ACRN America's Career Resource Network (ACRN) consists of state and federal organizations that provide information, resources and training on career and education exploration.
Accountability. Concept that school administrators, teachers, parents and students themselves need to be accountable for how well students learn and achieve.
Achievement gap. Documented gap in
test scores between students from various ethnic groups, i.e.,
Asian, white, African American and Latino.
Baccalaureate
degree. A degree from a four-year postsecondary institution.
Career.
Sequence of occupations and other life roles that express
a person's commitment to work and reflect her or his pattern
of self-development. Each person has one, lifelong career
that may include many occupations and jobs. A career also
includes education activities and decisions, and the way a
person's work life is integrated with other life roles such
as family, community, and leisure.
Career clusters. Groupings of classes around a particular
career field (such as business, health, the arts or technology).
Students who select a career cluster learn about that particular
field and may also relate their basic academic classes (i.e.,
English, mathematics, social studies and science) to that
career field.
Career
Development. Lifelong process of exploring, choosing
and acting on educational, occupational and related life role
options. In the broadest sense, career development can be
understood as that aspect of human development that includes
how individuals incorporate their values about work, their
beliefs about their own interests and abilities, their decisions
about education, the ways they negotiate transitions into
and out of work experiences and their unique interactions
between work and other life roles.
Career
Goal. Something that a person wants to achieve related
to the sequence of occupations and other life roles that express
his or her commitment to work and reflect a total pattern
of self-development.
Career
Management. The active and conscious participation
in shaping one's career and accepting responsibility for the
activities and choices made toward that end.
Carl
D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act Amendments
of 1998. Governing legislation for the nation's vocational
and technical education programs.
Employability
Skills. General skills that are essential for job
success but are not necessarily linked to specific occupational
knowledge. The Secretary's
Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS) Report,
released in 1991 by the U.S. Department of Labor, identified
core foundation skills (e.g., reading, critical thinking,
and sociability) and workplace competencies (e.g., skills
that deal with resource and information management, interpersonal
skills, technology and systems skills) that are considered
to be universal employability skills.
General
Education Development Certificate (GED). Alternative
to a high school diploma for people who have dropped out of
high school or are otherwise unable to complete a standard
high school curriculum.
Geographic
Mobility. The ability to relocate, especially when
required for a job.
Job.
A paid position with specific duties, tasks, and responsibilities
in a particular place of work (e.g., photographer at Best
Pictures).
Lifelong
Learning. Continuing to acquire knowledge and skills,
through both formal and informal education, throughout one's
life.
National
Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). "Assessment
of what America's students know and can do in various subject
areas," given at regular intervals in schools across the country.
Also known as "The Nation's Report Card."
Non-Traditional
Occupation. An occupation not traditionally performed
by members of a particular sex (e.g., male secretary or female
construction worker), defined specifically as nontraditional
for a worker of a particular sex if other workers of the same
sex make up 25% or less of all workers in that occupation.
No
Child Left Behind (NCLB). Major education reform legislation
passed by the Bush Administration in January 2002, emphasizing
high academic achievement, educational accountability for
all students (regardless of race, ethnicity or socio-economic
status), educational choice for parents and students, and
flexibility in managing education programs.
Occupation.
A cluster of jobs with common characteristics that require
similar skills (e.g., photographer).
Occupational
Skills. Knowledge, abilities, attributes and personal
qualities a worker needs to complete a specific work task.
OVAE
(Office of Vocational and Adult Education). Office
within the Department of Education that oversees high school
reform, vocational and technical education, community colleges
and adult education.
Parent Involvement. Idea that parents should be involved
in their children's education by ensuring they are well cared
for and ready to learn, reading to them often, turning ordinary
home activities into learning activities, and participating
fully in the life of the school, up to and including decisions
on curriculum and administration.
Postsecondary education. Education or training after
high school.
Postsecondary transition. Moving into college, training
or work after high school.
PISA
(Programme for International Student Assessment).
Program run by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development (OECD) that surveys the knowledge and skills of
15 year olds in the major industrialized countries. It measures
how well students nearing the end of compulsory education
have mastered the skills necessary for full participation
in society.
Remedial education. Education that covers material
students should already have learned by virtue of their age
or grade level, but which they have failed to master.
Section 118. Section of the Carl D. Perkins Vocational
and Technical Education Act Amendments of 1998 that sets out
the legislative authority for and responsibilities of the
America’s Career Resource Network
Self-Concept.
The inner picture a person has of himself or herself, especially
regarding his or her competence, worth, and attractiveness.
Self-Efficacy.
A person's belief that she or he can achieve a desired outcome.
Transferable
Skills. Abilities, attributes and personal qualities
a worker can use in more than one occupation.
Trends
in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS).
International assessment of mathematics and science achievement
in 21 countries, with data and trend analysis from three separate
tests offered in 1995, 1999 and 2003.
Work.
Conscious effort aimed at producing goods or services for
the benefit of self or others. Work may be paid or unpaid.
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