CAPS Evaluation for Vocational Placement

The Career Ability Placement Survey (CAPS) is designed as a brief abilities test to "measure of abilities related to occupations and careers"(Knapp, Knapp and Knapp, 2003, p.1). Its companion test, COPS System Career Clusters, measures an individual's interests in relation to vocations. These two measures can be used independently or on conjunction with each other.

Both the CAPS and COPS seek to assist individuals in defining areas for career exploration based on their specific abilities and interests respectively. It seeks to identify clusters or families of occupations, rather than specific jobs or occupations. The 14 career or occupational clusters are science skilled and professional, technology skilled and professional, consumer economics, outdoor, business skilled and professional, clerical, communication, arts skilled and professional, service skilled and professional. For those clusters which include both skilled and professional categories, the use of the COPS system can eliminate categories based on the individual's willingness to pursue further education or not. The CAPS test is less definitive in its results in this manner. Its scores show that the individual's abilities may be better suited to the skilled cluster of an occupation rather than the professional cluster of that particular field, as its results are presented as more of a continuum. The professional categories typically require college training and often advanced degrees. For those occupations in the skilled level many would require specialized training such as vocational training or on the job training, however there are also those which would require little or no specialized training such as a janitor or baggage handler.

The CAPS test is a pencil and paper test consisting of 8 subtests which individually seek to assess a particular ability of the examinee. The eight tests are mechanical reasoning, spatial relations, verbal reasoning, numerical ability, language usage, word knowledge, perceptual speed and accuracy and manual speed and dexterity. They are administered consecutively in the order above. The examinee is given five minutes for each test. It is available in self scoring and computer scored formats, and can be proctored live or via cassette tape. Should it be done using the cassette tape, it is intended that the tape would be let run through the entire eight subtests, and not stopped at any time during the administration.

Once the test is complete, the scores are calculated and transferred onto the Summary Score sheet. This sheet it has three areas for scores based on the grade level of the individual; grades 8-9; grades 10-12; and college. From these, a Stanine score is yielded which is normed for each group (see below for normative data). The stanine scores range from 1-9 with 9 being high.

Stanine scores are then transferred to the CAPS Career Profile sheet. For each Occupational Career Cluster, particular subtest stanine scores relative to that cluster are totaled and entered on the graph. Portions of the graph are shaded. Once all scores are entered, the examinee is asked to mark those which fall above the shaded portion of the graph, indicating abilities appropriate for that occupational cluster. From there the three highest areas are entered on the career planning portion of the test.

This section of the test asks them to choose five occupations from these career clusters, then three from these fifteen occupations. It then has the individual list the required skills and abilities for these jobs using a variety of sources such as O-Net, OOH, COPS system career briefs. It also asks the individual to list courses and activities which would help prepare them for each of these occupations.

Original normative sampling in 1976 grouped students into five regions to "insure that all geographical divisions would be represented in the norms" (Knapp, Knapp and Knapp, 2003, p.15). This normative data was based on administration to 6,986 students in grated 8-12 for form A and 2,222 for form B, and 1,700 and 1,200 college students respectively. There was no information available about the racial composition of the norming samples. These norms have been reconfirmed eight times since then, the most recent being 1998-2002.

The authors of the CAPS test propose that it reflects current theory of testing citing Ruch and Ruch (1963) "that its more efficient to add a unique new test to a than increase the length of the most valid one." The manual notes that both theoretical and empirical has demonstrated that individual tests in a battery may be considerably shortened without resulting in serious decrease in the composite validity of the battery (Knapp, Knapp and Knapp, 2003).

Because of the highly speeded nature of the test, many examinees do not finish all the test items. Because of this the authors note that a split half reliability is not appropriate for the battery as a whole. However, for those items where it is less of an issue they do issue reliabilities on the tests ranging from .76 to .95. Test - retest reliability coefficients ranged from .70 to .95. The authors do note that this may also not be the most appropriate form of reliability testing for certain tests, however do not specify why or which tests. Alternate form reliability correlations ranged from .70 to .89.

It is noted in the testing literature that the goals of high reliability and validity are sometimes incompatible, citing Guilford and Fruchter (1973). They noted that high "reliability requires high intercorrelations between items while maximum validity requires low intercorrelations"(p. 18). However, the CAPS was specifically designed to have each item testing a particular ability factor, and thus is independent of the other test items.

Validity data is provided in two manners, intercorrelations between tests providing internal reliability data and external validity by comparing it to other abilities tests.

The intercorrelations between tests range from .13 to .61, depending on age group of the sample. The authors acknowledge that this is lower than those reported for other ability tests and take this as evidence that each test in the battery is independent enough to "warrant the inclusion of all tests in the battery" (Knapp, Knapp and Knapp, 2003, p.18).

CAPS' correlations to other aptitude tests range from .45 to .81 depending on the particular CAPS test and the aptitude test. For example, for numerical ability, scores range from .67 to .81 and .65 to .8 for word knowledge. See Appendix A for complete chart of scores available to this author.

The authors also give information of the CAPS' correlation to school marks and predictive validity. They note significant correlations between a student's score on the CAPS and their grades in a class predicted to utilize those skills most. For the predictive validity of the CAPS, they contacted 2093 individuals who had taken the CAPS as high school students and had since graduated. Of the 325 students who responded, a 97% hit rate was calculated; this being defined as the "correspondence of the college goal (or the present job if no college is indicated) to a caps career area designated by the CAPS scores" (Knapp, Knapp, and Knapp, 2003, p.20).

One of the benefits of the CAPS test is that it has areas similar to other academic tests such as language and math, however it also has unique areas; the perceptual speed and accuracy and the manual speed and dexterity tests. These can be especially useful when assessing someone who struggles with the academic components and academic tests. It may provide these individuals some confidence that though the test identified a weakness in the academic areas, it allowed them to demonstrate skills in other areas.

Though the test is billed as a brief test, it still takes an hour to administer, and that is before the scoring and counseling portion of the test. As the subtests are given consecutively, fatigue can play a part in the completion of the test. The directions say that administration should take approximately 50 minutes, which would allow just over a minute between the start of the next test. The manual provides good information on how the test was constructed, but also about how the data can be used. The authors provide a number of vignettes to assist the counselor in using the data with individuals. These include a number with high school students showing ways to assist them in choosing classes to help strengthen skills or prepare for college in a particular area of interest, so that their abilities match their interests more closely. There is also a vignette of an adult with an injury preventing him from staying in the work he does, and using the CAPS to assess his skills and their applicability to other potential areas of employment.

References

Guilford, J.P & Fructer, B. (1973). Fundamental Statistics in psychology and education,

Fifth Edition. NY: McGraw-Hill.

Knapp, L. Knapp, R. & Knapp-Lee, L. (2003). Career Ability Placement Survey;

Directions for administering and interpreting the CAPS. San Diego, CA: EdITS.

Ruch, F.L & Ruch, W.W. (1963). Employee Aptitude Survey (EAS), Technical Report.

Psychological Services.

Joshua Howe, Associated Content