| Abstract: | According to Hoyt (1974), career education efforts are underway in almost one-third of all school districts in the United States. Indications are that this trend will continue. However, the question of the effects of career education programs remains essentially unanswered. This study was designed to assess the effects of a career education program on students' career maturity as measured by the Career Maturity Inventory (CMI). A pretest/ posttest design was used. The sample consisted of 480 sixth and eighth grade students, one-half of whom participated in a career education program (experimental), with the remaining one-half in a regular school program (control). The career education students consistently displayed higher posttest career maturity levels, four scores being significantly higher. Significant differences were found in occupational knowledge of sixth graders, occupational planning for both the sixth and eighth graders and in the attitude scale score for the eighth graders. It was concluded that the career education program had a positive effect in increasing students' levels of career maturity. |
