The New Transition Handbook: Strategies High School Teachers Use That Work! - Softcover

Carolyn Hughes, Ph.D., is an associate professor in the Department of Special Education at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, and Project Director of the federally funded Metropolitan Nashville Peer Buddy Program. In 1990, she received her doctoral degree in special education from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, specializing in the areas of secondary transition and employment and self-management strategies. At Vanderbilt University, Dr. Hughes teaches courses in behavior management and the transition from school to adult life and manages several federally funded research and personnel preparation grants. She conducts research and publishes widely in the areas of self-instruction and self-determination, supporting the transition from school to adult life, and social interaction and social inclusion of high school students. Dr. Hughes is a coauthor of Teaching Self-Determination to Students with Disabilities: Basic Skills for Successful Transition (Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co., 1998) and is on the editorial board of the American Journal on Mental Retardation, Education and Training in Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities, Journal of The Association for Persons with Severe Handicaps, Journal of Behavioral Education, and Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions. In addition, Dr. Hughes taught general and special education classes in public schools in Montana for 10 years.

Erik Carter, Ph.D. is a Professor in the Department Special Education at Vanderbilt University and a member of the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center. His research and teaching focuses on evidence-based strategies for supporting access to the general curriculum and promoting valued roles in school, work, and community settings for children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Prior to receiving his doctorate, he worked as a high school teacher and transition specialist with youth with significant disabilities. He has published widely in the areas of educational and transition services for children and youth with significant disabilities. He was the recipient of the Distinguished Early Career Research Award from the Council for Exceptional Children and the Early Career Award from the American Association for Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. His research interests include adolescent transitions from school to adult life; peer relationships and peer support interventions; students with severe disabilities, access to the general curriculum; and religion, congregational supports, and disabilities.

Dr. Wehman is Professor of Physical Medicine with joint appointments in the Departments of Rehabilitation Counseling and also Special Education and Disability Policy at Virginia Commonwealth University. He serves as Chairman of the Division of Rehabilitation Research in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. Dr. Wehman has his Ph.D. in Behavioral Disabilities from University of Wisconsin-Madison.

As one of the original founders of supported employment, he has worked closely with business and industry since 1980 and has published over 200 articles and authored or edited more than 40 books primarily in transition, severe disabilities, autism, traumatic brain injury and employment for persons with disabilities. He has been the Principal Investigator on 41 million dollars in grants during his career.

As the father of two young adults with disabilities, he brings a strong parental as well as business perspective to his work. He is highly active in speaking to professionals, parents, advocates and businesses on transition and employment for people with autism, traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury and other developmental disabilities. On a daily basis he works with individuals with disabilities, communicates regularly with professionals in the world of business related to disability and diversity, and is active in teaching and mentoring medical students, residents, and doctoral students in rehabilitation medicine, special education, rehabilitation and psychology. A major focus of Dr. Wehman's work is on expanding the partnerships with businesses of all sizes so that more persons with disabilities can gain entrance into the workplace and retain employment successfully.

He is a recipient of the Kennedy Foundation Award in Mental Retardation in 1990 and President's Committee on Employment for Persons with Disabilities in 1992. Dr. Wehman was recognized as one of the 50 most influential special educators of the millennium by the Remedial and Special Education journal in December, 2000. He is also Editor-in-Chief of The Journal of Vocational Rehabilitation.

Excerpted from Chapter 1 of The New Transition Handbook, by Carolyn Hughes, Ph.D. and Erik W. Carter, Ph.D.

Copyright © 2012 by Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co.

In this chapter, you will learn

• Why we need a model of transition support
• How we developed the Transition Support Model
• What is new and unique about The New Transition Handbook
• How to use The New Transition HandbookCase Study 1.1 Wesley Hopkins
  Wesley Hopkins attended a large, rural, consolidated high school during his freshman year. Things just did not seem to click for him there. Back in his hometown of Sharon Springs, he had attended a small elementary school where he knew all the students. He felt comfortable there, and kids did not make fun of him for some of the words he mispronounced or stumbled over in class. School was hard, and his grades were never good, but there was always recess and gym, where he excelled at kickball and baseball. Nobody hit a homer like Wesley. That is when he really shone and could feel good about himself. It got tougher in middle school, though. Classes were harder, he was always in trouble at home because of his grades, and he did not know all of the kids at school anymore. And then there was the teasing every time he gave a botched answer in class or failed another test. It was getting to the point where he did not even want to play sports anymore. Maybe the kids would make fun of him there, too.

  Wesley certainly was not looking forward to attending Randolph High School when he finished eighth grade. It was all the way across the valley and brought students from five rural middle schools together. He knew he would be lost. And speaking up and making friends was not really something Wesley felt he knew how to do, especially when he had to change classes and classmates every 50 minutes. Just as he had suspected, Wesley's grades started slipping even more. He was already failing four of his seven classes by the end of the first grading period in October. One of his teachers was talking about referring him to special education, but what was the sense in going to school anyway? It didn't seem worth the effort. Sometimes in the morning, instead of getting on the school bus at the end of the road by his house, Wesley started hiding in the shed behind the barn and staying all day until school was over. After a while, he never got on the bus to go back to school at all.

  THE NEED FOR A MODEL OF SUPPORT THAT WORKS
  

  Open the front section of any local newspaper or talk to any high school teacher or principal and you are reminded that Wesley's story, unfortunately, is not unusual. For many students, high school is not a positive experience leading to a successful transition to adult life. A promising career, satisfying personal relationships, a comfortable home, enjoyable leisure time activities—the expectations many of us hold for adulthood—do not materialize for a sizable number of students who leave high school.

  Secondary and Postschool Life Outcomes of Students with Disabilities

  Secondary education has not resulted in a successful transition to adulthood for many students, despite growing attention in federal policy, research, and the media (Newman, Wagner, Cameto, & Knokey, 2009). Unemployment or underemployment, financial dependence, limited social relationships, segregation, and poverty are the outcomes faced by many students as they leave high school and enter their adult lives (Hughes & Avoke, 2010). For example, Newman et al. (2009) reported that only 31% of youth with intellectual disabilities are employed (primarily part time) after leaving high school, only 7% attend postsecondary education as their sole postschool activity, only 14% live independently or semi-independently, only 26% have a checking account, and only 11% participate in a community group, such as a sports team or church club. Students with disabilities from low-income households also fare more poorly across these same postschool indicators than do their peers from higher income homes. In addition, white youth with disabilities (63%) are more likely to be employed than their black (35%) or Hispanic (54%) counterparts; they are also more likely to hold a skilled labor job and have a checking account (Newman et al., 2009). Unfortunately, job training programs for people with disabilities often target low-paying, part-time, entry-level jobs that offer few benefits or opportunities for promotion or advancement (Metzel, Boeltzig, Butterworth, Sulewski, & Gilmore, 2007), further relegating young people to a life of poverty.

  Legislative Initiatives Supporting Secondary Transition

  Since the 1990s, key pieces of legislation have addressed the need for improving postschool outcomes for students with disabilities. Three legislative acts with particular relevance for youth with disabilities are the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA) of 2004 (PL 108-446), the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 1965 (PL 89-10), which was reauthorized in 2001 as the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act (PL 107-110), and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 (PL 101-336).

  Individuals with Disabilities Education Act

  IDEA 2004 reiterated the requirement of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) of 1990 (PL 101-476) and its 1997 amendments (PL 105-17) that students' individualized education programs (IEPs) include a statement of needed transition services before students exit school services. Although the student's age at which this statement must be included in the IEP has fluctuated in the legislation (it is now "not later than the first IEP to be in effect when the child is 16," IDEA 2004, § 614), this requirement was substantial because, for the first time, high school teachers were mandated to address students' postschool outcomes, goals, and needed services beginning years before students actually left school (Stodden & Roberts, 2008).

  As defined in IDEA 2004, transition services is a coordinated set of activities designed "to facilitate the child's movement from school to postschool activities, including postsecondary education, vocational education, integrated employment (including supported employment), continuing and adult education, adult services, independent living, or community participation" (§ 602). Accordingly, secondary transition personnel must address a wide gamut of postschool outcomes for students across multiple settings—including home, school, work, and employment as appropriate for each student. Furthermore, IDEA 2004 stipulates that transition services must focus on improving students' "academic and functional achievement" (§ 602) and must be based on each student's individual needs, strengths, preferences, and interests. Therefore, not only must educators begin early to address a wide range of student outcomes, but they must also provide transition services that are individualized for each student and responsive to each student's own interests and strengths-implying that students must have a voice in designing their own education programs. Finally, under IDEA 2004, secondary personnel are required to provide a summary of performance to a student who is exiting the education system due to graduating from high school or exceeding the age eligibility. The summary describes the student's achievements and provides recommendations for assisting the student in meeting postsecondary education and employment goals. Under IDEA 2004, therefore, schools are held accountable just short of the actual postschool success of exiting students (Rusch, Hughes, Agran, Martin, & Johnson, 2009).

  More important, IDEA 2004 also calls for public schools to be responsive to the changing demographics of the public school population...