EdITS Test Supplementals & Resources

What's New from EdITS

COPSystem (web-based) Site Registration

The COPSystem is now available as a convenient web-based career assessment package.

Administer assessments, view results and provide users with post-assessment resources to make testing faster and easier than ever.

To begin a free trial at your site, please complete our registration form.

Career Guidance Solutions

COPSystem Career Measurement

The COPSystem Career Measurement Package includes all of the materials you need to administer, score and interpret the COPS Interest Inventory, CAPS ability battery and the COPES work values survey.

Interpretation of results is organized around groupings of occupational clusters which represent the world of work.

Learn More About Support Materials -
Career Guidance Made Easy!

Wall Charts and Pocket Charts  help identify the right occupation for your client.
The Career Briefs Kit provides specific job information in an easy and accessible format for all ages.
The Job Handbook is a useful resource for young adults who want a fun guide to help them prepare for the world of work.

Dimensions Of Self Concept (DOSC) and Student Achievement

Self-esteem and self-concept are important aspects of student development and the measurement of self-concept may be valuable in student guidance. The literature on the relationship between achievement and self-concept in adolescents provides evidence that academic self-concept is a predictor of academic performance (Darakjian & Michael, 1982; Hunter, 1994; Trautwein and Ludtke, 2006; and Witherspoon, Speight, & Thomas, 1997). Trautwein and Ludtke (2006) discuss self-esteem, academic self-concept, and achievement in Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

(Continued from previous)

The authors point out the definitions and differences between global self-esteem, domain specific academic self-concept, and achievement. They report that reciprocal effects have been found between
domain specific academic self-concept (which may be measured with the DOSC) and achievement. One conclusion is that domain specific academic self-concept is a significant predictor of future achievement.

The Dimensions Of Self Concept (DOSC) is a measure of non-cognitive factors associated with self-concept in the school setting that may be used as a diagnostic assessment tool. The use of the DOSC in school settings identifies students who might experience difficulty in their schoolwork because of low self-esteem and it may be used to diagnose broad areas and activities that might contribute to low self-esteem and to impaired learning associated with negative affectivity.

Scores on the DOSC show where an individual is efficacious and may be used as the basis for providing direction to students seeking to increase their academic self-concept and improve their performance in school.

There are five dimensions measured by the DOSC that are highly related to self-esteem in this context.

In order to improve the measurement characteristics of the DOSC, the three forms (Form E for Elementary,
Form S for Secondary, and Form H for College) were renormed in 1999 and a brief description of these samples, along with means and standard deviations for each form are shown below.

After data collection, participants were subdivided by geographic region as shown in Table 1.

Table 2 shows the means and standard deviations listed by Form. The most current profile sheets reflect the data discussed here. The DOSC may be used as a pre-test post-test measure to assess the efficacy of self-esteem building programs within an academic setting and these updated normative data make it a more relevant assessment overall.

Academic performance is made up of many facets of student behavior and achievement levels and self-concept is a useful predictor of student success.

 References
     Darakjian, G. P., & Michael, W. B. (1982). Comparative validities of standardized academic self-concept scales and achievement test measures and of teacher ratings of citizenship and effort in forecasting performance of junior high school students. Educational & Psychological Measurements, 42, 629-641.
     Hunter, N. H. (1994). The effects of a classroom-based self-esteem training program on the scholastic performance of underachieving adolescents. Dissertation Abstracts International, Section B: The
Sciences & Engineering, 54 (9-B).
     Trautwein, U. & Ludtke, O. (2006). Self-esteem, academic self-concept and achievement: How the learning environment moderates the dynamics of self-concept. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 90, 334-349.
     Witherspoon, K. M., Speight, S. L., & Thomas, A. J., (1997). Racial identity attitudes, school achievement, and academic self-efficacy among African-American high school students. Journal of Black Psychology, 23, 344-357.