in the cover
letter as outlined in the materials.
Rater R el ia bi li ty .

The Hoyt Crombach Coefficient

Alpha was used to examine the rater reliability.

The

examination focused on the manner in which the independent
raters worked with the two other raters on the same team.
The program was written with the assistance of staff at
Michigan State University.
that was above

Using this formula, any Alpha

.75 was considered acceptable.

Team A, which evaluated items 1, 2, 3, and 4,
received an average of .79.

Team B evaluated items 5, 6 , 7,

and 8 , and received an average of
9, 10, 11, 12, and 13.

.945.

Team C rated items

Team C received an average of .768.

The rater reliability showed that all teams were
responding consistently to the items being scored.

The

raters, likewise, demonstrated they were scoring items
within an acceptable range of each other.

That is, no

rater exhibited erratic scoring behavior nor were the scores
of each team a great distance apart from each other.
Processing of D a t a :

Following the completion of

the evaluation of the post-tests,
to computer key punching forms.
coded for each school.

the scores were transferred
The demographic data was

The post-test scores were presented

in team sequence with raters identified.

This allowed the

utilization of a "pooled mean" per item for each student.

70

The mean value of the three raters'
used as "pooled values."

Rummel states:

scores were

"In general,

pooled ratings increase the accuracy of any rating scale."

2

Analysis of Data
The hypotheses testing involved use of Finn's M u l t i ­
variance Procedure for those hypotheses that reflect m u l t i ­
ple dependent variables.
variables exist.
of variables.

This is appropriate when multiple

The exploration was then made of the set

The F tests that result reflect the group

differences on the set of variables.
is significant

If the multivariate

(p<.05), then data was further examined to

determine which of the dependent variables contributed.
The data was then finally examined to learn the extent to
which the groups were different on the dependent variables.
Thus, the multivariate tests were significant at the .05
level, while the univariate tests were explored at the
alpha level of .05 divided by the number of dependent
v ar ia bl es .
Supplementary analysis explored the means of the
classrooms to gain further understanding of the curriculum
influence.

Variations among being employed or unemployed,

sex, class, size of school, and community type were examined.

2

J. Francis Rummel, An Introduction to Research
Procedures in E d u c a t i o n , Second Edition (Mew York: Harper &
Row Publishers, 1958), p. 205.

CHAPTER IV
FINDINGS
Introduction
The data analysis and findings relevant to each
hypothesis are given.

In addition, descriptive data p e r ­

taining to the sample representing the population are
presented.

Answers to questions related to the study which

did not lend themselves to statistical analysis are also
provided.
analyis.

The classroom mean is the unit of measure for
The hypotheses are presented in the order in which

they appear in Chapter III.
In an effort to isolate the cause for any signifi­
cant difference in the classrooms where treatment occurred
as compared to the classrooms where no treatment was
administered, it was necessary to identify any interaction
between treatment and method.
A two way analysis was made to determine if an
interaction w i t h the method and the treatment existed.
Using a multivariate test it was found that there was no
"blocking e f f e c t . "

On the sub-sets of dependent variables

it was found not only that there was no interaction between

71

72

method and treatment, but also, there was no main effect
due to method.
Table 3 shows no p<.05, which is the alpha level
that was set for the interaction examination.

Similarly,

none of the multivariate for the method effect was signi­
ficant.

This gives support to use of a one way analysis

format for testing the hypotheses in the study.

Ad dition­

ally, the concern for decreasing power when using a two
way format further lends strength to the utilization of the
one way analysis.

The one way analysis questions the effect

of the materials in light of the treatment or control
g r o u p 1s ac hi ev em en t.
Relationship of Instruction and Achievement
on Specific Employability Skill Materials
Six hypotheses were tested.

Multivariate analysis

was used to examine number 1, 4, and 6 .

Univarate analysis

was used to examine number 2, 3, and 5.

The alpha level

was set at .05.
Hypothesis 1 was formulated to determine the effec­
tiveness of the instructional materials in teaching students
to write positive fact based statements about their ability
to do the job, be dependable, and get along with people.
Hq i :

There is no significant difference between the
post-test scores of the students in classrooms
which received instruction and post-test scores
of students in classrooms which did not receive
instruction on the measure of how to give fact
based statements about their ability to do the
job, exhibit dependability, and get along with
people.

73

Table 3.— Multivariate F Statistics to Determine Interaction
Between Method and Treatment.
Source of Variance
Fact Based Statements
Treatment
Method
Interaction

F-Ratio

P Less Than*

(1, 2, 3)
1.90
1.29
.07

.176
.316
.978

.12
.05
1.06

.732
.826
.318

15.45
1.41
1.05

.001
.252
.318

5. 66
.05
.36

.014
.948
.703

Resume (8 )
Treatment
Method
Interaction

8.09
1. 07
.26

.011
.316
.617

Responding to Interviewer
(9/ 10, 11, 12, 13)
Treatment
Method
Interaction

.17
1.11
.11

.969
.404
.987

Application Blank
Treatment
Method
Interaction

(4)

Cover Letter (V)
Treatment
Method
Interaction
Interview Do's and Don'ts
Treatment
Method
Interaction

(6 , 7)

*Alpha levels of less than .05 were considered
significant.

74

H ,:

There is a significant difference between the
post-test scores of the students in classrooms
which received instruction and post-test scores
of students in classrooms which did not receive
instruction on the measure of how to give fact
based statements about their ability to do the
job, exhibit dependability, and get along with
people.
The multivariate F-ratio was 2.11 with a probability

of less than .14.

Since the probability was not less than

.05, the null hypothesis failed to be rejected.

It can

thus be stated that the employability skills materials had
no effect on the students' abilities to give positive factbased statements about their being able to do the job, get
along with people, or to be dependable.
Table 4 shows the observed classroom means for the
treatment group and the control group on Items 1, 2, and 3.
Table 4.— Observed Classroom Means of Treatment and Control
Groups on Items 1, 2, and 3: Fact Based State­
ments .
Item 1

Item 3

Item 2

Source of Variance
X

S.D.

X

S.D.

X

S.D.

Treatment Group

2.09

.74

2.34

.53

1.70

.41

Control Group

1.33

.54

1.93

.44

1.50

.34

The second hypothesis examined the effectiveness of
the materials in teaching students to complete an applica­
tion blank.

75

H_2 :

There is no significant difference between the
post-test scores of the students in classrooms
which received instruction and the post-test
scores of those students in classrooms which did
not receive instruction on the measure of writing
an application blank.

H 2:

There is a significant difference in the p o s t ­
test scores of the students in classrooms which
received instruction and the post-test scores of
the students in classrooms which did not receive
instruction on the measure of writing an appli­
cation blank.

The examination of the single variable

(F = .1278),

revealed the p was at .724, and not less than .05, there­
fore, the null hypothesis failed to be rejected.

The

instructional materials had no effect in teaching students
to complete an application blank.
Table 5 reports the means achieved by students in
the classrooms in the study and standard deviations for the
treatment group and control group for Item 4 (writing an
application b l a n k ) .
Table 5.— Observed Classroom Means and Standard Deviations
on Treatment Group and Control Group for Item 4:
Writing an Application Blank.
Item 4: Writing an Application Blank
Source of Variance
X

S .D.

Treatment Group

.85

.11

Control Group

.88

.16

76
Hypothesis 3 was tested to determine the effective­
ness of the materials in teaching students to write a cover
letter.
There is no significant difference between the
scores of the post-tests of the students in
classrooms which received instruction and the
post-test scores of the students in classrooms
which did not receive instruction on the measure
of writing a cover letter.
H

There is a significant difference between the
scores of the post-tests of the students in
classrooms which received instruction and the
post-test scores of the students in classrooms
which did not receive instruction on the measure
of writing a cover letter.
Statistically significant differences were found

between the two groups of classrooms on their ability to
write a cover letter

(F = 15.07, p < .001).

null hypothesis was rejected.

Therefore,

the

The mean score of the class­

rooms of the students which received instruction was 2.64
while the mean score of the students in classrooms which
did not receive instruction was 1.37.

This data indicates

that the classrooms which received instruction scored signi­
ficantly higher on the measure of writing a cover letter
than the classrooms where instruction was not received.
It could then be said that those students who receive
instruction are better able to write a cover letter to an
employer.
Table 6 reports mean scores of the treatment group
and control group on Item 5 (writing a cover l e tt e r) .

The

range of scores for the treatment group was 1.4 to 4.2.
The range of scores for the control group was

.06 to 2.7.

77

Table 6 .— Observed Classroom Means of the Treatment Group
and Control Group on Item 5: Writing a Cover
Letter.

Source of Variance

Item 5: Writing a Cover Letter
---------------------------------X

S.D.

Treatment Group

2.64

.84

Control Group

1.37

.61

The ability of the students to identify accepted
behavior during the interview was examined in Hypothesis 4.
H q ^:

There is no significant difference between the
scores of the post-tests of the students in
classrooms which received instruction and the
post-test scores of the students in classrooms
which did not receive instruction on the measure
of what to do and not do during the interview.

H ^:

There is a significant difference between the
scores of the post-tests of the students in
classrooms which received instruction and the
post-test scores of the students in classrooms
which did not receive instruction on the measure
of what to do and not do during the interview.

Statistically significant difference between the
two groups was found on their knowledge of what to do and
not do during the interview

(F = 2.64, p < .009).

This was

less than the alpha level of .05, which had been set.
Therefore, the null hypothesis was rejected.
The single variables were examined at the .025
level of significance to determine the interview behavior
where the two groups differ.

The .025 alpha level was

determined by dividing the established .05 alpha level

78
evenly between the two items comprising the interview
behavior.
The univariate F's indicated there was no effect on
the interview do's, but there was a significant difference
on interview don'ts

(F = 8.77, p < .008). The univariate

tests are presented in

Table 7.

Table 7.— Univariate F
on the Tests

Statistics for the Treatment
of Interview Behavior.

Item

Source of Effect

F-Ratio

Effect

P Less Than

6

Interview Do's

1.41

.250

7

Interview Don'ts

8.77

.008

The mean scores on interview don'ts of the c lass­
rooms which received instruction was 4.75, while the o b ­
served cell mean of the classrooms not receiving instruction
was 3.81.

This indicates the students in those classrooms

w hich receive instruction are able to list .94 more things
not to do during the interview.

The observed classroom

means are presented in Table 8 for both interview do's and
d o n 't s .
Hypothesis 5 investigates the effectiveness of the
materials in teaching students to write a resume.

79
Table 8 .— Observed Classroom Means by Group on Interview
Do's and Interview D o n ' t s .
Classroom

Classroom

Source of Effect
X

S.D.

Interview Do's
Treatment Classrooms

4.77

.87

Control Classrooms

4.34

.76

Treatment Classrooms

4.75

.82

Control Classrooms

3. 81

.60

Interview Dont's

H-c:

There is no significant difference between the
scores on the post-tests of the students who
received instruction and the post-test scores
of the students who did not receive instruction
on the measure of writing a resume.

H 5:

There is a significant difference between the
scores on the post-tests of the students who
received instruction and the post-test scores of
the students who did not receive instruction on
the measure of writing a resume.

The single variable analysis resulted in an F-ratio
of 8.40 with a probability of .0096, which was less than
the alpha level that had been set
the null hypothesis was rejected.

(p < .05).

Therefore,

The observed cell means

of the students in classrooms which received the instruction
was 1 2 .2 , while the mean scores of the students in class­
rooms which did not receive instruction was 7.78. The
difference was 4.44, showing that the classroom which
received instruction was able to achieve that amount of

80

points more than the classroom where instruction did not
occur.
18.8.

The range of scores in all classrooms was 2.7 to
Table 9 reports the observed classroom means for the

group which received instruction and the group not receiving
instruction on the measure of writing a resume.
Table 9.— Mean Scores of Treatment Group and Control Group
on Item 8 : Writing a Resume.
Item 8 : Writing a Resume
Source of Variance
X
Treatment Group
Control Group

S.D.

12.22

3.88

7.78

2.90

Hypothesis 6 was tested to determine the effective­
ness of the materials in teaching students to respond to
the interviewer's questions.
H nfi:

There is no significant difference between the
post-test scores of the students in classrooms
which received instruction and the post-test
scores of the students in the classrooms which
did not receive instruction on the measure of
how to respond to the interviewer's questions.

H

There is a significant difference between the
post-test scores of the students in classrooms
which received instruction and the post-test
scores of the students in classrooms which did
not receive instruction on the measure of how to
respond to the interviewer's questions.
Analysis resulted in a multivariate F of .18 with

a probability of less than

.95.

hypothesis failed to be rejected.

Therefore, the null
There appeared to be no

statistically significant difference between the classrooms

81

which received instruction on the set of variables
addressing the measure of responding to the interviewer's
questions.

Table 10 reports the observed classroom means

of the treatment and control group on this set of variables.
Table 10.— Observed Classroom Means and Standard Deviations of the
Treatment Group and Control Group on Items 9, 10, 11, 12,
and 13: Responding to Interviewer's Questions.

Item 9

Source of
Variance

X

S.D.

Item 10
X

S.D.

Item 11
X

S.D.

Item 13

Item 12
X

S.D.

X

S.D.

Treatment Group

.84

.23

.43

.23

.51

.30

.65

.07

.48

.24

Control Group

.82

.29

.38

.23

.41

.34

.62

.19

.41

.27

Other Factors Affecting Student Achievement
The secondary questions were:
Question A:

What effect does the method by which
students are taught have in the achievement
on the post-tests?

As mentioned earlier it was necessary to examine
this question to determine if a "blocking effect" was being
caused by an interaction between the method and treatment.
As shown in Table 3, none of the multivariate tests for the
method effect were significant.

Thus, it supports the

determination that there is no significant difference
between the two methods of instruction on achievement at
post-test.

82

Question B:

What is the relationship between descrip­
tive characteristics of the students as
well as the school in which they are
enrolled and their scores on the post-test?

The data presented show the effect of the indepen­
dent variables of employment, sex, grade in school,
school and community type.

size of

Sub-questions are presented to

examine the independent variables.
Unlike the preceding tests addressing the hypothe­
ses, the univariate tests are computed using individual
scores as the unit of analysis since the questions address
individual characteristics.

Results should be reviewed with

caution in light of the violation of assumption of indepen­
dence between subjects:
Question Bl:

Does being employed or unemployed affect
the student's achievement on each of the
post-test items?

Table 11 shows the means of the employed students
and unemployed students and the standard deviations for
each.

The employed students' mean scores were higher than

the unemployed students on all but two items.

The unemployed

students' mean scores were higher on listing interview
don'ts and on identifying weak areas that need improvement.
Question B 2 :

Is there a noticeable difference between
the scores on the post-test of the
students between the males and females?

Table 12 shows the means of scores in relationship
to sex.

Females scored higher than males on every item.

Table 13 reports the range of scores on items where differ­
ences was noted.

83
Table 11.— Comparison of Mean Scores of Employed Students and Un­
employed Students.

Unemployed

Employed
Item No.
X

1
2 Fact Based Stafcments
3
4- -Application Blank
5- -Cover Leter
6 Interview Do's
7 and D o n ’ts
8- -Resume
9
10
11 Responding to
12 Interviewer
13

S.D.

1.87
2 .85
1.66
.91
2.17
4.68
4.32
11.41
.88
.44
.46
.61
.49

1.61
1.06
1.07
.23
1.57
1.85
1.68
5.71
.69
.60
.50
.44
.61

X

1.65
2.12
1.62
.82
2.14
4.65
4.43
10.05
.79
.39
.41
.64
.40

S.D.

1.27
1.10
.99
.29
1.39
2.04
2.22
5.69
.58
.45
.43
.42
.51

Table 12.— Comparison of Mean Scores of Male and Female Students.

Female

Male
Item No.
X

1
2 Fact Based Statements
3
4- -Application Blank
5--Cover Letter
6 Interview Do's
7 and Don'ts
8- -Re s\ime
9
10
11 Responding to
12 Interviewer
13

1.54
2.14
1.46
.86
2.00
4.32
4.18
9.54
.80
.38
.34
.54
.42

S.D.

1.23
1.07
.84
.28
1.49
1.74
1.90
5.50
.67
.50
.37
.41
.55

X

1.91
2.23
1.75
.88
2.25
4.87
4.47
11.62
.87
.45
.50
.67
.48

S.D.

1.60
1.08
1.12
.25
1.50
2.00
1.93
5.74
.63
.57
.51
.44
.59

84

Question B 3 :

Are the materials more effective with
students at the junior class level, the
senior class level, or is there any
difference?

A descriptive approach was chosen to explore the
means of the junior and senior students.
are reported in Table 13.

These mean scores

The difference between the

junior's and the senior's total mean score was

.10.

The

mean for both the juniors and seniors on the measure of
listing interview do's was equal.

The juniors achieved a

slightly higher mean score on seven items while the seniors
achieved a slightly higher mean score on five of the items.
Table 13.— Comparison of Mean Scores of Junior and Senior Students.

Item No.

1
2 Fact Based Statements
3
4- -Application Blank
5- -Cover Letter
6 Interview Do's
7 and D o n ’ts
8- -Resume
9
10
11 Responding to
12 Interviewer
13

Junior
— ----------X
S.D.

1.83
2.22
1.69
.84
2.12
4.66
4.33
11.52
.78
.45
.47
.65
.40

1.62
1.10
1.12
.30
1.31
2.00
2.08
5.96
.65
.57
.47
.42
.50

Senior
— ----------X
S.D.

1.73
2.17
1.61
.90
2.20
4.66
4.39
10.37
.89
.40
.42
.60
.50

1.36
1.06
.97
.22
1.65
1.86
1.78
5.48
.63
.52
.47
.45
.63

85
Question B4:

Is there any relationship between the
size of school and the achievement of
the students in the classrooms of the
schools?

The school with an enrollment of 7 08-1429 students
showed the highest mean score on eight of the thirteen
items on the post-test.

Schools with enrollment of 365-707

pupils had the highest mean on the resume and responding to
the interviewer's questions.

The observed mean scores in

Table 14 should be reviewed with caution since there was
only one school with an enrollment of 708-1429 pupils.
Schools participating in the study included 7 with
an enrollment of over 1430 pupils;
708-1429 pupils;

1 with enrollment of

and 2 with pupil enrollment of 356-707.

Table 14.— Comparison of Mean Scores by Size of School.

Over 143 0 Pupils

7 08-1429 Pupils

365-7 07 Pupils

Item No.
X

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13

1.81
2.13
1.68
.91
2.09
4.58
4.25
10.25
.83
.46
.45
.61
.42

S.D.

1.54
1.03
1.00
.23
1.50
1.92
1.87
5.65
.65
.57
.50
.44
.60

X

2.12
2.72
1.77
.94
2.77
5.60
4.88
11.59
.97
.39
.39
.62
.36

S.D.

1.34
1.12
.88
.17
1.56
1.96
1.78
5.34
.71
.50
.36
.45
.47

X

1.34
2.04
1.41
.63
1.91
4.25
4.39
12.33
.76
.28
.47
.69
.65

S.D.

1.24
1.09
1.25
.32
1.34
1.67
2.18
6.10
.54
.42
.41
.37
.47

86

Question B5:

Is there a relationship between the type
of community in which the school is
located and the scores of the students in
the classrooms within that community?

The classroom in the urban community achieved the
highest mean on 7 of the 13 items.

Classrooms in the town

community had the highest mean on 4 of the 13 items and the
rural classroom had the highest mean scores on 2 items.
Metropolitan core cities did not have the highest mean
score on any item; however, they had the second highest mean
on 4 items.

Participating in the study were 7 metropolitan

core cities:
Since

1 urban,

only one

1 town, and 1 rural community types.

school was located in an urban area, the

results of this comparison should be reviewed with caution.
Table 15 reports the means and standard deviations
by community type.
Table 15.— Comparison of Mean Scores by Community Type.

Item
Ho.

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13

Metropolitan
Core City
_
X
S.D.

1.75
2.14
1.67
.92
2.30
4.65
4.25
10.78
.88
.44
.45
.62
.41

1.48
1.02
.92
.23
1.53
1.96
1.80
5.73
.67
.55
.50
.44
.57

Urban
X

S.D.

2.61
2.81
1.88
.94
1.80
5.45
5.04
8.95
.71
.53
.30
.53
.48

1.47
1.26
1.33
.15
1.51
1.87
2.13
4.51
.62
.60
.31
.46
.69

Rural

Town
X

1.49
1.70
1.08
.69
2.33
4.15
4.17
15.04
.90
.11
.37
.68
.79

S.D.

1.09
.74
.74
.31
1.63
1.65
1.39
5.65
.50
.24
.29
.37
.53

X

1.21
2.33
1.69
.59
1.50
4.34
4.58
10.01
.63
.44
.57
.69
.51

S .D.

1.37
1.27
1.53
.31
.82
1.70
2.69
5.56
.56
.48
.48
.38
..35

87

Descriptive Information About Participants
Included in this section is information about the
participants and the implementation.

The complexity of the

study encourages the awareness of the many factors which
might have been present.

In an attempt to treat the employ­

ability skills materials that were assessed by the study
with all fairness,

this information is presented in Table 16

through 19.
In summary, these tables report the following:
1.

Response by item on the post-test varied from
225 (59%) to 379 (99.2%) of the 382 participants
in the study.
The greatest number of respondents
was on Item 4, the application blank, and the least
number of respondents was on Item 5, the cover
l et te r.

2.

In the two schools where the teacher-coordinator
received over four hours of inservice, the mean
scores of the control groups were higher than at
least one other treatment group on twelve of
thirteen items.

3.

The schools achieving the highest mean scores over
all groups were as follows: School 9 had the highest
mean 5 times; School 1 had the highest mean 4
items; School 2 had the highest mean 2 times; and
schools 5 and 8 each attained the highest mean
once.

4.

Unusual occurrences were reported by the imple­
menting teacher-coordinators 14 times with at least
one occurrence on each of the five m o d u l e s . Module
4 had 5 occurrences; Module 5 had 3 occurrences;
and the remaining 3 modules each had 2 occurrences.
Two teacher coordinators received more than four

hours of instruction.

The control groups in those schools

repeatedly scored higher than the treatment groups of
other schools.

Table 18 shows the number of school

treatment groups over which these two control groups scored.

88

Table 16.— Report of Response by Item.

Item No.

1
2
3
4—
5—
6
7
8—
9
10
11
12
13

N*

Fact Based Statements
Application Blank
Cover Leter
Interview Do's
and Don'ts
Resume

Responding to
Interviewer

% Respondents

371
366
352
379
225
358
354
294
339
346
342
303
288

% Non-Respondents

2.9
4.2
7.9
.8
41.1
6.3
7.3
23.0
11.3
9.4
10.5
21.7
24.6

97.1
95.8
92.1
99.2
58.9
93.7
92.7
77.0
88.7
90.6
89.5
78.3
75.4

*Total N = 283

Table 17.— Summary of Mean Scores by Schools Where Teacher-Coordinator
Received More Than Four Hours of Inservice.

Number of Schools Whose Treatment Group Scored
Lower Than Control Group

Control Group
School
No.

Item
1

6
7

1

2

3

3

2

4

5

-

-

6

4

7

1

8

4

9

1
-

10

11

12

6*

5

2

1

-

2'

13

*Mean score of control group was higher than mean score of
treatment group at same school.
-Mean scores of control group and treatment group were equal.

Table 18.--Comparison by Schools of Means of Treatment and Control Groups on employment Variables.

1
1
1

Group

*1

*2

*3

1

t
c

2.6842
1.7037

2.5185
2.1667

1.7593
1.9444

2

t
c

1.7246
1 .0 0 0 0

2.2319
1.4500

3

t
c

2.5161
.9600

4

t
c

5

o
M

:hool

*11

*12

*13

.666?
.8485

1.0702
1.3333

.7018
1.0278

.6190
.8058

1.1364
.6296

.7576
.1852

.7576
.4815

.6167
.7778

.9804
.1176

9.3951
5.8889

.6444
.7778

.4111
.2500

.3333
.2464

.6437
.4697

.4023
.2917

4.5111
3.8095

18.7556
8.8519

.7778
1.0238

.0714
.1429

.3111
.4286

.6667
.6944

.7619
.8333

4.6667
5.2500

4.1333
4.3077

8.0000
5.8519

.6000
.7692

.2667
.4615

.3000
.2564

.3333
.6333

.2963
.2667

2.0667
1.3509

4.3846
4.3167

5.7949
3.8000

10.7778
9.9491

.6667
.6167

.2424
.5500

.9394
.3509

.9667
.5294

.5238
.5000

1.4444
.8333

4.2381
3.1000

4.2857
2.8000

6.6000
5.9167

.8889
.2963

.2222
.1000

.3889
.1000

.6667
.6667

.3333
.0476

3.1404
2.6950

3.9500
4.1500

3.4500
3.7018

15.0667
7.7917

.8667
.9630

.4833
.5088

.2833
.2105

.4561
.4872

.3509
.2444

.9630
.9242

2.5000
1.4706

6.5741
4.5455

5.8889
4.3485

9.6190
8.4833

.6410
.7500

.6667
.4333

.2619
.3333

.7576
.3750

.2778
.5556

.9306
.9524

4.2381
1.8841

5.4348
5.7381

5.1449
4.6548

14.2754
9.2963

.8833
1.0357

.4848
.3214

.4603
.3333

.6825
.5733

.2807
.4231

*5

*6

*7

*8

*9

,9474
.8889

2.6923
1.5882

3.8333
3.4762

3.9630
2.8889

15.4259
13.3725

1.2807
1.3333

1.9710
1.4630

.8333
.9524

1.9167
1 .0 0 0 0

5.4848
4.4902

5.4242
3.8431

14.2821
2.6667

2,1290
1.9733

1.7527
1.1739

.9785
.8533

1.9524
1.4615

5.0860
4.1212

4.9032
3.9091

1.9111
1.0667

1.8222
1.5714

.9556
1.2308

.6222
.7556

3.1778
.7500

4.0889
4.2143

t
c

.7556
.7949

1.9556
1.5278

1.5238
1.6923

.7292
.9487

3.3333
.6667

6

t
c

1.7436
.8667

2.7692
2.0500

1.9167
1.5500

.7436
.4833

7

t
c

1.8333
.9000

1.6000
1.4000

1.1333
.8519

.9048
1 .0 0 0 0

t
c

2.1404
1.9667

2.2667
2.0500

1.8421
1.8167

1 .0 0 0 0

3

t
c

3.5926
1.7619

3.3958
2.3651

2.3519
1.4386

10

t
c

2.1154
2.2500

2.7063
2.7262

1.7101
1.8272

8

*4

.8833

90
When the mean scores of the treatment and control
groups of the two schools where more inservice was received
were compared to the mean scores of each group utilized in
hypothesis testing, the schools were not consistently higher.
Table 19.— Occurrences in the School Day Which May Have
Affected the Student Achievement.
Unusual Occurrence and
Frequency of Schools
Reporting

Module Affected
3

Assembly, Classes
Shortened Five
Minutes (2)
Classroom Temperature
of 90° F (4)
Fire Drill

*

*

*

*

*

6

8

*

*

*

*

*

Class Pictures Received

Senior Skip Day

5

*

(1)

Senior Breakfast

4

(1)
(2)

*

*

*

Summary
Chapter IV presented the findings of the study.
Each research hypothesis was presented.

The statistical

procedure used to test each hypothesis was introduced along
with results of each analysis.

Hypotheses were either

accepted or rejected according to the data realized from
the s t u d y .
The findings may be summarized as follows:

91

1.

There was no interaction between method and treat­
ment.
There was no main effect due to method.

2.

Statistically significant difference was found
between the post-test scores of the students in
classrooms which received instruction in employ­
ability skills and the post-test scores of the
students in classrooms wh ich did not receive
instruction on the measures of:

3.

a.

writing a cover letter

b.

being able to list what to do or not to do
during an interview

c.

writing a resume

The difference between the post-test scores of the
students in classrooms which received instruction
in employability-skills and the post-test scores
of
students in classrooms which did not receive
instruction in employability skills was not statis­
tically significant on the measures of:
a.

being able to give positive facts about one's
ability to do the job, exhibit dependability
and get along with people

b.

completing an application blank

c.

responding to the interviewer

Following presentation of the results of the hypothe­
ses testing, questions pertinent to the study were answered.
A summary of the descriptive data reveals:
1.

The employed students' mean scores were higher than
the unemployed students on all eleven of thirteen
items.

2.

Females scored higher on every item on the pos t­
test.

3.

The junior students achieved a higher mean score
more often than the senior students.
The mean
differences between the classrooms on all items
was .10.
The juniors achieved a higher mean score
on seven items, while the seniors achieved a higher
mean score on five of the thirteen items.

92
4.

One school with an enrollment of 708-142 9 students
had the highest mean score on five items.
This was
followed in order by schools with 365-7 07 pupils
and lastly schools with over 143 0 pupils.

5.

The one school in an urban community achieved the
highest mean on seven of the thirteen items.
This
was followed in order by schools in t o w n s , m etro­
politan core cities, and finally rural type com­
munities .

6.

The rate of completion by item varied from 5 9 per­
cent to 99.2 percent.

7.

The control groups of the two schools where the
teacher-coordinators received more than four hours
of inservice achieved higher mean scores than the
treatment groups of other schools on twelve of
thirteen items.

8.

The rank order of schools receiving the highest mean
score most often was: School 9, School 1, School 2,
and Schools 5 and 8 .

9.

Unusual occurrences were reported 14 times during
implementation with five of them occurring during
Module 4.
The occurrence reported most often was
that of classroom temperature of 90° F which was
reported by four schools.
The occurrences included:
a.

shortened classes because of student assemblies

b.

classroom temperature of 9 0° F

c.

fire drill

d.

class pictures being received

e.

senior breakfast

f.

senior skip day

Credit for successful achievement by students
should be given to the teacher-coordinators who
were able to maintain continuous instruction.

CHAPTER V
SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Introduction
The purpose of this chapter is to review the nature
and implementation of the study, present a recapitulation
of the results and findings, draw conclusions, and make
recommendations based on the study.
In recent years many school systems have begun
placement activities for students.

Distributive education

programs have long been involved in placing students in a
work experience related to their career goal as part of
the secondary instructional activity.

Thus, teaching

students how to secure a job is not new to the educational
system.
The Problem
The problem of this study centered around the fact
that instructional materials are being developed to teach
students how to secure the jobs, but nothing has been done
to measure the effectiveness of the materials.

If, in

fact, the rate of unemployment continues, teacher-coordinators
will be seeking effective instructional materials to teach

93

94
employability skills.

The need for these materials was

recognized by the Michigan Department of Education when they
issued a request for purposal citing the development of such
materials as one of the objectives of the study.
There have been many kinds of materials developed
and used in classrooms across the nation.

Educational

publishers have available for purchase a variety of kinds
of programs to assist with teaching job-getting skills.

No

studies were found, however, which determined that the
materials are effective.

Therefore, this study was designed

to measure the effectiveness of selected employability
skills materials with students in distributive education
classrooms.
The Purpose
The purpose of the study was to determine the value
of including employability skills modules in the distri­
butive education curriculum.

The variables of sex, employ­

ment, class, school size and community type were explored
to determine their effects on achievement by students.
Two secondary questions were posed; one measured the effect
of method by which students were taught on student achieve­
ment, and the other sought the descriptive characteristics
related to student achievement.
Completion of these goals would assist teachercoordinators in assessing their classrooms and utilizing
the proper materials in teaching employability skills.
would further assist in identifying where strengths and

It

95
weaknesses existed in the materials, allowing for accurate
revisions.
Delimitations of the Study
1.

The study was delimited to administration of the
employability skills modules developed from Get A
J o b .1
Limitations of the Study
This study was completed with the following limita­

tions :
1.

Students may already have received employability
seeking skills as part of their curriculum in their
other classes.

2.

Students who were enrolled in their respective
distributive education programs were included.
Thus, those students may have had particular
characteristics such as maintaining a certain grade
point average which might be reflective of enroll­
ment procedures.

3.

Students who received instruction other than in
groups were not included in the study.

4.

Students were removed from participation in the
study if they were involved in senior and commence­
ment activities and not available.

5.

Schools volunteered to participate and were
located in the standard metropolitan areas.

6.

Students volunteered to participate.
1Carkhuff,

ojd. c i t .

96
Related Research
There is little research that is directly related
to the study.

There are some materials available for use

in teaching students employability skills.
Closely associated to the topic was information
regarding the historical perspective of how employability
skills have been taught in the past, contemporary programs,
employer perceptions of what employability skills are most
effective in job-seeking, curriculum implications and
studies which were related to this study.

The research in

these areas was reviewed and summarized.
The review of literature determined that employers
desire job candidates who are able to communicate.

Em­

ployers seek employees who have job goals, can complete an
application blank, exhibit initiative, reliability, and a
good attitude during the interview.

The interview was

cited as a most important part of the hiring process.
Population and Sample
The population was composed of all distributive
education classrooms in the ten Standard Metropolitan
Areas.

The type of programs being taught within that popula­

tion was determined by the researcher.

The cooperative

method of instruction comprised 160 classrooms, while the
project method of instruction comprised 22 classrooms.

The

sample was composed of 2 0 classrooms selected from that
population and comprising 382 distributive education students.

97

The participants were those teacher-coordinators and
students who agreed to use the employability skills materials
in their classrooms under certain conditions.

The partici­

pants were post tested with the treatment group having been
given instruction using the employability skills modules.
Hypotheses
Six questions emerged from the initial concern for
determining the effectiveness of the materials.

It was

necessary to look at the kinds of activities being requested
of the students and form six hypotheses which could be
tested to determine if the materials made a difference in
the achievement of the students.
Question 1:

How will the post-test scores of the treat­
ment group compare with the post-test scores
of the control group in being able to give
positive statements about their ability to do
the job, get along with people, and exhibit
dependability?

Hypothesis 1:

There is a significant difference between the
post-test scores of the students in class­
rooms which received instruction on how to
give fact based statements about their abi­
lity to do the job, exhibit dependability and
to get along with people, and the post-test
scores of the students in classrooms which
did not receive such instruction.

Question 2:

How well will the treatment group be able to
complete the application blank as compared
to the control group?

Hypothesis 2:

There is a significant difference in the
post-test scores of the students in class­
rooms which received instruction in writing
an application blank and the post-test scores
of the students in classrooms which did not
receive instruction in writing an application
blank.

98
Question 3:

How well will the treatment group be able to
write a cover letter as compared with the
control group?

Hypothesis 3 :

There is a significant difference between the
scores of the post-tests of the students in
classrooms which received instruction on
writing a cover letter and the scores of the
post-tests of the students in classrooms
which did not receive instruction on writing
a cover letter.

Question 4:

How will the post-test scores of the t reat­
ment group compare with those of the control
group on being able to list what to do and
not to do during the interview?

Hypothesis 4 :

There is a significant difference between
the scores of the post-tests of the students
in classrooms which received instruction in
what to do and not do during the interview
and the post-test scores of the students in
classrooms which did not receive instruction.

Question 5:

How well will the students who received
instruction in writing a resume score on the
post-test as compared to those who did not
receive instruction?

Hypothesis 5 :

There is a significant difference of scores
on the post-tests of students in classrooms
w hich received instruction in writing a
resume and the post-test scores of the
students in classrooms which did not receive
instruction in writing a resume.

Question 6 :

How will the scores of the students who
received instruction in how to respond to
the interviewer's questions compare with
the scores of those students who did not
receive instruction?

Hypothesis 6

There is a significant difference between the
post-test scores of the students in class­
rooms which received instruction in how to
respond to the interviewer's questions and
the post-test scores of the students in
classrooms wh ich did not receive instruction
in how to respond to the i n t e r v ie we r's
q ue st i o n s .

The secondary questions of the study w e r e :

99
Question A:

What effect does the method by which students
are taught have in the achievement on the
post-test?

Question B:

What is the relationship between descriptive
characteristics of the students as well as
the school in which they are enrolled and
their scores on the post-test?

Descriptive data were examined to answer these
questions. Further
each item, the

exploration examined the response to

mean scores of classrooms where the teacher-

coordinator received more than four hours of inservice, the
mean scores by schools and unusual occurrences while the
instructional materials were administered.
Data Collection Instruments
Three instruments were designed, tested, and u tili­
zed by the researcher:

the post-test,

implementation checklist

class data sheet, and

(see Appendices A, C, and G ) .

The post-test was developed by the researcher and
pilot tested at the Calhoun Area Vocational Center with a
group of students who had been instructed using the employ­
ability skills materials and a group who had not received
instruction.

C r o n b a c h 's analysis of variance was used to

test the reliability of the instrument.

This resulted in

revising the instrument which was then used in the study.
The class data sheet was used to collect demographic
data about the students involved in the study.

The d e m o ­

graphic data assisted in determining differences among
learners to enable the determination of a control group and
a treatment group for each school.

100
The class data sheet was checked for face validity
by having other distributive education teacher-coordinators
complete the questionnaire.

Modifications were made which

resulted in retrieving information from the instructors
regarding the grade level of students taught.
The implementation checklist was developed by the
researcher.

The purpose was to allow the teacher-coordinator

to note unusual occurrences during daily implementation of
the employability skills materials.
Analysis of the Data
It was not possible to separate the effects of a
single module of instruction.

Because a group of instruc­

tional materials was administered and the students were
tested,

it was inappropriate to test the effectiveness of

individual modules.

Thus,

the hypotheses tests were seeking

determination of the effectiveness on the measure of the
dependent variables.
Finn's multivariate procedure of analysis was the
statistical method used to test the hypotheses.

The unit

of measure was the classroom mean which was the average
score of all students in each classroom.

The alpha level

was set at .05 for the multivariate.
Measures of central tendency, including means and
standard deviations, were used to further compare class­
room achievement.

These statistics were compared when

reviewing the characteristics of the sample.

101
Findings and Discussion
The findings of the study are based primarily on
the acceptance or rejection of the previously stated hypothe­
ses.

In the discussion following each question, the r e­

searcher has attempted to express insights which are not
necessarily apparent from the data.
Question 1:

Do students in classrooms receiving the
employability skills instruction score higher
on the measure of being able to give positives
statements about their ability to do the job~7
get along with people, and exhibit dependability?

Findings
There was found no significant difference between
scores of the two classroom groups on the measure of
writing positive statements about their abilities in these
three areas.

The multivariate F-ratio was 2.11 with a

probability of less than .14.
Discussion
It is apparent that either students are able to
write positive fact based statements without instruction or
that the teacher-coordinators were not trained sufficiently
to affect a large enough difference to make the findings
significant.
Three items were grouped to test this hypothesis.
Item 1 was proving the student can do the job.

The survey

of employers of vocational graduates conducted by the
Michigan State University Employability Skills Project staff

102
verifies the need for inclusion in the curriculum.
was cited earlier in Brown's Texas study.

2

This

It was also

cited in the Ohio study by Garbin, Salamone, Jackson, and
B a l l w e g .^
The need for proving dependability and the ability
to get along is supported in the response by employers of
graduates of vocational students in the MSU Employability
Skills Project and also by the Goodman study.
Question 2:

Do students in classrooms receiving the employ­
ability skills instruction score higher on the
measure of writing an application b l a nk ?

Findings
The statistical tests supported the null hypothesis
that there was no difference between the classrooms which
received instruction and those classrooms which did not.
The univariate F-ratio was

.1278 with a probability of less

than .724.
The means showed the employed students scored higher
on this measure than the unemployed students.

However, the

difference was not significant.
Discussion
It is apparent that the application blank represents
a form to be completed.
2

3
4

Most students were able to fill

Brown, op. cit.

Garbin, Salamone, Jackson, and Ballweg study.

Goodman, op. cit.

103
in the blanks as indicated.

The criteria for scoring

rewarded a m a xi m um of one point if all blanks were com­
pleted.

The classroom means differed by only .03, there­

fore, it appeared the two groups performed similarly.
If the employed students had completed an applica­
tion blank as part of the job seeking process, it follows
that employed students achieved higher s c o r e s .

The study

by Cook and L a n h a m ,5 as cited earlier, support the inclusion
of this competency in the curriculum.
Question 3:

Do students in classrooms receiving the employ­
ability skills instruction score ¥ i g h e r on the
measure of writing a cover letter?

Findings
Students in classrooms received instruction on
writing a cover letter scored higher than those students in
classrooms which did not receive the instruction.

The u n i ­

variate F-ratio was 15.07 with a probability of less than

.001 .
Discussion
It should be noted that the respondents on this
question numbered 225 and represented only 58.9 percent of
the sample.

It may be inferred that those respondents

represent the students who worked faster through the test.

5
Cook and Lanham, op. cit.

104
The lack of response may also have been due to students'
dislike of writing letters.
g

Gregg's

report of the Tennessee study, which was

cited in the review of related literature and research,
stresses the need for this skill by job applicants.
Question 4:

Are the students in classrooms receiving in­
struction m employability skills able to list
more things to do and not to do during the
interview?

Findings
The multivariate analysis revealed an F-ratio of
6.24 with a probability of less than .009.
ported the hypothesis of difference.

The test sup­

The univariate test

showed no effect of employability skills on the measure of
listing what to do during the interview.
The univariate test revealed the groups showed
significant difference on interview d o n 't s .

The students

who received instruction achieved higher classroom means on
listing interview dont's

(F = 8.77, p < .008).

Discussion
The materials did not affect the students' abilities
to write what to do during the interview.

The materials

did affect a change on students' abilities to write what
not to do during the interview.

6_
Gregg,

op. cit.

105
Cook and Lanham,
reiterate the importance

as well as the Battelle s t u d y ,
of making a good interview

i mp ression.
When comparing means of students using the indepen­
dent variables of employment, sex, class, school size, and
community type, no meaningful difference is shown on the
measure of interview don'ts.

Meaningful difference is

approached on the measure of interview do's, when observing
the m ea n scores on the independent variables of sex, school
size, and community type.
Question 5:

Do students
in classrooms receiving the
ability skills
instruction score higher
measure of writing a resume?

employ­
on the

Findings
The statistical analysis showed the students in
classrooms which received instruction in employability
skills scored higher on the measure of writing a resume.
The univariate analysis revealed an F-ratio of 8.40 with a
probability of less than

.0096.

Since the probability

achieved was well below the .05 level, the students r e ­
ceiving the training scored well above those who did not.
Discussion
When observing mean scores on the independent v a r i ­
ables of sex, school size and community type on the measure

7

Cook and Lanham study; Battelle study.

106
of writing a resume, the mean scores of students receiving
employability skills instruction were above those not
receiving instruction.
g

Gregg's
earlier,

report of the Tennessee study, cited

identifies the importance of well written applica­

tion forms given by employers.
Question 6 :

Do students in classrooms receiving the employ­
ability skills instruc~t3.on score higher on the
measure of responding to interviewer's
questions?

Findings
The statistical test showed there was no significant
difference between the two groups on the measure of respond­
ing to interviewer's questions.

The multivariate F-ratio

was 0.18 with a probability of less than .95.
the set of variables, no p < .05 resulted,

In reviewing

therefore,

the

null hypotheses failed to be rejected.
Discussion
A comparison of class means in regards to sex re­
vealed differences on items 11 and 12 of responding to
interviewer's questions.

It appeared females were able to

respond more positively to identifying future plans and also
to work areas that may need improvement.
The importance of the interview was stressed in the
review of the literature.

8

Gregg, op. cit.

It was mentioned in Gregg's

107
report of the Tennessee study, the Battelle study, Brown's
Texas study, Cook and Lanham's study, Harwood and Pate's
study, as well as mentioned by vocational graduates in the
MSU Employability Skills Project, all of which are cited
m

the review of related literature and research.

9

Of this

group of items the identification of future plans or goals
was specifically mentioned in Steven's study and Harwood's
study.
Question 7:

Does the use of the project method of teaching
or the cooperative method of teaching have any
effect on the post-test scores of students?
•

Findings
Results of the multivariate tests conducted on the
subsets of dependent variables indicated there was no inter­
action between method and treatment.

The results also

showed there was no main effect due to method.

None of the

multivariate for the method effect was significant.
Discussion
There was no difference in achievement shown between
groups when examining the project method or the cooperative
method.

It is apparent that use of the employability skills

materials is not effected by use of either the project
method or the cooperative method.

q
Gregg study; Battelle study; Brown study; Cook and
Lanham study; Harwood and Pate study.

108
This is supported in the study by Thrash and the
study by F e r g u s o n , ^ as cited in the review of related
studies.

It indicates that method of teaching does not

significantly affect the outcome by students.
Question 8:

What are the characteristics of the sample and
their effect on the achievement of the students
on the post-test?

Findings
Mean scores of students on the post-test were
examined on the independent variables of employment,
class,

school size and community type.

sex,

The mean scores of

the employed students tended to be higher than those of
unemployed students on completion of the application blank.
Females achieved higher scores on all items on the p o s t ­
test.

The juniors received a higher mean score on seven of

the thirteen post-test items.

Students enrolled in the

school which had 7 08-1429 pupils achieved higher mean
scores than other schools on five items.

Students in the

classroom in the urban community scored higher on six items
over other community t y p e s .
Discussion
Comparison of means and standard deviations show
sex, school size, and community type as being factors of
differences in achievement on the post-tests.

^ T h r a s h study; Ferguson study.

109
Question 9:

What were some of the unusual occurrences
d uring the implementation of the study and
their effect on the student's a c h i e v e m e n t o n
the post-test?

Findings
The range of response by students on the post-test
items was 225

(59%) on writing a cover letter, to 379

(99.2%) on completing the application blank.

When the

teacher-coordinators received over four hours of inservice,
the mean scores of their control groups were higher than at
least one other treatment group on twelve of the thirteen
post-test items.

School 9 had the highest mean on five of

the thirteen post-test items.

A total of fourteen unusual

occurrences during implementation were reported.
Discussion
Students did not answer all questions.

The amount

of writing on the post-test may have encouraged students to
disregard the question on writing a cover letter.
The teacher-coordinators receiving more than four
hours of inservice may have been more enthusiastic in their
presentations or there may have been other uncontrollable
variables present.

This may have filtered to the control

group in their schools via other students.
School 9 was an urban school with an enrollment of
over 43 0 with the teacher-coordinator receiving four hours
of inservice.

Although this teacher-coordinator received

110
the minimum amount of in s ervice, the school had the highest
mean scores on five items.
Each of the five modules of instruction was affected
by an unusual occurrence.

Heat of 90° F in classrooms was

reported by four schools, with assemblies and Senior Skip
Days being reported twice.
Summary of Findings
Statistical analysis yielded the following findings
which are summarized:
1.

There was no interaction between the method by which
the students were taught and the treatment given
to them.

2.

There was no main effect due to method.

Statistically significant difference was found
between the post-test scores of the students in
classrooms which received employability skills in­
struction and the post-test scores of the students
in classrooms which did not receive instruction on
the measures o f :
a.

writing a cover letter

b.

being able to list what to do or not do during
an interview

c.
3.

writing a resume

The difference between the post-test scores of the
students in classrooms which received employability
skills instruction and the post-test scores of the
students in classrooms which did not receive

Ill
employability skills instruction was not statisti­
cally significant on the measures of:
a.

being able to give positive facts about one's
ability to do the job, exhibit dependability and
get along with people

b.

completing

an application blank

c.

responding

to the interviewer

Additionally the data revealed the following which
was not tested statistically:
1.

The employed students in treatment and control class­
rooms combined

achieved a higher mean score than

the unemployed

students on eleven ofthirteen

items

on the post-test.
2.

The females in the Study scored higher than the
males on all post-test items.

3.

The junior students in the study achieved a higher
mean score more often than the senior students on
the post-test items.

4.

Students enrolled in the one school in the study
which had a student population of 7 08-1429, had the
highest mean score on five items.

5.

The one school in an urban community achieved the
highest mean on 7 items of the 13 items on the
post-test.

6.

The rate of completion by individual students to
each post-test question varied from 59 percent to
99.2 percent.

112
7.

The two control classrooms taught by teachercoordinators who received more than four hours of
inservice scored higher than at least one other
treatment classroom on twelve of the thirteen items.

8.

The rank order of the school receiving the highest
mean score most often was: School 9, School 1;
School 2, and Schools 5 and 8.

9.

Unusual occurrences were reported 14 times

during

implementation of the employability skills materials
with extreme classroom heat of 90° F being reported
most often.
Conclusion
1.

The materials made a difference in student

achieve­

ment on the measures of how to write cover letters,
how to behave during an interview, and how to write
a resume.

This is supported by the findings of the

third party e v a l u a t o r s ' Final Report of the Occ up a­
tional Cluster Project at the Calhoun Area Vocational
11
Center.
2.

The employability skills materials might be

success­

ful in either the cooperative method or project
method of teaching distributive education given the
conditions of the study.

The findings reported

Carkhuff Associates, Inc., Third Party Evaluation
Final Report (Amherst, MA: Carkhuff A s s o c i a t e s , I n c . , 1978),
p. 21.

113
that there was no significant difference between the
mean scores of students in these groups.
3.

The employability skills materials or delivery
apparently are in some way directed toward assisting
female students in attaining higher scores on the
post-test.

The females scored higher on every item

on the post-test.
Carkhuff report.
4.

This was also evidenced in the

12

The employability skills materials did not make a
significant difference on the measures of how to
identify personal assets, how to complete an appli­
cation blank or how to respond to an interviewer's
questions.

5.

Students in the sample who were enrolled in the
classroom of a school with an enrollment of 708-1429
pupils achieved a higher mean score on five of
thirteen items.

This suggests the possibility of a

relationship between school enrollment and student
achievement.
6.

The junior students scored higher than the senior
students on the post-test.

This suggests a rela­

tionship between grade level and achievement on the
post-test or use of materials.
7.

Increased amounts of inservice received by the
teacher-coordinator may result in a greater degree
12

Carkhuff, op. cit.

114
of achievement by the students receiving the in­
struction.

The study found that the students in

control classrooms of the two teacher-coordinators
who received more than four hours of inservice
received higher post-test scores than treatment
groups on twelve of thirteen items on the post-test.
8.

The employed students scored higher more often on
the post-test.

Therefore, there must be some rela­

tionship between employment,

the test, and/or the

materials.
9.

The one school in an urban community achieved the
highest mean on seven of thirteen post-test items,
which suggests the possibility of a relationship
between the type of community in which the school
is located and student achievement on the post-test.

10.

The fluctuation in the numbers of students who com­
pleted the post-test items varied from 59 percent
to 99.2 percent which suggests a relationship
between the length or type of evaluation activity
on the post-test.
Recommendations
From the findings of this study, recommendations

can be made as follows:
1.

The employability skills materials be administered
at another time of the school year other than
during May or June.

115
2.

The materials be investigated on the writing of the
cover letter and research be made as to why only
59 percent of the sample completed the task of
writing the cover letter on the post-test.

3.

Further research should be made to determine the
relationship between more than four hours of inservice being provided to the teacher-coordinator
and student achievement.

4.

Investigation should be made to determine why the
school in the urban type community achieved higher
means.

5.

The employability skills materials be implemented
and researched within occupational areas other than
Distributive Education.

6.

Examination should be made of the materials to d e te r­
mine if sex relatedness exists which affects achieve­
ment by students.

7.

The employability-skills materials should be imple­
mented with more schools of varying sizes to d eter­
mine if there is any relationship between school
enrollment and student achievement.

8.

The post-test should be researched to determine if
the length or type of test affects the rate of
completion of each item by student.

9.

The type of evaluation instrument used during the
study should be examined to determine if students

11 6

write they can perfonn a particular activity; can
they in fact perform that activity.
10.

The level of employability skills needed for various
occupational areas should be researched since
hiring criteria may vary by occupation.

11.

Consideration be given to these findings in the
revision of the employability skills materials.

It

is further recommended that the employability skills
materials remain a part of, or be included in,
secondary school curriculum based on the support
given in the review of related literature and r e ­
search.
It is apparent that the employability skills
materials as presented by the participants in the study,
made a difference in student achievement on the competencies
of writing a cover letter,
resume.

interview behavior and writing a

The materials did not make a difference on the

competencies of identifying personal assets, completing an
application blank or responding to interviewer's questions.

%

APPENDICES

APPENDIX A
EMPLOYABILITY SKILLS SURVEY

APPENDIX A
EMPLOYABILITY SKILLS SURVEY

Name _______________________________________(Optional: include if you
want the results reported to you.)
School ________________________________________ Date__________________
Class Meeting Time _____ to
I am a
I am

Junior
employed

Senior.

.

I am a

female

male.

Instructor

unemployed.

Write the title of the job

for which you would be applying.
________________________________________ is the job I like best.

FOR THIS TEST WRITE AS MANY ANSWERS AS YOU CAN THINK OF FOR EACH
QUESTION.
It will help you get a job if you can prove to an employer that you can
do the job, are dependable, and can get along with others. List the
things you could use to prove these things to an employer for the
following three questions. You prove something when you list a factual
behavior or accomplishment from your past.
1.

I can do the job as indicated by the fact that:
Example: I received seven compliments last semester from my
vocational teachers about how well I did my work.
Write as many answers as possible.

117

Begin each answer on a new line.

I am dependable as indicated by the fact that:
Example: I was always on time to my class.
Write as many answers as possible.

I can get along with others as indicated by the fact that:
Example: I was elected to be vice-president of the future welder's
club.
Write as many answers as possible.

119

4.

Fill out the following fora:

THE APPLICATION BLANK

C c n p a n y a p p l y i n g to:________________________
PRINT
IN INK

APPLICATION

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tliarftiUM rilutof I* nr lirlpauac. J auiaariaa *U »«*•*«•»
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SOCIAL lieUKlTV CftJIO
O O S O T VJIJTX JCLOft' TMI3 LiMt

—

--

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120

5.

Write a cover letter which introduces yourself to an
employer and gets him/her to read the resume.

STEP G*

STEP G*

STEP G*
STEP A

STEP B

STEP C

STEP D

STEP E
STEP F

STEP G*
STEP F
STEP F

*Step G materials do not appear on the "Master " letter
but are inserted individually on final copies of the
letter just before they are mailed.

121

6.

What are the things you should cto during the interview?
List as many answers as possible.

7.

What are the things you should not do during the interview?
List as many answers as possible.

122

8.

Write a resume to prove to an employer you are the right
person for the job.

STEP A

GOAL:

STEP B
STEP C

EXPERIENCE:

STEP D

STEP E

STEP F

STEP G

PERSONAL
INFORMATION:

STEP H

REFERENCES:

STEP I

123

Below are some questions employers often ask. Try to answer each
question.
Be sure to include a past accomplishment that helps to prove
that you would be a good employee for the job you listed in item #1.
9.

Why do you want to work for us?

10.

Did you enjoy school?

11.

What are your future plans?

12.

What are your weak areas that may need improvement?

124
13.

Read the interview statement. Then write exactly what you would
say to him/her.
Be sure to show you understand the interviewer's
position. Then use one of your past accomplishments to convince
the interviewer that it would be different with you.
Interviewer: The last time I hired a kid just out of school, she
left just about the time she was really getting useful.
Your Response:

APPENDIX B
SURVEY OF DISTRIBUTIVE EDUCATORS TEACHING
EMPLOYABILITY SEEKING SKILLS

APPENDIX B
SURVEY OF DISTRIBUTIVE EDUCATORS TEACHING
EMPLOYABILITY SEEKING SKILLS

1.

By which method do you teach Distributive Education?
______ Cooperative

2.

How many students do you have enrolled in your class?
Male

3.

Female

_____ Juniors

_____ Seniors

110

165

Other(Specify)

How many days per WEEK do you meet your students in a classroom
setting?
1 day

5.

_____

How many minutes per DAY do you spend with your students
(contact)?
55

4.

Project Laboratory

____ 2 days

____ 3 days

4 days

____ 5 days

Please check below the employability skills you teach to your
students.
Student identification of physical, emotional, and intellec­
tual values as it relates to his/her job goal (physical-comfort/working conditions; emotional--responsibility,
working with people; intellectual--decision making, ability).
Educational fact sheet development (achievements in school
that are related to the job for which the applicant is
applying).
_____ Work experience fact sheet development (facts about skills
performed on past jobs that relate to the job for which the
applicant is applying).
_____ Assessment of student's mobility to determine student's
geographical preference (ability to commute, to relocate, or
localized travel within a city).
_____ Development of potential employer data file.

125

126

Writing of cover letter.
Writing of application.
Making telephone contacts with employers.
Preparing for the interview; how to get there, time, what
to wear.
How to attend to the interviewer.
How to observe the interviewer.
How to respond to the interviewer by

answering questions.

How to initiate with the interviewer by asking questions.
How to know when the interview is completed.
How to respond to a job offer.
How to assess performance during the job seeking process.

6.

Please place a D (for DONE) next to those skills checked which you
already have covered in your class.

7.

I don't teach any of these skills to my students.

8.

Please check below the methods you use to teach the skills:
_______ Lecture

_______ Filmstrips

_______ Modules of instruction

_______ Records

_______ Role-playing

_______ Tapes

True

Films
How many of your students have already gone through the job
seeking process?
Males
10.

Females

Juniors

Seniors

How many of your students are currently employed?
Males

Females

Junior

Seniors

False

APPENDIX C
CLASS DATA SHEET

APPENDIX C
CLASS DATA SHEET

COMPLETE ONE SHEET FOR YOUR CONTROL GROUP AND ONE SHEET FOR YOUR TREAT­
MENT GROUP. MAIL BACK TO ME IMMEDIATELY IN THE SELF ADDRESSED STAMPED
ENVELOPE.
This information is needed to learn more about the classes involved in
the study. Comparisons among schools may be made if the classes have had
similar information given to them in the past and the number and make
up of the class is similar.
Instructor's Name _____________________________ School
1.

How many minutes per DAY do you spend with your students (contact)?
55

2.

110

165

Other (specify)

How many days per week do you meet with your students in a classroom
setting?
1 day

_____ 2 days

3 days

4days

3.

Please write the time of day this class meets.

4.

How many students are enrolled in your class.
Juniors

5.

Seniors

5 days

___ :____ to

Males

:___

Females

How many students are employed a minimum of fifteen hours a week as
part of their DE experience and you have completed a training agree­
ment for the student?
________ employed

6.

Please check below the employability skills you have already taught
to this class this year and also indicate with a check if they had
to perform the skill rather than just write about it.

Time Spent
Teaching
______

Skill Was
Taught

Skill
Educational fact sheet development with students listing
achievements in school that are
related to the job for which the
applicant is applying.

127

Performance
Was Demonstrated
______

128

Time Spent
Teaching

Skill Was
Taught

Skill

Performance
Was Demonstrated

______

______

Work experience fact sheet
development showing facts about
skills performed on past jobs
that relate to the job for which
the applicant is applying.

______

______

Writing a cover letter to
accompany resume.

______

______

Filling out a job application
blank.

______

______

Participating in an interview
by attending, observing,
responding to the interviewer
and initiating with the inter­
viewer by asking questions.

PLEASE RETURN TWO OF THESE SHEETS (1 for Control Class and 1 for the
Treatment Class) TO ME IN THE SELF-ADDRESSED, STAMPED ENVELOPE AS SOON
AS POSSIBLE.

APPENDIX D
SURVEY FORM

APPENDIX D
SURVEY FORM

As part of a doctoral dissertation, this survey is an attempt to deter­
mine employability seeking skills needed by job applicants. Would you
please take a moment to assist in the validation of employability
seeking skills? Thank you.
I am employed in a position which allows me the authority to hire
people.
Yes
Employer:

_____ No

(Please check one)
public secondary education
private secondary education
public community college
public four-year university
private four-year university

_____ technical trade school
private business school
Position:
Personnel

_____ Guidance

Education

_

Admini­
stration

Please check the appropriate answer for each statement:
YES
1.

The candidate must have a job goal.________________ ____

2.

The candidate must have matched his personal
values to the job requirements.
(Personal values
are those things most important to the individual,
such as, leisure time, salary, working inside,
etc.)____________________________________________________

129

NO

130

3.

4.

NO

____

___

Using job-related educational facts, the candidate
must be able to answer the following by giving
specific examples (achievements in school that are
related to the job for which the applicant is
applying):
a.

Can I do the job?

b.

Am I dependable?

c.

Can I get along with others?

Using job-related past work experience facts, the
candidate must be able to answer the following by
giving specific examples (facts about skills
performed on past jobs that relate to the job
for which the applicant is applying:
a.

Can I do the job?

b.

Am I dependable?

c.

Can I get along with others?

5.

The candidate should have assessed his/her mobility
in relation to the job for which he/she is applying
(ability to commute, to relocate, or localized
travel within a city).

6.

The candidate should present a resume.

7.

A cover letter should accompany the resume.

8.

The application reviewed and evaluated.
My criteria for evaluation are: ___________

9.

The interview is evaluated.

10.

YES

Criteria for a "hireable" interview:
a.

proper dress

b.

grooming

c.

manners

d.

attending to what I say (maintain eye contact,
body position toward interviewer)

131
YES

11.

e.

observing my behaviors

f.

responding by answering questions_________________ ___

g.

initiating by asking questions

___

h.

knowing when the interview is over

___

i.

physical movement of walking, sitting, gestures
in a businesslike manner______________________________

Post-interview activities are evaluated such as:
a.

thank you notes

___

b.

telephone inquiries as to whether the applicant
got the job or was being considered

___

repeated phone calls over an extended period
of time

___

c.

12.

13.

___

I would certainly hire someone who demonstrated 1
through 11 above
In addition to the above, I look for the following
in an applicant:
a. _________________________________________________
b.

___

APPENDIX E
SURVEY FORM

appendix

e

SURVEY FORM

NAME ________________________________
ADDRESS

PLACE OF EMPLOYMENT
POSITION

Please indicate which of the following employability or "job getting"
skills you see as important for a job applicant to be able to do.

1.

Know what information or things to take
when applying for a job.

2.

Know how to act and what to say during an
interview.

3.

Fill out application forms.

4.

Identify questions to be able to answer
during an interview.

5.

Evaluate jobs advertised in the want ads.

6.

Be able to prepare for an interview.

7.

Say things that would make applicant a
good employee.

8.

Request and secure at least 3 job
references.

9.

Identify specific work behaviors
necessary to keep a job.

10.

Locate sources that can be used to list
places to apply for jobs.

11.

List assets applicant brings to a job.

132

Important

Not
Important

_________

_________

133

Important
12.

Request an interview by phone._______________ _________

13.

Write a letter of application.

_________

14.

Write a resume.

_________

15.

Write a cover letter.

_________

16.

List kinds of work interested in.

_________

17.

List kinds of work qualified to do.

_________

18.

Locate information about jobs.

_________

19.

Know requirements of jobs of interest.

_________

20.

Evaluate job offers.

_________

21.

Know approximate salary or wage of
job(s) of interest.___________________________ _________

22.

Know typical fringe benefits of
job(s) of interest.___________________________ _________

23.

Identify unions or organizations likely
to join in job(s) of interest._______________ _________

24.

Name occupational hazards of job(s) of
interest._____________________________________ _________

25.

Identify shift requirements or times of
day likely to work in job(s) of interest.

_________

26.

Describe local employment opportunities
in job(s) of interest._________________________________

27.

Describe regional and national employment
opportunities in job(s) of interest.

_________

Identify kinds of experience and training
necessary for job(s) of interest.

_________

29.

Dress appropriately for an interview.

_________

30.

List things not to do when applying for
a j o b .________________________________________ _________

28.

Not
Important

Please list any employability or "job getting" skills you feel should
be added to this list:

COMMENTS/SUGGESTIONS:

APPENDIX F
EMPLOYABILITY SKILLS SURVEY

APPENDIX F
EMPLOYABILITY SKILLS SURVEY

Name ____________________________________ (Optional: include if you want
the results reported to you.)
Home School
Class Meeting Time
I am a
I am

Junior
employed

Date
to
Senior.

.

I am a

female

male.

Instructor

unemployed.

Write the title of the job for which

your program is preparing you that you like best.
___________________________________ is the job I like best.
For this test write as many answers as you can think of for each
question.
1.

It will help you get a job if you can prove to an employer that you
can do the job, are dependable and can get along with others.
List
the things you could use to prove these things to an employer. You
prove something when you list a factual behavior or accomplishment
from your past.
a.

I can do the job as indicated by the fact that:
Example: I received seven compliments last semester from my
vocational teachers about how well I did my work.

135

I am dependable as indicated by the fact that:
Example: I was always on time to my classes.

I can get along with others as indicated by the fact that:
Example: I was elected to be vice-president of the future
welder’s club.

137

2.

THE APPLICATION BLANK

7111 out th« following fora:

Caepany applying to :__________________
r9«n Jp

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138

3.

Write a cover letter which introduces yourself to an employer
and gets him/her to read the resumes.

STEP G*

STEP G*

STEP G*
STEP A

STEP B

STEr C

STEP D

STEP E
STEP F

STEP G*
STEP F
STEP F

* Step G materials do not appear on the "Master11 letter but
are inserted individually on final copies of the letter
just before they are mailed.

139

4.

Write a resume to prove to an employer you are the right
person for the job.

STEP A

GOAL:

STEP B
STEP C

EXPERIENCE:
STEP D

STEP E

STEP F

STEP G

PERSONAL
INFORMATION:
STEP H

REFERENCES:

STEP I

140
5.

What are the things you should do during the interview?

6.

What are the things you should not do during the interview?

141

7.

Below are some questions employers often ask. Try to answer each
question.
Be sure to include a past accomplishment that helps to
prove that you would be a good employee for the job you listed in
item #1.
a.

Why do you want to work for us?

b.

Did you enjoy school?

c.

What are your future plans?

d.

What are your deficits?

142

8.

Read the interview statement. Then write exactly what you would
say to him/her.
Be sure to show you understand the interviewer's
position. Then use one of your past accomplishments to convince
the interviewer that it would be different with you.
Interviewer: The last time I hired a kid just out of school, she left
just about the time she was really getting useful.
Your Response:

APPENDIX G
IMPLEMENTATION CHECKLIST

APPENDIX G
IMPLEMENTATION CHECKLIST
Please complete this sheet daily.
Module Name _____________________________

Module Number______

Instructor Name

School _____________

Class Meeting Time _________ to

AM or PM? _____

Amount of time spent on module: ___________________ hours.
Please check:
Module was completed
Module was partially completed
Although it is preferred that no deviations from the sug­
gested format for presentation occur, it is asked that you
describe any such event if it occurred.
Examples are use
of teaching aids, media, speakers, and other resource
materials.
These resources may affect the learning of one
group over another and it is important that if they were
used that they be described below.

Please list anything unusual that occurred today that might
affect the learning.
assembly
fire drill
tornado drill
special senior event
other events

(describe):

(specify)
143

APPENDIX H
MEMO TO PARTICIPATING TEACHER-COORDINATORS

APPENDIX H
MEMO TO PARTICIPATING

To:

Employability Skills

From:

Ruth Snyder

Date:

May 1, 1977

TEACHER-COORDINATORS

StudyParticipants

Thank you for agreeing to participate in the evaluation of these
employability skills materials.
The materials and sequence of the

tudy are:

What Is It?

What Do You Do With It?

1.

Two class data sheets
1 = control group
1 = treatment group

1.

Return to me as soon as possible
in enclosed stamped selfaddressed envelope.

2.

Five modules for each student.

2.

Have each student in your treat­
ment group work them.
Keep
them.

3.

Ten implementation checklists.

3.

Complete daily for the treat­
ment group. Hang onto them-mail back when you send the
post-test survey.

4.

One post-test survey for each
student.

4.

Administer the day following
completion of Module 8. Blue
is for control and Green is for
the treatment group. Mail the
treatment and control groups
together.

Enclosed please find modules to be used by the treatment group.
student should receive a module in which to work.

144

Each

145
For the purpose of the study, I am asking that you implement five
modules which will allow your students to learn five tasks in employ­
ability seeking. They are:

Recommended Time
To Instruct

Module Number

Product

hrs.

3

Education and Work Experience
Fact Sheet

hrs.

4

Resume

hr.

5

Cover Letter

hr.

6

Job Application Blank

hrs.

8

Job Interview

To establish control in the design of the study, it is important that
all schools administer the materials in as similar fashion as possible.
The following standards are recommended:
a.

Please use only the materials enclosed without including
any media or teaching aids.

b.

Administer materials to students in a group setting rather
than individually.

c.

Present materials for one hour at a time (or 1 class period)
with instruction occurring daily consecutively.
If you are
teaching a block class, it is encouraged that you also only
teach the materials for one hour at a time. This will allow
for greater standardization among the schools involved in the
study.

d.

The daily check sheet must be completed so that any unusual
events may be noted. Please mail this to me when you send the
post-test survey.

e.

It is suggested that you implement the modules from Wednesday
through Tuesday with the post-test survey being given on
Wednesday. Monday's and Friday's are NOT good days for
testing. Thus, it would be appreciated if you would administer
the post-test in the middle of the week immediately following
the completion of Module 8.

f.

The post-test survey is enclosed.
It should take approximately
two hours to administer. Please mail it to me as soon as you
are finished. The Blue surveys should be given to the control
group and the Green should be given to the treatment group.

146

g.

Do not allow the students to take the modules home.

I have tried to keep the requirements at a minimum for your convenience
and yet maintain a maximum amount of standardization.
I hope your
students will enjoy gaining employability skills.
Thank you again and Good Luck.

APPENDIX I
RATER SHEET

APPENDIX I
RATER SHEET

TEAM:

NAME

1
RATER:

:RATER:

APPENDIX J
CRITERIA FOR EVALUATION

APPENDIX J

Criteria For Evaluation
1 point for every operationalized statement
1 point for every operationalized statement
1 point for every operationalized statement
1 point for all blanks completed--0 points if not
A
B
C
D
E
F

= grabber = 1 point
= greatest job strengths = 1 point
= single sentence stating job = 1 point
= ask for interview = 1 point
= smooth close = 1 point
= complimentary close = 1 point

1 point for each - No repeats
1 point for each - No repeats
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H

= 4points
= 1point = j ob goal
= 1point for training
= 1point for most importantexperience
= 1point for every factshowing
I can do the job
= 1 point for next most importantexperience
= 1 point for every fact provingthis
experience
= Age = 1 point
Education = 1 point
Health = 1 point
Family Situation = 1 point
I = References:
1 point for name, address, city = 3 points x the
number ofcomplete references.

1 point each: statement must be

fact based

1 point each: statement must be

fact based

1 point each: statement must be

fact based

149

Question

Criteria For Evaluation

12.

l point each: statement must be fact based

13.

1 point each: statement that says I will not
but statement must be fact based.

APPENDIX K
CORRELATION MATRIX OF POST-TEST RELIABILITY

APPENDIX K
Table K-l.--Correlation Matrix of Post-Test Reliability.
11

12

13

14

IS

16

17

18

19

110

111

112

1 .0 0 0 0 0

12

.45499

1 .0 0 0 0 0

13

.44071

.52977

1 .0 0 0 0 0

14

.1 7 6 9 8

.1 7 7 5 5

.1 6471

1 .0 0 0 0 0

15

.24818

.14175

.13 2 8 5

.07672

1 .0 0 0 0 0

16

.39816

.33814

.42513

.23 1 1 2

.17 7 5 8

1 .0 0 0 0 0

17

.33231

.36731

.40762

.16843

.150 82

.6 9 5 9 8

1 .0 0 0 0 0

18

.25589

.15708

.09740

.02129

.05 4 4 9

.18940

.21521

1 .0 0 0 0 0

19

.068 64

.11959

.09603

.1 3 2 8 2

.1 2 4 6 2

.14 5 9 9

.1 2 7 8 9

.17830

1 .0 0 0 0 0

110

.18 751

.15 2 1 1

.18 6 1 0

.06959

.10653

.14982

.12756

.20151

.22072

1 .0 0 0 0 0

IM

.10515

.1 0 1 7 2

.13207

.05945

.12115

.0 5 3 0 9

.10863

.26 6 6 7

.36208

.2 7 5 0 8

1 .0 0 0 0 0

112

.14774

.04808

.19439

.12 8 8 4

.02640

.116 34

.17 5 1 7

.16906

.29 4 1 7

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.20151

.17 012

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.21 3 6 2

.2 6 7 9 8

.22246

.22150

.215 87

150

11

113

1.00000

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