Setting the stage: Career development and the student engagement process.

Abstract

A longitudinal model assessing the relationship between indices of career development (career planful-ness and career expectations) and school engagement (belonging and valuing) was examined throughstructural equation modeling for a multiethnic sample of urban 9th-grade students ( N 416). The modelwas examined within the context of a career planning intervention implemented in 2 ethnically andracially diverse urban high schools. Higher levels of career planfulness and expectations at the beginningof the year were associated with increases in school engagement over the course of the year. Theobserved relationship between career planfulness and expectations and school engagement is consistentwith emerging models of career development (e.g., R. T. Lapan, 2004) that seek to explicate the valueof career development programming as a component of educational reform.Keywords: school engagement, career development, urban youth, school achievement