DIRECTIVE	:	TRAINING AND EMPLOYMENT INFORMATION NOTICE NO. 10-99
TO	:	ALL STATE WORKFORCE LIAISONS ALL STATE WORKER ADJUSTMENT LIAISONS ALL STATE EMPLOYMENT SECURITY AGENCIES ALL ONE-STOP CAREER CENTER SYSTEM LEADS
FROM	:	LENITA JACOBS-SIMMONS Deputy Assistant Secretary
SUBJECT	:	Publication of Tests and Other Assessments: Helping You Make Better Career Decisions

1. Purpose. To announce the publication of Tests and Other Assessments: Helping You Make Better Career Decisions, the second in a series of Testing and Assessment Guides, initiated based on requests from workforce investment programs.

2. Background. Tests and Other Assessments: Helping You Make Better Career Decisions, developed by the U.S. Department of Labor's O*NET Program to provide important, practical information about testing and assessment, is focused towards clients of workforce development programs. It explains how assessment tools are used in employment selection and career counseling and gives tips and strategies for taking tests and other assessments. The information is organized so that readers from a variety of backgrounds will find the information clear and useful.

   The final Guide in this series, Testing and Assessment: A Guide to Good Practices for Workforce Development Programs, is expected to be available in the first part of the year 2000.

3. The Guide. Tests and Other Assessments: Helping You Make Better Career Decisions will help individuals exploring careers to better understand the different types of career assessments and how to use them to make career decisions. By knowing more about testing and test taking strategies, test takers can feel better about taking tests, and possibly improve their performance. This Guide can help test takers, career counselors, and employers learn and understand test taking strategies by answering test takers' questions in easy-to-understand terms.

   Tests and Other Assessments: Helping You Make Better Career Decisions supplies information that enables job seekers, workers, counselors, and employers to help make better informed career decisions.

   The Guide answers important questions, such as:

   • How can assessment tests help me?

   • How are assessments used by counselors and employers?

   • How can tests help me get licensed or credentialed for a job?

   • What are some different kinds of tests and assessment tools?

   • How will the assessments and other tests look?

   • Where can I go for testing?

   • What should I do when the testing day comes?

   • What are good test-taking strategies?

   • What do the test scores mean?

   • What if I need to retest?

   • What about testing for a person with a disability?

   • How long can assessment scores be used?

4. Availability. The Guide will be made available this winter in hard copy through the U.S. Government Printing Office; phone orders to 202/512-1800. It is also available as a downloadable .pdf file from the following web sites:

   The National O*NET Consortium at:

   http://www.onetcenter.org/product/index.html

   The Office of Policy and Research at:

   http://www.ttrc.doleta.gov/ETA/research/FULLTEXT/test2/

5. Action Required. Please share this TEIN with staff within your organization who require an understanding of issues related to assessments and assessment practices. This may include administrators, educators, trainers, personnel researchers, interviewers, employment counselors, test administrators, lawyers, and other workforce development professionals.

6. Inquiries. For additional information on this Guide and other related O*NET products and services, visit the Department of Labor's O*NET web site at: http://www.doleta.gov/programs/onet/, or the National O*NET Consortium's web site at: http://www.onetcenter.org. Direct Customer Service inquiries to the National O*NET Consortium's Customer Service office. Direct E-mail to: o*net@esc.state.nc.us. Fax: (919) 715-0778.