How can teachers successfully implement student-centered transition planning?
Page 7: Implementing Student-Centered Transition Planning
The successful implementation of any type of significant change, such as student-centered planning, requires a systematic process. This process often begins when the teacher becomes informed about the student-centered transition planning process. Once the teacher acquires this knowledge, he needs to share it with the other members of the team. This is also an opportunity to build their buy-in and support for the new process. Next, the teacher needs to make a plan to implement the three major components of student-centered planning which entail ensuring the student is:
- Using assessment information to develop goals
- Taking a leadership role in IEP meetings
- Evaluating progress toward meeting IEP goals
The teacher can use the table below as a starting point to determine what pieces of these three components he is currently implementing. It can also serve as a guide to determine how to improve student participation in areas of transition assessment and goal development, leading IEP meetings, and evaluating goals. Teachers can modify the table as needed throughout the implementation process.
Implementing Student-Centered Transition Planning | |||
Transition Assessment and Developing Goals | Always | Sometimes | Never |
I discuss transition assessment and its purpose with my students. | |||
I allow my students to complete self-assessments at their level of communication. | |||
I regularly assess student interests, preferences, strengths, and needs. | |||
I work with my students to develop IEP goals based on assessment results. | |||
I encourage my students to talk with others to get their input. | |||
Leading IEP Meetings | |||
I make sure my students attend their IEP meetings. | |||
I encourage students to invite team members to the IEP meetings. | |||
I provide instruction on the terms commonly used in IEP meetings. | |||
I encourage students to share their interests, strengths, preferences, and goals in their IEP meetings. | |||
I help students identify the supports, modifications, and accommodations that are beneficial to them. | |||
Evaluating Goals | |||
I support students when making choices about their high school program of studies and extracurricular activities. | |||
I teach students how to evaluate their progress toward meeting IEP goals. | |||
I work with students to develop ways to visually represent their progress (e.g., graphs, charts). | |||
I teach self-determination skills to my students. |
Implementing student-centered planning is an ongoing process, one that takes years to refine. Teachers should start small and build on their successes. Using the table above, teachers can identify areas they might already be covering and further identify what they want to work on next.
Jim Martin and Kelly Smoak discuss simple ways that teachers can encourage and prepare students to be actively involved in the transition planning process.
Jim Martin, PhD
Director, Zarrow Center
Department of Educational Psychology
University of Oklahoma
(time: 1:02)
Kelly Smoak
Teacher, Special Education Resource
West Ashley High School
South Carolina
(time: 2:09)
Transcript: Jim Martin, PhD
Expect them to be there. Expect them to participate. The biggest facilitator we found to this whole process are teacher expectations. Teachers expect their students to become actively engaged and be there, provide them the opportunities, and then make it a celebration of kids’ education and not just a rap sheet of all things they’re not doing well. Some teachers will help students prepare invitations for their meeting. They’ll go to one of the websites where you prepare an invitation, and they’ll go to their English teacher and say, “Madam English teacher, my IEP meeting is a couple of weeks from now. Here’s an invitation to attend. I sure hope you can be there,” and they’ll give it to their parents. They might give it to one of their best friends to attend, or the boyfriend or a girlfriend to attend, if parents approve of that, of course. Some teachers encourage students to get dressed up. They’ll bake cookies. They’ll make it a celebration of the kid’s education. And then it becomes something that they want to attend.
Transcript: Kelly Smoak
For someone that wants to start the process, start with small steps. It may be overwhelming to think, “Oh, I need to have all of my kids running all of their IEP meetings this year.” That can be a daunting thought, but start small through activities in the classroom. That can be something as simple as having the kids know who their supports are, listing them out on paper, and meeting those people so that they know who those members of the team are. Who’s going to be at my IEP meeting? Who is helping me through this process? Build that relationship. Then taking it a step further and beginning to break down the IEP for the students that can be very simple.
You can take an entire unit on it. You can spend time on it throughout the entire year. You can choose to build that into your day in many different ways, whether it be a 15-minute segment of your class period or whether it be a whole day that you devote, a whole class period that you devote to the IEP, but breaking it down and teaching the students the different parts of the IEP and what they mean and why do we have them, why do we have accommodations, what are accommodations, so that the students can begin to understand them, know what they mean, and then start to have a voice as to whether they really need that accommodation or not. Is it something that’s helping them or is it not? That’s just one aspect of the IEP. Their present levels, what does that mean, what does that look like, where am I currently, and being able to see that and verbalize that can be a part of your class. Students that have that opportunity begin to understand the IEP is not just a document that their parent comes and signs once a year, but it is a part of their life, and it will help them get to the next phase successfully.