What are some ways to involve students in student-centered transition planning?
Page 3: Developing Goals
The ability to use their assessment information to develop goals is one of the most important skills students will need if they are to become more active participants in the transition planning process. As such, educators should help their students to understand how assessment results inform their future goals related to work, education and training, and independent living. More, transition goals are more meaningful when students have a hand in creating them, a level of involvement that leads to a deeper commitment to bringing those goals to attainment.
Listen now as Erik Carter briefly discusses how post-school transition goals differ from, but should relate to, annual IEP goals (time: 1:05).
Erik Carter, PhD
Professor, Department of Special Education
Vanderbilt University
Transcript: Erik Carter, PhD
Annual IEP goals and transition goals are different in a number of ways. One is primarily their time horizon. Post-secondary goals are really those that focus on life after graduation, and they’re also outcome-focused. What is it that the student will do in the early years after leaving high school? Where will they work, where will they live, where will they go to school? They address areas like future training, future education, and future employment and future independent living, and they also are required to be based on age-appropriate transition assessments, which is a little bit different than the requirements for annual goals. Annual goals have a much shorter time horizon, and they’re really focused on what happens in the upcoming school year. They have a shorter time-focus.
If you’ve done a transition plan well, you should have annual IEP goals that link to and lead to those post-school transition goals. They’re connected in that way, that each year of progress you make on an annual goal should be moving you closer towards attaining that post-school goal or preparing for that post-school goal.
Transition Assessments
Transition assessments provide information about the student’s present strengths, needs, preferences, and interests. These assessments take measure of the student in environments to which she or he will soon transition, for example a college or university campus or an independent living facility. Ideally, assessments should be completed by multiple informants (e.g., teachers, parents, the student herself) and in an ongoing fashion so as to reflect any changes as well as to identify what skills the student will require to be successful in the subsequent environment. Whether formal, informal, or observational, these assessment results inform the post-secondary goals related to work, education, living, and social activities.
Listen as Jim Martin discusses the importance of transition assessments in relation to developing goals (time: 2:06).
Jim Martin, PhD
Director, Zarrow Center
Department of Educational Psychology
University of Oklahoma
Transcript: Jim Martin, PhD
I think the biggest innovation that happened with IDEA came about with the inclusion of transition assessments. Transition assessments have really helped get transition education more focused. We have a battery of transition assessments we have to do, and one of them has to be a formal assessment, meaning that it’s a standardized assessment that has adequate psychometric properties that we know is a good assessment to help students plan for their life after high school. That sets the tone and gets the boat going in the right direction. But the engine that really drives the motor to get the boat going are the annual transition goals. And we now know that there’s a set of generalizable behaviors. They’re non-academic skills that when students learn these behaviors it increases their likelihood of post-secondary education or post-secondary employment. So as we assess students we need to focus on assessments that will look at these generalizable, non-academic behaviors, establish our strengths and needs using those assessments, and then based on the needs develop annual transition goals to ensure that we teach students those generalizable non-academic behaviors, like student involvement in their IEP meetings, disability awareness, interacting with others, knowledge of strengths or limitations. When they learn those generalizable, critical, non-academic skills, it will help them attain whatever their ultimate goals are. That’s probably the most important thing we can do in transition, is to teach kids those generalizable non-academic skills.
For more on transition assessments, see the IRIS Module:
For Your Information
There are many options available for teachers in search of transition assessment tools as well as self-determination assessments and checklists.
Assessment Tools
Northeast Indiana Cadre of Transition Leaders Transition Assessment Matrix
https://instrc.indiana.edu/transition-resources/transition-matrix.html
Developed by the Indiana Northeast Cadre of Transition Leaders and the Indiana Secondary Transition Resource Center (INSTRC), this online tool simplifies the process of identifying appropriate assessments by allowing teachers to select specific variables, such as “Domain,” “Grade Level,” and “Disability Area(s).” Users can then select and either save or print any of a number of assessments that match their criteria.
National Technical Assistance Center on Transition
https://transitionta.org/wp-content/uploads/docs/TransitionAssessmentToolkit_Updated_2023b.pdf
This document by the National Technical Assistance Center on Transition is packed with information related to assessment. Readers will find an overview of transition assessments, a guide for selecting assessments, sample assessment tools, and more.
Self-Determination Assessments and Checklists
The Arc Self-Determination Scale
https://thearc.org/wp-content/uploads/forchapters/The%20Arc%27s%20Self-Determination%20Scale%20-%20Adolescent%20version%20REV2013.pdf
Developed by Wehmeyer and Kelchner, this “adolescent version” of the Arc’s Self-Determination Scale is designed to help students and teachers alike to identify areas of strength and necessary support to help ensure successful transition for youth into life after secondary education. Divided into four sections, the scale incudes detailed questions related to autonomy, self-regulation, psychological empowerment, and self-realization. A scoring rubric is also included.
The AIR Self-Determination Scale
https://www.ou.edu/education/zarrow/resources/assessments
Produced by the American Institutes for Research (AIR) in collaboration with Columbia University’s Teachers College, the AIR Self-Determination Assessments are designed to measure a student’s knowledge, abilities, and perceptions, as well as her or his opportunities to make full use of those characteristics in real-world scenarios. Visitors here will find downloadable versions of the assessments suitable for teachers and students in English, Spanish, and French.
I’m Determined Self-Determination Checklist
https://www.imdetermined.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/selfdeterminationcheckliststudentself-assessment.pdf
How well do students know themselves, their goals, and what services and supports they might need to help them attain those goals? This assessment checklist developed by the Virginia is designed to help students and educators begin to form some answers to those questions, asking students to supply information related to self-determination, their own goals, and their rights under IDEA and ADA.
Personal Preference Indicators Planning Guide
https://www.ou.edu/content/dam/Education/documents/personal-preference-indicator.pdf
Created specifically for those who work with students with disabilities, this list of questions and prompts is intended for use during “informal talks” that can form the basis of detailed future planning. Among the subjects included here are social and emotional indicators, questions about the student’s “favorites” and personal preferences, physical indicators and general health, and role indicators, among much else.
Self-Determination Observation Checklist
https://instrc.indiana.edu/pdf/resources/PERC_SelfAdvchecklist.pdf
The Self-Determination Observation Checklist will help teachers to measure three characteristics related to self-determination: planning, communicating, and behaving independently. A behavioral instrument, the resource asks teachers to observe student activity in class and then complete a checklist to assess their relative strengths in each of the three areas.
Goals
| Formal Transition Assessments | Informal Transition Assessments |
|
|
Once the results of the transition assessments are available, the teacher and student should sit down for a review. Though the relative depth of this review process will depend on the individual student, it is nevertheless important to show the student the source of your information about her strengths, weaknesses, and needs. The teacher and student can then use these results to brainstorm possible transition goals prior to the IEP meeting. Together, they can identify services, supports, and activities the student might need in order to meet the goals.
The boxes below illustrate how transition assessment data can be used to develop goals. For each student, the sources of assessment data, the assessment outcomes, and the potential goals are described.
Revisit the Challenge: Donzaleigh
Sources and types of assessment data
| Donzaleigh | Interest inventory, career aptitude test, interview |
| Teacher | Observation in classroom, situational assessment in the work environment, student-conducted interview with teacher |
| Guardian | Interview conducted by Mr. Longoria, student-conducted interview |
| Employer | Observation in work setting |
Assessment outcomes
Strengths: Organized, follows directions well, dependable (e.g., on time to work, gives boss notice if she has to be out), performs cashier responsibilities accurately (e.g., balances out register at end of shift), pays attention to details, works well independently, completes tasks, strong auditory learner- Areas to address: Difficulty initiating conversation with customers (e.g., asking what they need, saying thank you), self-conscious about her speech due to articulation difficulties, difficulty with social interactions, struggles with written directions
- Mr. Longoria and Donzaleigh meet to review her transition assessment results. They brainstorm some goals for Donzaleigh’s upcoming IEP meeting. Mr. Longoria points out that if Donzaleigh wants to be a fashion designer, she will need to be able to communicate with customers. With this in mind, they determine that an appropriate goal to support her aspirations to be a fashion designer would be for her to work on her communication skills.
Potential transition goal
Donzaleigh will initiate communication with customers (e.g., asking them whether she can help them, thanking them when they check out) at least 80% of the time.
Revisit the Challenge: Jeremy
Sources and types of assessment data
| Jeremy | Interest inventory, interview |
| Teacher | Classroom observation |
| Parents | Interview |
Assessment outcomes
Strengths: Likes to be around people, loves animals, comfortable in a variety of environments, likes school, strong computer skills- Areas to address: Self-management skills, inappropriate interactions, turning in assignments on time, responding well to feedback, off-task behavior
- Mr. Longoria and Jeremy meet to review his transition assessment results. Because Jeremy is a ninth grader and just beginning to explore options related to post-school employment working with animals, Jeremy and Mr. Longoria decide to write a goal to allow Jeremy to build on this area of interest. Mr. Longoria pointed out to Jeremy that in order to be successful in this type of environment, he must be able to attend to the animals and carry out his responsibilities in a timely manner.
Potential transition goal
Jeremy will visit a minimum of six different animal-related work environments throughout the year (e.g., a veterinarian office, a pet shop, an animal shelter, a zoo). After each visit, he will create a list of his likes or dislikes about that environment.
Involving Students in the Assessment Process
Because the purpose behind transition assessments is not always immediately obvious to the student, it is beneficial for the teacher to help them to make connections between the information yielded by those assessment and the goals the student wishes to develop. The tips below offer some tips for how teachers can involve students more deeply in the transition-assessment process.
Taking the time to introduce a student to new environments (e.g., a college campus) and activities (e.g., a cooking class) can help her to build a better understanding of her preferences and strengths. These experiences will sometimes confirm the student’s interests and sometimes they will change her mind. For example, a student who initially is interested in training as a veterinarian assistant might realize such a career is not for her following a visit to a local vet’s office. Reflect with the student on what aspects of the experience they enjoyed or found interesting and which they did not. Share this information with the IEP team.
Be sure to discuss the assessment plan with the student in a way that is appropriate for his level of understanding. Let the student know what areas you plan to assess and ask whether there are others he might wish to address.
What are the student’s preferences, interests, and future goals? Ask her to make a list of these and to practice sharing them with others. Because interviews are a type of informal assessment, teachers can be flexible with question design and can individualize them for each student.
Ask the student to interview his family members, general education teachers, and peers to learn more about what others perceive as his strengths, needs, preferences, and interests. The student can compare his answers to those of others from the interviews he has conducted and share what he has learned at the IEP meeting. Differences in perspectives between these interview responses are a great place to focus discussions during the IEP meeting.
Erik Carter talks about the overall purpose of transition assessments and why it’s important that students be involved. Next, Kelly Smoak, a high school special education teacher, describes how she uses interest inventories in her classroom.
Erik Carter, PhD
Professor, Department of Special Education
Vanderbilt University
(time: 2:26)
Kelly Smoak
Teacher, Special Education Resource
West Ashley High School
South Carolina
(time: 1:33)
Transcript: Erik Carter, PhD
Transition assessments tend to be much less formal than other assessment processes throughout a student’s special education career, and they tend to include less often a battery of standardized tests. Instead, what you’re really trying to do is identify what a student’s interests and strengths and preferences and needs are. Given that focus, it’s really prudent to involve the student in that process. It’s very difficult to speak to someone’s interests and preferences if they weren’t actively involved in aspects of exploring what those interests and preferences might be and giving feedback and input into that assessment process.
There are also transition-planning tools out there that have a specific place for students in that process. One that I used widely as a transition teacher was called the Transition Planning Inventory. A variety of other tools have the same approach, but essentially there’s a version that’s completed by the teacher, there’s a version completed by parents or family members, and there’s a version of that tool that’s also completed by the students themselves. That gives the student a chance to have input on their own perspectives, on their needs and strengths in different domains around transition. It gives them a chance to sharpen their ability to really self-evaluate effectively, especially when you compare their assessment perspectives to those of teachers and parents. We would use these different approaches where we’d ask the student and the parents and my team to complete that assessment. We’d compile all that information in advance of the meeting, and we’d see places where everyone was in great agreement about strengths, and needs and areas where we had very different perspectives. Often it was the student who had overestimated their abilities or had aspirations that were a bit higher than anyone else might have had. And so that would become a context for us to talk about, “Why are there differences of opinion? Why are you seeing the student in a different way than we do?” and then preparing the student to be able to share their perspective at the upcoming meeting.
The role of school psychologists and others around assessment doesn’t change as students are involved in IEP meetings in middle school and high school, but there’s added focus on planning for life after high school. It means we have to think beyond some of the traditional assessments and bring in perspectives of different people. The student’s perspectives becomes really important in those areas. It’s not intended to replace the assessments that would already be part of the planning process but to round them out and add a different voice and different vantage point to those, as well.
Transcript: Kelly Smoak
When we are in class, we do a number of assessments, through interest inventories, inventories that we have, pencil and paper we pass out in the classroom. We may also do some assessments online. Gathering that information, we come back after it’s done the next class period and really go over it with the kids independently, maybe in a group setting with a couple of students, and they can share their information with one another, gives them an opportunity to discuss what they like with their peers or what they found out about themselves with their peers. It also allows me to walk around and engage with them and find out how they’re assessing themselves.
They have Google Docs, and we have a bank of all of their information. It has a copy of their IEP. Anything that we do that is related to building on that IEP, we have them save it in that file so they can pull that back up when it’s time for the IEP, to prepare for it. I’ll pull them aside independently, and I’ll have them pull that up and say, “Let’s go back and look at what your results were from your various assessments throughout the year. Let’s see what your interests are,” and then it’s more of an independent time, just a casual conversation with the student, and that’s when we begin to talk about how that fits into the IEP.
