The focus of this study was a comparison of seventh-grade students enrolled in a Clusters Approach to Career Orientation class and students not enrolled in this class in order to determine if the career class had any significant effect on the students' career aspirations, self-esteem enhancement, and locus of control (independent/responsible behavior). The school district from which the study was conducted was Carroll County, a basically agricultural county located in Southwest Virginia. The subjects consisted of an experimental group of academically accelerated seventh-grade students at Woodlawn Intermediate School who received a semester of a Clusters Approach to Career Orientation class, and a comparable group of accelerated students from Hillsville Intermediate School who did not receive the career class. The sample size was fifty. Both groups of students were administered three instruments on a pretest, posttest basis. These instruments, the Career Development Inventory, Coopersmith's Self-Esteem Inventory, and the Nowicki-Strickland Locus of Control Scale for Children were administered the first week of the second semester and again at the end of the semester. In addition to this investigation, an analysis of change in stated career choice was explored. The multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) was the statistical treatment applied to the data. Significant differences did not exist at an alpha level of .05 on any of the three tests, dictating a failure to reject the null hypothesis which stated that there would be no significant difference in career maturity, self-esteem enhancement, or locus of control between the experimental and control groups of students. While self-esteem and locus of control are believed by many to be major variables associated with the individual's career decision-making process, the findings of this study implied that these variables were not principal objectives of the Clusters Approach to Career Orientation class. It was also believed that several intervening factors external to the CACO class could have served as a counter-influence on students' self-esteem enhancement and locus of control (independent/responsible behavior). It was recommended, however, that further investigation of this study be conducted, involving other and larger populations in different geographic settings, and including a longer period of time between pre and posttesting. / Ed. D.