Allison+Pescik

=**Transition Assessments**=

**By Allison Pescik**
====__**Introduction:**__ Transition assessments are used by the educational team to gather specific and measurable data regarding each student's strengths and needs. The results are used to plan accordingly for the student's transition to post high school life. The assessment process should begin as early as possible to best inform the team about the student's potential interests. In Connecticut, students must be given appropriate assessments beginning at age 16 or younger (CSDE). Transition assessments should be ongoing as a student's interests and life experiences may change over time. They should also be multi-faceted to ensure that the data presents a reliable and valid representation of the student. The assessments should yield results about the student's preferences, goals, learning style, career possibilities, education, independent living (if appropriate), and community participation. A student who is cognitively functional in daily life tasks may likely not require independent living assessment as he/she has already demonstrated mastery of these skills. Transition assessments are very important because they serve a key role in shaping a student's future.====

__**Specific Purposes:**__ The team needs to use data from transition assessments in order to guide a student toward a future plan after high school. Information from these assessments will help the student develop strong self-advocacy and self-determination skills, as he/she will be more independent after high school, in another living and/or learning environment. In order to promote these skills, the educational team must help the student develop post school goals, objectives, and options. Instructionally, the school must develop related learning experiences and transition services that foster the student's interests, and enhance his/her skills in this area. For example, students may attend college and career fairs to learn more about an area or field of interest, participate in mentoring at work places, job shadow day(s), and they may also create job reports. These supports will all be shaped based upon the student's transition assessment data. Sometimes students may even present their interests related to transition through interviews with their teachers, or at a planning and placement IEP team meeting. Also, the school must ensure that students are making progress toward their transitional goals. They do this by evaluating instruction via progress monitoring techniques, and other supports.

__**Types of Transition Assessments:**__ Schools should carefully select and use specific types of transition assessment to measure all facets important to each student's future. Transition is a "results oriented" process which means assessment results must account for the following areas that work to move a student from school to post-school activities: post-secondary education, vocational education, employment, adult services, independent living, and community participation. The links below provide resources to assessments in these areas, as well as a brief description of what each type of test entails.


 * //Post-Secondary Education://**//Students must develop and maintain self-determination, self-advocacy, and self-regulation skills in order to succeed in a post-high school educational setting. This looks at areas such as time management, task persistence, task planning, learning strengths, needs, and self-concepts. Students will directly apply these skills in a college or higher educational setting, and throughout their lives.//

**Air Self-Determination**: this measures a student’s capacity and opportunity. Capacity is one’s knowledge, abilities, and self-perceptions that enable the student to be independent and aware of their self image. Opportunity is a student’s ability to apply their knowledge and abilities toward an area or areas of interest. This assessment can be provided for free- there is a Spanish and English version, a copy for students, parents and educators. Students, parents, and educators fill out this likert form to later analyze and discuss results. These results such as similarities and differences of options provide the student with a comprehensive picture about their self-determination skills. Each user completes likert scale questions that are quick and concise. Also, each user writes a brief essay to describe how they believe the student goes about achieving his/her goals. The team can later compile these results to discuss what is going well for the student in regard to self-determination, what he/she needs to improve upon, and the steps the student needs to take in order to reach his/her goal. [|Self-Determination Skills]and [|Review of AIR]

**Arc Self-Determination:** Students use this survey to rate themselves across four areas of self-determination: autonomy, self-regulation, self-realization, and psychological empowerment. There are seventy two items that students must individually complete. The end result yields an overall score, and four individual scores (one for each category mentioned). Typically, this assessment is geared toward students with intellectual disabilities, and learning disabilities. This survey is extremely user friendly as the language is clear and accessible to adolescents. The tables are easy to interpret and explain as teachers review and discuss results with students. After taking this survey, the team will gain a better understanding of the student’s strengths, and weaknesses. [|ARC description and reviews] and Self-Determination


 * //Employment://**
 * The Holland Codes:** This tool consists of a checklist that students fill out independently to learn more about their interests, and personality in relation to a career. The results indicate what type of "career family" the student may most likely be interested in. The "career family" categories include: realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising, and conventional. Once the student learns which category they are classified under, he/she can further investigate specific careers that are in this family. [|Holland Codes]


 * //Independent Living://**
 * Checklist of Adaptive Living Skills (CALS): **This assessment consists of a checklist that assesses various behaviors in the area of life skills including personal skills, home skills, community living skills, and employment. The scale results indicate which behaviors students have mastered and which skills they need to work more on, in order to reach further independence. There is also a specifically designed curriculum linked to each behavioral area across four domains. [|Life Skills Assessment]


 * //Community Participation://**
 * Informal Personal Interviews:** It is important that students gain experiences within the community in effort to further develop their interpersonal and social skills. Community participation may look like a wide range of activities such as sports teams, art clubs, volunteer organizations, and music classes. Students should be able to choose which activities they would like to participate in and why. One way that professionals can assess a student's level of participation in his/her community is through the use of informal, personal interviews. These can be teacher created with semi-structured questions to gather a baseline of a student's current level of functioning. Further notes or topics a student brings up during the interview should also be noted by the professional who can later share this information with the team for planning purposes. Please see this website for examples [|Student Interviews]

__**Historical Perspective:**__ Ideally, all schools should aim to administer a wide variety of transition assessments to gather specific information about a student in many areas of his/her life. However, this model has realistically been a challenge for many schools in America over the years. Many schools use only one type of transition assessment which goes against the "individualized" and "ongoing" process. Typically, this assessment is given quickly in order to prepare for an IEP team meeting to discuss the child's interests. Also, if all students receive the same type of transition assessment, clearly, the data being gather is not designed to closely match the specific student based on his/her needs. The data does not yield a range of results across several domains if only one assessment in one area is used. Many schools tend to go with the "one size fits all" model, perhaps because of its convenience, cost effectiveness, and time. Also, students do not always see the relevance of the assessments that schools use, in terms of how they can apply this information directly to daily life. Students should always be at the center of the discussion and actively participating in the process. If a student cannot understand why an assessment is important, it will likely not influence their growth in the area of transition. Sometimes schools use transition assessment that is written in adult language, which often presents as jargon to many students with disabilities. In order to make transition assessment meaningful, students should have a very clear understanding of the language being used, and how it affects their daily academic and personal lifestyles.

__**Topic from One Perspective:**__
 * The Iowa Model:** This model of transition assessment portrays a clear process for an IEP team to follow. Transition assessment should be ongoing and planned in a very systematic manner. The set of assessments students take should be clearly organized and used for specific purposes which are understood by both the team and student. The data gathered should directly relate to a student's strengths, interests, and preferences. All of the information should correlate to a student's plans for post-high school life- personally, academically, and in the field of work. The assessment process should begin at age fourteen and continue regularly until the student graduates or reaches the age of dismissal for public services. The data should be used for planning instruction that helps students move toward achieving all of their post-secondary goals. This model gives a general description of members on the IEP team which includes: the student, the family, school professionals, related staff, and other outside agencies if appropriate. In order to appropriately determine each student's particular needs, this model presents four questions that the IEP team should work to answer. They are:

1) "Does the student have a post-secondary expectation in each one or more of the following areas: living, learning, and working?"

2) "What are the essential knowledge, habits, attitudes, and skills that any individual needs for these post-secondary expectations?"

3) "What are the student's current attitudes, habits, basic skills, critical thinking, and application skills?"

4) "What is the discrepancy between the essential skills and the student's current skills?"

These questions provide meaningful information the team can the use to guide instruction and monitor progress over time. (Iowa Transition Assessment, 2010).

__**An Alternative Perspective:**__
 * __Gary M. Clark- University of Kansas:__** Dr. Clark who works in special education at the University of Kansas holds a strong, well-informed opinion on transition assessments. He carefully examines the following related areas: foundations for transition assessment, primary assessment areas, descriptions of transition assessment areas, and purposes of transition assessment.


 * Foundations-** Clark acknowledges that the school team and outside professionals hold specific opinions regarding important assessment areas for each student. However, according to Clark, the student and their parents should direct transition assessment efforts by stating their interests, needs, and preferences. He argues that even if the school believes one method is the most sound, it is ultimately the student and parents' decision on which assessments to implement.


 * Primary Assessment Areas-** Clark argues that the data gathered across assessment areas should incorporate a three-tiered approach which includes input from //student-centered information//, //family-centered information//, and //school-centered information//. According to Clark, the //student-centered information// should be asked to answer questions about their lives from an early school age, and ongoing throughout their school years. These questions should elicit as much detailed information from students as possible such as their strengths, interests, preferences, fears, dislikes, dreams, and belief systems. The team and parents can use this information as the years go on to plan instruction and authentic activities for the student to further develop these skills which will later relate to their transition into post-high school years. According to Clark's idea of //family-centered planning//, often the family is more concerned with a student's current life stage demands more than those he/she will encounter in their future. Specifically, parents may express anxiety around the challenges they see their child facing during in school, and out of school activities. For this reason, it is very important that the team makes the connection between the present and future extremely clear to parents. Parents need to be able to recognize how the current level of functioning will relate or apply to their child's future demands and environments their student will come across. When they are able to see this connection, it is easier for them to discuss the future in a more proactive way, at the present moment. Finally, the //school-centered information// should be documented in the individualized education plan (IEP) with observable and measurable data. This data should fall under the "present levels of performance" in the area of transition. Results may come from observations, informal, and formal assessments. The three domains that the IEP should address include independent living, personal-social adjustment, and occupational adjustment.


 * Descriptions of Transition Assessment Areas-** Clark provides an extensive list of assessment areas. The main areas he believes schools should examine are listed below. Clearly, these areas go into more depth than other models school systems currently have in place.
 * Interests
 * Preferences
 * Physical Health and Fitness
 * Motor Skills
 * Speech and Language
 * Cognitive Development and Performance
 * Adaptive Behavior
 * Socialization Skills
 * Emotional Development and Mental Health
 * Independent and Interdependent Living Skills
 * Leisure Skills
 * Pre-employability, Employability, and Vocational Skills
 * Choice-making and Self-determination Skills
 * Community Participation
 * Needed Skills or Information for Next Vertical Transition
 * Needed Family or Other Supports
 * Needed Linkages with Support Services


 * Purposes of Transition Assessment-** Dr. Clark believes that transition assessments are necessary for students in order for schools to plan appropriate curriculum decisions, instruction, and necessary support systems. In addition, Clark acknowledges another purpose for assessment which is directly due to the fact that it is mandated by law. All schools should operate using sound transition assessment practices that are individualized to each student and can guide them toward a future of success across domains.

__**Areas for Future Research:**__ -How can we train school professionals to more consistently explain transition assessment results to students in their language so that it is more meaningful to them? What are some methods or strategies special education teachers can use in this teacher-student communication process? -What are the specific areas of community participation and how can we measure these in a data-driven way? -Why do some schools only use one method of transition assessment, once a year, when this process is meant to be comprehensive and ongoing by law? -What types of outside agencies do IEP teams invite to PPT meetings in terms of transition assessment and planning? Why do some schools not regularly invite outside agencies, and state on the IEP form that this option was "not appropriate"?

__**Implications for Teachers and Schools:**__ //**Transition Assessment:**// Schools should use a wide variety of assessment tools that are individualized to each student's needs. Students should be given assessments regularly to ensure the information is current, reliable, and valid. Consistent delivery and interpretation of results will account for any changes the student may encounter or express over the years. The data will then help the team plan accordingly for vocational instruction, and other authentic college and/or job opportunities. Some example assessment tools are listed below. Students should be able to understand and apply this information to their daily lives. Also, they should have a strong voice in the IEP meeting regarding transition by stating their strengths, interests, preferences, and experiences, as well as their future goals related to these areas. They can then be directly involved in the conversation about how the school will plan and prepare the student for a successful future.
 * Record Reviews
 * Oral Histories
 * Semi-structured Interviews
 * Rating Scales
 * Personality Inventory
 * Career Inventory
 * Observations

//All methods of transition assessment should be student-centered!//

__**Additional Resources:**__ __**[|Montana Office of Public Instruction]**__ This website provides links to specific assessments related to each area in the realm of transition.

[|Iowa Transition Assessment] This website offers several resources to help inform the IEP team about a student's preferences, to help plan for employment, education, and independent living.

[|Transition Coalition] This resource provides a wealth of useful information about transition planning, assessment, and practical scenarios to apply this knowledge.

[|Connecticut State Department of Education] This website provides specific information related to special education law in Connecticut and what this means for transition planning in public schools.

[|Dr. Clark on Transition] Dr. Clark shares his insight and philosophy regarding transition assessment procedures for students of various ages.

__**References:**__ Beach Center on Disability, (2011). Beach Resource Detail Page. Retrieved from: []

Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma, (2010). Zarrow Center for Learning Enrichment. Retrieved from: []

Clark, G.M. (1998). //Assessment for transitions planning//. Austin, TX: PRO-ED.

Connecticut State Department of Education, (2011). Secondary Transition Resources. Retrieved from: [].

Guy, B., Neessen, E. (2010). Iowa Transition Assessment. Retrieved from: []  ﻿Holland, J. (1985). //Making Vocational Choices (2nd ed.).// Odessa, FL.: Psychological Assessment Resources, Inc. 

Juneau, D. (2007). Transition Assessments. Retrieved from: [|www.opi.mt.gov]  Morreau, R., Lanny, M. (2010). Checklist of Adaptive Living Skills (CALS). Retrieved from: [] University of Kansas, Department of Special Education. (2011). Transition Coalition. Retrieved from: []