Incorporating+Transition+into+Academic+Areas+Dooley

• How to embed key concepts of transitioning planning into core areas of academic instruction
 * INCORPORATING TRANSITION INTO ACADEMIC AREAS**


 * Table of Contents**
 * 1) The Individuals with Disabilities Act
 * 2) Universal Design Education
 * 3) Content Standards
 * 4) Self-Determination
 * 5) Self-Advocacy
 * 6) Aligning Secondary Education Standards with Postsecondary Education Expectations
 * 7) Teaching Other Independent Living Skills
 * 8) Additional Resources


 * 1. The Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA)**

//How is IDEA related to incorporating transition into academic area?// In 1975, the Education for All Handicapped Children Act Public Law 94-142 (EHA) was enacted. Prior to EHA, children with disabilities did not have the same access to education as their peers without disabilities. Essentially, children with disabilities were segregated from students attending public schools. Families of children with disabilities struggled to find resources to provide their children with a proper education. EHA was a giant step towards ensuring all students had access to education. EHA helped educational institutions and families identify children with disabilities and provided much needed legal protection. However, this was not enough. The extent that children with disabilities participated in activities with peers without disabilities was limited. They did not have access to the general education curriculum and core content. Educators were providing simpler curricula and lower expectations. Researchers in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s found that students with disabilities were more successful when given the opportunity to participate in school with peers without disabilities and when those around them had higher expectations. In 1990, the EHA was changed to the Individuals with Disabilities Act. With this change came a stronger focus on the education of all students in the “least restrictive environment” (LRE) possible with their “non-disabled peers” (U.S. Department of Education, 2007). Along with increased concern about LRE, there was stronger focus on transition programing for students with disabilities. Transition was embedded in the Individualized Education Program (IEP) for students receiving services under IDEA. As it stands currently, students with disabilities must be educated in the LRE and participate in the general education curriculum alongside their peers without disabilities.

IDEA Resources:
 * U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs. (2007). History Twenty-Five Year of Progress in Educating Children with Disabilities Through IDEA. Retrieved from http://www2.ed.gov/policy/speced/leg/idea/history.pdf
 * The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 2004, Pub. L. No. 108-446. (2004). Retrieved from http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=108_cong_public_laws&docid=f:publ446.108


 * 2. Universal Design Education**

//What is Universal Design?// Universal Design is the philosophy and practice of creating environments in such a way that all people from all walks of life have access to them. Universal Design is meant to open doors for all people because they are human beings, and to ensure environments are designed for all human beings to access (Welch, 1995).

//What does this mean for education?// Educators who believe in Universal Design create curricula and use teaching practices that ensure all students have access to learning. Universal Design in Education can embed transition planning into core content areas so all students with or without disabilities can transition from High School to postsecondary education, vocation and independent living.

Universal Design Education Resources:
 * Welch, P. (1995). What is Universal Design?. Universal design education. Retrieved from http://www.udeducation.org/resources/62.html
 * Universal Design: http://www.udeducation.org/


 * 3. Content Standards**

//How can Content Standards create Universal Design in transition?// All core content areas have essential components of transition already embedded in the standards. For example, the Standards for the English Language Arts stress the importance of communication in reading, writing and in speech, the National Standards for Social Studies stress the importance of students’ self-awareness as individuals as part of larger communities, and the Mathematics and Science standards stress student learning in areas essential for daily living skills. If the philosophy and practices of Universal Design were applied in all content areas, key understanding in transition for all students could be disseminated for students with multiple learning styles during content area instruction (National Secondary Transition Technical Assistance Center, 2011).

//National Content Standards//
 * National Council of Teachers of English, Standards for the English Language Arts: https://secure.ncte.org/store/standards-for-the-english-language-arts
 * Students learn how to use “language effectively” in reading, writing and communicating.
 * Students also learn how to use language as a way to facilitate community participation and self-awareness.


 * National Council for the Social Studies, National Standards for Social Studies Teachers: http://www.socialstudies.org/standards/teacherstandards
 * Students explore their communities.
 * Students develop an understanding of cultural diversity.
 * Students develop a sense of individual identify and development:
 * Understand their individual roles in:
 * Government.
 * Economics.
 * Learn their rights as citizens in the United States of America and their responsibilities as citizens in a democratic government and process.


 * National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, What Are Curriculum Focal Points: http://www.nctm.org/standards/content.aspx?id=264
 * Curriculum focal points are standards in mathematics pre-K-8 to help develop students’ ability in “problem solving, reasoning and critical thinking skills”, to be used and expanded upon in further mathematics education. These focal points are component skills used to facilitate thought processes essential to a fluid postsecondary transition.
 * Students are also expected to learn mathematical reasoning and numerical skills that are essential in independent living.


 * National Science Teachers Association, National Science Education Standards: http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?isbn=0309053269
 * Science standards are created to help students develop critical thinking skills needed for daily living and for students to comprehend scientific concepts that impact daily decision making in their individual lives and as members of a global community.

Content Standards in Transition Resources:
 * National Secondary Transition Technical Assistance Center. (2011). Teaching self-advocacy skills specific practice. Retrieved from http://www.nsttac.org/ebp/EBPractices/TeachingSelfAdvocacySkillsSP.aspx


 * 4. Self-Determination**

//What is Self-Determination?// Self-Determination is the ability for an individual to control his or her own life. In order to live a self-determined life, one must set their own goals, create their own dreams, make plans, accept consequences and responsibility for his or her choices. Self-determination also means experiencing successes along with failures and changing plans accordingly. Families, educators and other important people help a transitioning student live a self-determined life by ensuring they are the center of setting all goals and making plans. People who live a self-determined life are able to develop an understanding of who they are as individuals and citizens, what their individual rights are and how to self-advocate (National Association of Special Education Teachers, 2007).

//Why is Self-Determination important for all students?// According to M. Ward (2005), research suggests that students who participate in student centered, self-determined transition planning lead more successful lives after graduation. They experience more success vocationally, educationally and in daily living. Self-determined students are able to transition to independent living smoothly, with more autonomy than their peers who did not participate in self-determined student centered planning.

//How can Self-Determination be embedded in core areas of academic instruction?// Michael Wehmeyer and Sharon Field (2007) in “Self Determination: Instructional and Assessment Strategies,” provide very practical methods for all teachers to embed self-determination instruction into all content areas. The federal mandate, No Child Left Behind, increased accountability standards in education and mandated that all students including those identified as special education students be held to the same standards in core content areas in education. This mandate increased the importance for students to learn functional transition skills within content areas. When reviewing core content standards, it is apparent that skills in self-determination are already embedded in the content. Teaching self-determination is a matter of adjusting the curriculum to reflect self-determination skills already included in content standards and creating curriculum to reflect functional transition skills. These are the following suggested curriculum modifications:
 * Present content to increase student engagement by incorporating multiple learning modalities, such as auditory, visual and kinesthetic.
 * Include cognitive strategies to help students self-monitor, comprehend and engage in the content.
 * Use backward design when developing curriculum, units and lessons to identify essential understandings:
 * For more information on Understanding By Design: http://www.pearsonubd.com/
 * Involve students in planning, goal setting, instructional decisions and materials.
 * Facilitate in the development of problem solving skills, goal setting and making decisions.
 * Add objectives that create more opportunities to develop self-determination skills.
 * Help students make the connection between their goal setting, choices, planning and consequences.
 * Allow students to make choices in their daily routines.
 * Work with students to understand and develop a profile of their strengths and weaknesses.

Resources on Self-Determination:
 * Ward, Michael. J. (2005). A Historical Perspective of Self-Determination in Special Education: Accomplishments and Challenges. George Washington University, the HEATH resource center of postsecondary education for individuals with disabilities. Retrieved from http://www.mnddc.state.mn.us/parallels2/
 * Wehmeyer, Michael. L., & Field, Sharon. L. (2007). Self Determination: Instructional and Assessment Strategies. Retrieved from http://books.google.com/books?id=OC6fyh_ZpLUC&pg=PA15&lpg=PA15&dq=special+education+self+determination+content+areas&source=bl&ots=ukuL1QXXuf&sig=mzW6-3j1KhwwIzp7J6gz9QCWSY4&hl=en&ei=DmuvTaHYDoLh0QHcycmRBA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CB0Q6A#v=onepage&q=special%20education%20self%20determination%20content%20areas&f=false
 * The National Association of Special Education Teachers. (2007). Self Determination What it means and how to help your students develop self-determination. Retrieved from http://www.naset.org/selfdetermination2.0.html


 * 5. Self-Advocacy**

//What is self-advocacy and why is self-advocacy important for all students?// To achieve self-determination, one must have the ability to be his or her own self-advocate. To achieve self-advocacy, a person has to have some measure of self-awareness. Self-awareness includes understanding your wants, desires, strengths and weaknesses. A self-advocate must know what supports she need to be successful and how to obtain these supports. It is essential that self-advocates, including self-advocates with disabilities, know they have specific legal rights to equality and fair treatment. Communication is essential to self-advocacy; a self-advocate must be able to explain his goals and what he needs to be successful. Self-advocacy provides a person with control over her life and therefor helps her become a self-determined person (Dawson, 2008).

//How can Self-Advocacy be embedded in core areas of academic instruction?// Self-advocacy can be embedded in core areas of academic instruction through the following (Presbie, 2003), (Oregon Department of Education, 2001):
 * Teach students what rights they have as citizens of the United States.
 * Provide students with opportunities to describe how they learn best.
 * Facilitate students understanding of strengths and weaknesses.
 * Guide students through solving learning problems.
 * Allow and provide students opportunities to make decisions.
 * Teach communication skills and provide opportunities to practice communication skills.
 * Provide students opportunities to evaluate their own goals and progress towards their goals.
 * Administer the learning style inventory to aid students in understanding how they learn best, discuss learning styles with students.
 * Let students adjust their curriculum.

Self-Advocacy Resources:
 * Dawson, Jodie. D. (2008). Self-Advocacy a Valuable Skills for your Teenager with LD. Retrieved from http://www.greatschools.org/special-education/health/797-self-advocacy-teenager-with-ld.gs
 * Presbie, Debora. M. (2003). An Educational Journey from Self Discovery to Advocacy. Connecticut state department of education. Retrieved from http://www.sde.ct.gov/sde/lib/sde/PDF/DEPS/Special/SpecialEdJourney03.pdf
 * Oregon Department of Education Office of Special Education. (2001). Self-Determination Handbook: A resource guide for teaching and facilitating transition and self-advocacy skills. Retrieved from http://www.ltschools.org/files/www/file/self-advocacy%20ResourceHandbook.pdf


 * 6. Aligning Secondary Education Standards with Postsecondary Education Expectations**

//What is the role of the postsecondary institution in transition?// According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2010-11 Edition, occupations that require an associate degree are expected to grow at 19 percent. Occupations requiring a master, bachelor and doctoral degrees are expected to grow as well. Many students will look towards achieving some level of postsecondary education. High School curriculum will play an important role in preparing students for postsecondary education. Students looking to earn an associates degree or move onto a four-year college often attend community colleges to achieve their vocational goals. This will require secondary education institutions and community colleges to collaboratively create curricular standards to prepare students for postsecondary education. A. Bueschel and A. Venezia (2006) state that 44 percent of college faculty report students are not college ready in writing and 32 percent of college faculty report students are not college ready in mathematics. However, 10 percent of high school faculty reports students entering college are not college ready in writing and 9 percent report students are not college ready in mathematics. The authors point out there is a lack of communication about college readiness standards between secondary and postsecondary institutions. In order to rectify this problem postsecondary and secondary institution must communicate when developing standards for education to ensure student who do enter college are prepared. G. Bottoms and M. Young (2008), also outlined policy changes to prepare students transitioning from secondary institutions to community colleges, technical programs, apprenticeship programs and or students directly obtaining work. Secondary institutions can better prepare students for postsecondary institutions and vocational training by:
 * Develop curriculum in collaborations with business owners, postsecondary institutions
 * Include academic instruction in real world settings
 * Create projects to reflect real world and postsecondary demands
 * Create multiple means for students to demonstrate comprehension that reflect their postsecondary goals and postsecondary standards

Secondary Education and Postsecondary Education Resources:
 * Bottoms, Gene. & Young, Marna (2008). Lost in Translation: Building a better path from school to college and careers. Southern Regional Education Board. Retrieved from http://www.sreb.org/page/1252/publications.html
 * Conklin, Andrea. & Bueschel, Andrea. V. (2006). Local Pathways and Statewide Policies Aligning Standards and Curricula. New directions for community colleges. Retrieved from http://www.acteonline.org/uploadedFiles/About_CTE/files/LocalPathways.pdf
 * U.S. Department of Labor. (December 3, 2010). Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2010-11 Edition. Retrieved from http://www.bls.gov/oco/oco2003.htm#education


 * 7. Teaching Other Independent Living Skills**

//What are Independent Living Skills as defined by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)?// The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 2004, Pub. L. No. 108-446 lists transition services in, independent living and community participation that are “based on the individual child’s needs, taking into account the child’s strengths, preferences, interests”. Transition services also include “if appropriate, acquisition of daily living skills (U.S. Department of Education, 2007)”.

//The struggle to embed independent living skills into core content areas:// M. Alwell and B. Cobb (2006) listed five categories of independent living: “self-care and domestic living, recreation and leisure, communication and social skills, vocational skills, and other skills vital for community participation”. They purpose of their summary was to review interventions and measurement of the life skills intervention. An important point noted was the ever increasing pressure for educators to teach content skills along with students to score well on high stakes pressure tests increases, teachers have struggled to embed multiple areas of independent living skills into the curriculum. It is also important to provide students with individualized independent living skills based on their individualized profiles.

//Embedding independent living skills into core content?// Embed independent livings skills in much the same way you would embed, self-determinism, self-advocacy, and align secondary standards with postsecondary and vocational standards.
 * Use multiple modalities to provide instruction
 * Allow students to demonstrate learning using the their strengths
 * Have students practice skills in the natural settings and in multiple environments
 * Create projects that reflect natural settings
 * Help students set academic goals that include setting smaller goals to achieve the outcome and time-management
 * Use existing standards in Math, English, Social Studies and Science that develop independent living skills
 * For example: When studying community in Social Studies teaches students about public transportation, reading maps, and local recreation activities. In mathematics and in Economics students learn to apply mathematics skills to budgeting and money management.
 * If needed add more objectives to the existing curriculum to expand students independent living skills

Independent Living Resources:
 * Alwell, Morgen. & Cobb, Brian. (2006). Teaching Functional Life Skills to Youth with Disabilities. National secondary transition technical assistance center. Retrieved from www.nsttac.org/pdf/life_skills_executive_summary.pdf
 * U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs. (2007). Building the Legacy IDEA 2004. Retrieved from http://idea.ed.gov/explore/view/p/%2Croot%2Cdynamic%2CTopicalBrief%2C17%2C


 * 8. Additional Resources**

IDEA:
 * Council for Exceptional Children IDEA: http://www.cec.sped.org/content/NavigationMenu/PolicyAdvocacy/IDEAResources/

Content Standards:
 * Connecticut State Department of Education, Content Standards http://www.sde.ct.gov/sde/cwp/view.asp?a=2618&Q=320954

Self-Determination & Self Advocacy:
 * University of Rochester Self-Determination Theory: http://www.psych.rochester.edu/SDT/
 * Zarrow Center for Learning Enrichment, Jeannine Rainbolt College of Education, University of Oklahoma: http://www.ou.edu/content/education/centers-and-partnerships/zarrow.html
 * Institute on Disability and Human Development, University of Illinois at Chicago: http://www.idhd.org/Advocacy.html
 * The National Center on Secondary Education and Transition: http://www.ncset.org/publications/viewdesc.asp?id=962

Transition to Postsecondary Education:
 * Association for Career and Technical Education: http://www.acteonline.org
 * U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights, Transition of Students with Disabilities to Postsecondary Education http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/transitionguide.html
 * HEATH Resource Center of Postsecondary Education for Individuals with Disabilities: http://www.heath.gwu.edu/

Kathryn Dooley EPSY 5140 April 28, 2011