Development and Validity Evidence for the Liberal Arts Core Competencies Assessment Scales

In a series of studies in four phases, responses from over 27,000 undergraduate students were collected to evaluate reliability and validity evidence for the Core Competencies Assessment Scales (CCAS) designed to measure development of 10 core competencies indicating career readiness in undergraduate liberal arts students. The competencies were identified through a thorough review of extant literature and with feedback from key stakeholders. Each assessment scale consists of 10 - 16 items asking students to indicate how often they engage in behaviors indicative of the intended competency. Results of the studies provide evidence of score reliability and measurement invariance across academic level, sex, and race/ethnicity, as well as content, convergent, and predictive validity. In aggregate, we demonstrate that the CCAS are well suited to measure students’ core competencies in a convenient and scalable way, allowing students to track their career readiness development and informing college faculty on curricula and course design.