This paper describes the effort to modernize and streamline the level scales associated with the O*NET Program’s Abilities and Skills domains. This effort focused on the anchors: element-specific examples illustrating points along the numeric scale range. The level scale anchors are included within the stimulus materials used by trained occupational analysts to populate and/or update data for the O*NET Abilities and Skills domains. The level anchors are also incorporated within generic questionnaires available for use within organization-specific job analysis projects and research. Application developers can also access the level anchors via the O*NET Database and O*NET Web Services.
The effort to update the scales included:
- Review each level scale anchor for issues with obsolescence, length, language that could be difficult to understand, grammar or spelling, redundancy, bias or sensitivity.
- Write updated level scale anchors for those flagged for any of the above issues.
- Scale each new level scale anchor while also ensuring a match to the originally intended element.
This resulted in a review of 261 level scale anchors across the two domains and updates to 89. The newly developed level scale anchors provide modernized and simplified alternatives to the original anchors.
