ARC's Self Determination Scale

Full Name of Assessment:		ARC’s Self Determination Scale
Author, Publisher, Date:		Michael Wehimeyer, Kathy Kelchner, The ARC of the United States, 1995
Source:		The ARC of the United States	Pricing: Free
Brief description (purpose, domains, subscales, time to administer, space/equipment needs): This is a self report measure that measures self determination for adolescents with cognitive disabilities. It has many purposes, including:  provide students with cognitive disabilities and educators a tool that assists them in identifying students strengths and limitations in the area of self determination. Also to provide a research tool to examine the relationship between self determination and factors that promote/inhibit the important outcome. There are 72 items divided up into 4 sections: Autonomy, self regulation, psychological empowerment, self realization.
Scoring: 5 steps. Start with the raw scores of the four domains, and take the sum of those scores. Then use a conversation table to get a percentile score. Then fill a graph using the percentiles that are based on the raw scores. Fill out additional graph.
Psychometric properties (describe briefly; e.g. reliability, validity, sensitivity, specificity, etc): Internal consistency had alpha of .9 for the scale as a whole.  The alphas for autonomy was .9, physiological empowerment .73, and self-realization .62. Internal stability= .86
Citations/References (source at least 2 articles that use the tool or reports on psychometrics): Wehmeyer, M. L., & Palmer, S. B. (2003). Adult outcomes for students with cognitive disabilities three-years after high school: The impact of self-determination. Education and Training in Developmental Disabilities, 38(2), 131-144. Wehmeyer, M. (1997). Self-determination as an educational outcome: A definitional framework and implications for intervention. Journal of developmental and physical disabilities, 9(3), 175-209.
Comments/critique (include application to practice – settings, needs, populations): Easy to administer and score.  Since it is a free measure it is easily accessible and would be good for use in settings where additional funds for assessments are not available.
Training or certification requirements:	None