RD78 - Report on Virginia’s Workplace Readiness Skills Examination - February 2011


Executive Summary:
For many years, Virginia’s Career and Technical Education (CTE) has relied on business and industry to assist in ensuring up-to-date, high-quality programs to close the gap between the workplace and the classroom. As such, CTE programs across the Commonwealth continue to reflect current workplace skills and knowledge needed by students entering postsecondary education as well as those moving directly into the work force. Workplace Readiness Skills (WRS) are a required component of all CTE courses and, in order to remain current, periodic revisions and improvements are expected.

Charged by the General Assembly in the 2010 House Joint Resolution 101, the Virginia Board of Education has undertaken the tasks of reviewing and approving the recently revised WRS and the new accompanying assessment and of determining the relationship of the WRS to the Commonwealth’s Career Readiness Certificate (CRC).

The new WRS for the Commonwealth were developed through a rigorous process that included a thorough literature review. This phase of work focused on numerous national research reports and on forms of WRS embraced by other states. The resulting, expansive list for Virginia represented a complete revision and included new skills that had not been included in the 1999 list. These additional skills were noted time and time again in the literature as being crucial to America’s economic stability and growth. The results of a statewide employer survey helped to further refine the list and determine equal weighting of all skills.

Once the list was finalized, the Virginia Department of Education converted the skills into the appropriate format for its CTE programs and courses in the spring of 2010. Task definitions, questions to encourage critical thinking, correlations to the Virginia Standards of Learning, instructional aids, and teaching resources were developed for each of the 21 skills. This information now resides in Virginia’s Educational Resource System Online (VERSO), an online repository of CTE course information available to all CTE teachers and administrators throughout the state. Additionally, workshops, training sessions, and in-service presentations introduced the new WRS to educators during the summer and fall of 2010.

After the WRS and their accompanying resources were in the hands of Virginia’s classroom teachers, the Department turned its attention to the development of an accompanying assessment. Again, business and industry representatives, along with teachers, administrators, and university research experts, assisted in the correlation of existing test items and the development of new ones to match Virginia’s new 21 WRS. After analyzing the items for reliability and validity, the Department spearheaded a field test of the assessment. At the time of this report, the pilot of the assessment is underway in 10 school divisions. Results of this effort will further refine and enhance the quality of the overall test and guarantee that it correlates directly to the 21 skills.

Additionally, the Department has reviewed the new Workplace Readiness Skills in light of the Career Readiness Certificate. Of the 21 skills, 15 have a strong correlation to the three ACT WorkKeys® job skill assessments. The remaining six WRS are basic personal work skills needed in all aspects of a workplace. The Department has accounted for performance on the WorkKeys® assessments through documentation in each student’s academic and career plan.

Virginia’s economic stability and growth are directly tied to its ability to supply business and industry with a well-educated, highly skilled work force. The new Workplace Readiness Skills for the Commonwealth and the accompanying assessment are crucial in ensuring Virginia’s high school CTE graduates are well prepared for further education and employment.