Improving Transition Services through Personnel Preparation
Michelle Parker-Katz and Lisa S. CushingUniversity of Illinois at Chicago
Presentation at the annual meetings of the Teacher Education Division of the CEC, Grand Rapids, MI November 2012
Project SET: Transition is defined as
…the movement of students from school to adult life with a research-based focus on quality of life in the major areas of:
Post-secondary education and/or trainingEmploymentIndependent Living
Need for Personnel Preparation
A lack of special educators prepared with specific abilities in secondary transition to facilitate students’ successful movement from high school to adult life is a significant variable in poor adult outcomes for students with disabilities (Benitez, Morningstar, & Frey, 2009; Morningstar, Kim, & Clark, 2008; Blalock, Kochhar-Bryant, Test, Kohler, White, Lehmann, Bassett & Patton, 2003).
Issues in Personnel Preparation for Transition
The content of personnel training about transition is difficult to conceptualize and codify in that such knowledge is at the nexus of special education content, adult services content, career and vocational studies, and rehabilitation (Kim & Dymond, 2010; Kochhar-Bryant, 2003).
Teachers less prepared to offer transition support in urban schools, moreover, often work with high concentrations of minority students living in poverty and attending the lowest performing schools (Pesky & Haycock, 2006).
We lack a professional network that even loosely links community agencies with schools and universities (Adams & Dunn, 2004; Shaw, 2006).
What is Project SET?
• Five-year federal grant from U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs
• Goal: prepare 56 highly qualified special educators to earn state of Illinois LBS2 certification as Transition Specialists
• Outcome: personnel with knowledge about transition and leadership skills to improve transition services especially for high-need youth with disabilities and their families
• How: three-fold process of 1) development of curriculum and program for personnel training, 2) development and building of a network of related personnel in schools, higher education, community, and state of Illinois, 3) evaluation and research about the goals and outcomes
Project SET 2012 – 2017
Prepare 56 transition specialists in the following each year through this routine:Revise recruitment and admission as needed; build additional curriculum and program work by aligning national and state standards; admit each cohort to begin 3-sequence program in summer; graduate and entitle to the state certificate each summer after
- Develop and present first annual Get Set Conference June 2013- Begin year-long “Scholars in Residence” for early career support of
transition specialists. Aim is to support all graduates through in-school and online work, and to prepare them to mentor the current SET cohort
SET Personnel Training: CourseworkSummer Fall SpringSPED 515: Transition Planning and Vocational Programming for Students with Disabilities, Part 1
SPED 522: Advanced Procedures in Special Educators as Consultants
SPED 448: Leadership Seminar
SPED 516: Transition Planning and Vocational Programming for Students with Disabilities, Part 2
SPED 510: Advanced Curricular Adaptations for Learners with Significant and Multiple Disabilities ORSPED 512: Curricular and Social Adaptations for Working with Learners with High Incidence Disabilities
SPED 448: Leadership Seminar
SPED 578: Internship: Classroom-Based/ Community-Based Inquiry
DHD 535: Advocacy and Empowerment in Disability
SPED 448: Leadership Seminar
**Scholars will participate in two additional semesters of “Specialists in Residency” which includes peer mentoring and on-the-job support**
Community Conversations
Dynamic networks of conversation and
knowledge-sharing are focused on critical questions about a
mutually important issue.
Brown, J., Isaacs, D., World Café Community, Wheatley, M. J., & Senge, P. (2005). The World Café. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.
SET Community ConversationsOrganizing conversations with fellow school personnel, students, families,
adult service agency personnel, community organizations, employers,
and post-secondary education personnel to discuss topics such as:
www.theworldcafe.com
How can we, as a community, increase, promote and support employment and self-employment opportunities for individuals with disabilities?
What steps can we take to develop a more collaborative, person-centered planning process?
How can we work together to create a collaborative team to explore/create links to provide community-based experiences for young adults in the 18-22 year old phase of transition to post-secondary life.
SET Personnel Training: Cohort 1 Demographics
SET Personnel Training: Cohort 1 Years Teaching
SET Network: Building a sustainable network of relationships in Chicago and IL
Community Agencies/
State Organizations
Schools
Higher Education
Research Questions Sample MeasuresDoes participation in and completion of Project SET improve scholars' knowledge and skills in transition competencies?
• Illinois Transition Competency survey• Interviews- pretest/posttest & yearly after
graduation • Archival data (Percent of scholars passing
the LBS2 transition exam)• Artifacts of work
Does participation in and completion of Project SET improve scholars' leadership and mentoring skills?
• Interviews• Archival and demographic data • Artifacts
Does participation in and completion of Project SET increase scholars' ability to generalize evidence-based practices and transition competencies to their schools, districts and/or communities?
• Repeated measures with surveys • Interviews• Focus group interviews• Archival data-ITPs (baseline, as a scholar,
mentor and yearly probes)
Project SET Research
Research Questions MeasuresDoes the scholars' participation in and completion of Project SET improve transition outcomes for scholars’ students with disabilities and their families?
• Pretest/posttest social validity surveys on students with disabilities and families of scholars
• Interviews and focus groups• Archival data from ITP over time
Does the scholars' participation in and completion of Project SET positively impact SET community stakeholders in terms of their collaboration, direct services and personnel development?
• Repeated measures• Pretest/posttest stakeholder social validity
surveys• Interviews
Does the scholars' participation in and completion of Project SET positively impact partner school districts?
• Pretest/posttest partner social validity surveys• Interviews • Repeated measures over time Archival –i.e.,
promotion of SET scholars, length of tenure
Project SET Research
SET Research Design and Methods
Surveys and Interviews (individual and focus groups)
Items drawn from IL State Standards for Transition Specialists, Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) Transition Specialist Standards, Division on Career Development & Transition (DCDT) Transition Specialist Standards
All instruments will enable longitudinal collection of data over the five+ year period of Project SET.
Surveys being developed for community partners, and for students and their families of those candidates who complete Project SET. Interview protocols are developed for Project SET students and community agency personnel.
June 2012 Baseline Data: ReviewIllinois Competency Survey
There are a total of 47 competencies associated with 7 standards.
Standards and competencies incorporate Illinois State Standards, DCTC and CEC.
The survey is meant to be a self assessment of each competency.
Item responses used a 5-point Likert type scale (1 = “I have yet to learn about …” to 5 =demonstrates proficiency at the leadership level
Section Items Average Minimum Maximum SD
1: Foundations 5 11.07 5 18 3.99
2: Characteristics of Learners
3 8.79 5 12 1.72
3: Assessment 8 17.57 9 25 4.57
4: Planning for Instruction
8 19.93 11 28 4.16
5: Learning Environment
6 14.5 7 22 4.09
6: Collaborative Relationships
13 23.64 14 39 8.30
7: Professional/ Ethical Practices
4 8.79 4 14 2.49
Overall 47 104.29 62 141 23.26
Per Item --- 2.22 1.32 3 0.50
June 2012 Baseline Data: ReviewScholar Initial Interview (before entry into the program)
Four questions: What do you anticipate learning; any current challenges and/or barriers to doing transition in your setting(s); anticipate how participation in Project SET might impact work with students and families, anticipate how Project SET might impact partnerships with community stakeholders
Initial Analyses
What do you anticipate learning in Project SET that could help you build on what you do and meet your professional goals?Enhance collaboration; provide better information to students, families, case managers; be an advocate for students; stronger and better advocate for students as they exit the high school setting; consider the curriculum and instruction that could lead to better outcomes; develop better IEP goals
Participants see these sorts of needs in their knowledge and skills as well as in their work settings.
Project SET website at www.projectset.ed.uic.eduTabs include: •Information about the program of study•Information about “Partners and Community Connections”•Events•Resources (national, state and local to Chicago•Publications and project research dissemination
Project SET: Further Information
Adams, C. L. & Dunn, R. (2005). The status of transition services for secondary students with disabilities in Illinois: Interagency coordinating council annual report for 2004-2005 to the governor and general assemble. Retrieved October 18, 2010 fromhttp://www.isbe.net/iicc/pdf/2004-2005_annual_report.pdf.
Benitez, D. T., Morningstar, M. E., & Frey, B. B. (2009). A multistate survey of specialeducation teachers’ perceptions of their transition competencies. Career Development for Exceptional Individuals, 32 (1), 6-16. Blalock, G., Kochhar-Bryant, C. A., Test, D. W., Kohler, P., White, W., Lehmann, J., Bassett, D., & Patton, J. (2003). The need for comprehensive personnel preparation in transition and career development: A position statement of the division on career development and transition. Career Development for Exceptional Individuals, 26, 207-226.
Kim, R. & Dymond, S.K. (2010). Special education teachers’ perceptions of benefits, barriers, and components of community-based vocational instruction. Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, 48(5), 313–329. Kochhar-Bryant, C. (2003). Building transition capacity through personnel development: Analysis of 35 State Improvement Grants. Career Development for Exceptional Individuals, 26, 161–184.
Morningstar, M.E., Kim, K., Clark, G.M. (2008). Competencies of practitioners evaluating a transition personnel preparation program. Teacher Education and Special Education, 31(1), 47 – 58. doi: 10.1177/088840640803100105
Pesky, H. G., & Haycock, K. (2006). Teaching inequality: How poor and minority students are shortchanged on teacher quality. Washington, DC: Education Trust.
Shaw, S. (2006). Legal and policy perspectives on transition assessment and documentation. Career Development for Exceptional Individuals, 29(2), 108-113. doi: 10.1177/08857288060290020201
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