Effective Assessments for Meaningful Transition Planning

1. Effective Assessments for Meaningful Transition Planning Medicaid in the Schools Summit January 24, 2008

2. True or False? • Transition is just an attachment to the IEP—you can do it last. • Transition activities must relate to post-school outcomes. • All you have to do is change the date at the top of the Transition page and check “no updates needed.”

3. True or False? • Post-school outcomes must be based on age-appropriate transition assessments. • If students are going to get a job then they don’t need linkages with agencies.

4. True or False? • A completed Transition Service Inventory is all I need to write a Transition Plan. • If your student doesn’t know what he/she wants to do, a transition plan isn’t necessary. • If a student has unrealistic goals, a transition plan can’t be written.

5. MYTH or REALITY? • Instructions: Decide whether the statement is a Myth or Reality. • 1. The transition assessment process is developed using a specific protocol, and it is important to administer them as instructed. • MYTH or REALITY? • The correct answer is: MYTH • Schools often base the entire assessment process on a pre-established protocol designed by the school or a certain program, and not on the needs of the student (Cohen & Spenciner, 1996). In reality, transition assessments should be developed and individualized with each student in mind. Student participation in developing the types and methods of assessment is the best way to go.

6. MYTH or REALITY? • 2. Transition assessment is an ongoing process that takes place throughout and across the secondary school years. • MYTH or REALITY? • The correct answer is: REALITY • While transition assessment is often thought of as a once-a-year event occurring over a short period of time to guide the development of the IEP, it is in fact most useful when thought of within a broader context. Cohen and Spenciner (1996) observed that transition assessment is often wrongly considered to be an add-on, done by one person during a short period of time to prepare for the IEP. The reality is that in order to be effective and meaningful to the student and the school program, the transition assessment process must be ongoing throughout the school year.

7. MYTH or REALITY? • 3. Transition assessment is primarily for youth with severe disabilities. • MYTH or REALITY? • The correct answer is: MYTH • While many assessment approaches and tools are created with one disability population in mind, other assessments are appropriate for all youth. What is most important is for the transition practitioner to familiarize his or herself with each assessment measure and determine it’s usefulness to the overall transition process, and not to assume that a certain instrument or method is not appropriate for a particular student because of his or her label or disability category. Accommodations can be made so that a particular assessment can used effectively to meet the ability level of the student.

8. MYTH or REALITY? • 4. Transition assessment is not required by IDEA, it is just a good thing to do in preparation for the IEP. • MYTH or REALITY? • The correct answer is: MYTH • Transition assessment is now required by law. In fact, since 1990, the law has required that students' interests and preferences are taken into consideration during transition planning and developing the IEP. With the passage of the 2004 reauthorization of IDEA, within the IEP, we are now required to identify appropriate and measurable postsecondary goals based upon age-appropriate transition assessments. The IDEA transition requirements for assessment center on assessing for transition postschool goals, to inform the IEP planning process, and to identify students' needs, interests and preferences (Lohrmann-O'Rourke & Gomez, 2001). In fact, several major pieces of disability legislation (i.e., IDEA, the Rehabilitation Act) require assessment for transition.

9. MYTH or REALITY? • 5. The main purpose of transition assessment is to identify future employment goals of students with disabilities. • MYTH or REALITY? • The correct answer is: MYTH • In the past, transition assessment has often been limited to focusing only on vocational interests and career development (Lohrmann-O’Rourke & Gomez, 2001). However, best practices dictate that transition assessment is expanded to include other postschool outcomes areas such as postsecondary education, independent living, community participation, and social relationships, as well as the ongoing focus on career development. In addition, transition assessment must be focused on the student’s strengths, needs, preference and interests as they relate to the demands of current and future educational, living, and personal and social environments.

10. MYTH or REALITY? • 6. Assessment is very important during transition and if done well, it can provide us with information we really need to know. • MYTH or REALITY? • The correct answer is: REALITY • Of course the answer to this statement is true! In the past, dissatisfaction with traditional assessments have been the result of adhering to the myths surrounding assessment. Another reason has been that practitioners in districts might mirror established but poor assessment practices. This has lead to the inability of the assessment procedures used by schools to provide specific information about a student’s transition outcomes, preferences and needs as well as learning styles needed to improve instruction. Finally, the failure of many tests to assess higher order thinking and problem-solving skills has lead to poor assessment results (Daniels, 1999). Ample attention must be made to the development of the individualized transition assessment plan, to ensure multiple assessment measures are productive and fruitful.

11. Transition in Arkansas…

13. Transition Assessment • Some of this presentation was taken from the Transition Coalition website, Transition Assessment Module. • www.transitioncoalition.org

14. What is Transition Assessment? • Transition assessment is an umbrella term to encompass any type of assessment which targets areas critical for preparing youth with disabilities to achieve a high quality adult life. It can embody many different methods and approaches.

15. Guiding Questions • It is important to begin every assessment process with guiding questions about educational decisions: • Do we understand this student's preferences and interests? • In what ways can the school prepare students for the future? • Is the student making progress toward specific instructional goals? • In addition to the above questions, Sitlington & Clark (2001) relate how transition assessment plans should address these additional questions: • What do I already know about this student that would be helpful in identifying postschool outcomes? • What information do I need to know about this individual to determine postschool goals? • What methods/sources will provide this information? • How will the assessment data be collected and used in the IEP process?

16. Important Point • Transition assessment needs to occur regularly and over a large span of time. It should not be completed all at once prior to an IEP meeting. It is a planned, continuous process of obtaining, organizing and using information to assist students of all ages and their families in making critical transitions throughout the lifespan (Clark, 1998).

17. Assessment Plan Characteristics • The primary rule in creating an assessment plan is to individualize types of assessments given to each student so they are responsive to the student’s needs. • When choosing assessment instruments, it is important to use multiple types and levels of assessments. Measures must be selected based on how they address key questions for a student’s individual transitions planning: • Who am I? • What do I want in life now and in the future? • What are some of life’s demands that I can meet now? • What are the main barriers to getting what I want from school and my community? • What are my strengths and needs? • What are my options in the school and community for preparing me for what I want now and in the future? (Clark, 2007)

18. Integrating Assessment Data • To ensure better postschool outcomes, assessment information should be coordinated with adult services providers. • Results and copies of ongoing assessment should be included in the Summary of Performance that is required during the student’s last year of school. • Communication with adult service agencies regarding an individuals needs, preferences, and interests of students, is integral in ensuring a high quality adult life for students with disabilities.

19. Assessment Data and the Annual IEP • Now that transition assessments are a key component of the annual IEP, the results should be included in the present levels of educational performance part of the IEP. • In preparation for the IEP, schools should provide a student with tools needed to express his or her preferences, interests, and needs both prior to and during the meeting.

20. Present Level of Educational Performance • The student’s Present Levels of Educational Performance (PLEP) gives the IEP team a picture of how the student performs at the time of the IEP development and helps determine what needs to be assessed.

21. Areas to consider when addressing present levels of performance: • Career/Vocational Readiness and Habits • Job Seeking • Job Keeping • Career/Vocational Interests/Goals • Inventories • Experience • Job Shadows • Career/Vocational Skills and Abilities • Physical Capacities • Perceptual Capacities • Work Performance • Motor Skills

22. Areas to consider when addressing present levels of performance: • Emotional and Social Tolerance • Emotions • Social Behavior • Stress • Frustration • Tolerance • Education • Academic • Learning Styles • Study Skills • Independence • Self-help • Domestic Skills • Consumer Skills • Health Care • Transportation • Family

23. NOW IT'S YOUR TURN • Think about your definition of transition assessment, and how you have applied it with students. • Write your definition of transition assessment • Now, compare your definition with that of the Division on Career Development and Transition • Transition assessment is "the ongoing process of collecting data on the individual’s strengths, needs, preferences, and interests as they relate to the demands of current and future working, educational, living, and personal, and social environments. Assessment data serve as the common thread in the transition process and form the basis for defining goals and services to be included in the IEP" (Sitlington, 1996).

24. Why Assess? • Why do you think it's important to assess students during transition planning? • Answer • In general, assessment fulfills the important function of: facilitating a self-awareness for decision-making around critical life choices through informing, discussing, and providing transition services.

25. Purposes of Transition Assessment • Identify students’ interests and preferences • Determine post-school goals and options • Develop relevant learning experiences (instruction) and transition service needs • Identify supports (linkages) needed to accomplish goals • Evaluate instruction and supports.

26. Types and Approaches to Transition Assessment • Transition assessments can be categorized into two groups: formal and informal. • Defining an assessment instrument as either formal or informal usually depends on the following characteristics: • Purpose of the assessment • Commercialization • Standardization • Assessment environment • Administration procedures

27. Formal Assessments • Are norm referenced, have very detailed instructions for administering and scoring, and must have evidence of reliability and validity. That is, the consistency of the measurement, or the degree to which an instrument measures the same way each time it is used under the same condition with the same subjects and that the instrument measures what it purports to measure. Clark, 2007

28. Formal Assessments • Snares that limit formal assessments • using results to label or stigmatize a student • the possibility of errors due to test bias, poor validity, or low reliability, and • the likelihood of fostering mechanistic decision-making rather than considering each individual student (Rojewski, 2002).

29. Informal Assessments • Non-standardized measures that can be modified and adjusted to gain useful information about a student. Informal assessments are very flexible and subjective, and many are locally developed, some for specific students.

30. Informal Assessments • Informal assessments are prevalent in schools, and are often created or modified by practitioners and shared among educators. These measures can provide critical information on student learning characteristics, and are often effective in helping teachers develop and implement more personalized, individualized instruction (Daniels, 1999). • When deciding upon which informal assessments to administer, it is important to consider multiple domain areas where information is needed for high quality student-focused planning.

31. Administering Informal Assessments • As with standardized assessments, protocol for administering informal assessments can be developed to assure fairness and high quality information. • Limitations of Informal Assessments • Inaccuracy in observations • Use of personal definitions of behavior • Bias resulting from unsystematic observations • Analyzing subjective information

32. Self-Determination and Transition Assessment • The ultimate goal of transition assessment is to help students and families develop an integrated picture of themselves and their future roles. • In order to meet the principles of transition assessment, skills in self-determination and student involvement must be fostered and embedded in both the curricula and the assessment processes (Wehmeyer, 2001). The actions of self-determined people enable them to fulfill roles typically associated with adulthood.

33. Definition of Self-Determination • Self-determination can be defined as “acting as the primary causal agent in one’s life and making choices and decisions regarding one’s quality of life free from undue external influence or interference” (Wehmeyer, 2001).

34. Why include self-determination in this transition assessment training? • IDEA requires students be invited to meetings • Rehabilitation Act asserts that people with disabilities be equal partners in planning and decision-making • Therefore: • Students must know their strengths and weaknesses

35. Self-Determination Assessments •  The ARC’s Self-Determination Scale—designed for use by students with mild levels of cognitive disability, mental retardation and global learning disabilities. It is also applicable to students with emotional and physical disabilities as indicated in field tests. It was field tested on students without disabilities and proved to be useful with them as well.

36. ARC’s Self-Determination Scale • no longer in print but available in PDF format online: • Manual  http://www.beachcenter.org/books/default.asp?act=chapters&intResourceID=1445&type=General%20Topic&id=10 • Assessment   http://www.beachcenter.org/books/default.asp?intResourceID=779&act=detail&type=all&id=0

37. Self-Determination Curricula that include assessments • Next STEP Second Edition Order information- www.proedinc.com • Whose Future Is It Anyway? • AIR Self-Determination Scale • http://www.sdtac.uncc.edu/air.pdf • Choicemaker Self-Determination Assessment

38. Characteristics of Self-Determined People • Awareness of personal preferences, interests, strengths, and limitations • Ability to see difference between wants and needs • Ability to make choices • Ability to consider multiple options and anticipate consequences • Ability to initiate and take action

39. More characteristics • Ability to set goals and work toward them • Self-advocacy skills • Persistence • Self-confidence • Self-evaluation skills • Ability to assume responsibility for actions

40. NICHCY’s Curriculum • A Student’s Guide to the IEP • Learning about the IEP and their disability • http://www.nichcy.org/pubs/stuguide/st1.pdf • Helping Students Develop Their IEPs • A Technical Assistance Guide • http://www.nichcy.org/pubs/stuguide/ta2.pdf

41. To Summarize • Transition assessment is now a part of IDEA requirements for transition planning and IEP development. It targets critical areas of adult life and can encompass a variety of approaches. • Two critical elements of transition assessment: • Self-determined assessment should lead to greater self-awareness of student preferences, interests, and needs during transition. • Person-centered planning offers a strategy for implementing an assessment process that focuses on the contributions and vision for the future with the input and involvement of those closest to the student.

42. Assessment Selection • How do we determine which assessment to use? This is a good question. Sitlington, Neubert, & Leconte (1997) identified Eight Guiding Statements: • 1. Assessment methods must be customized to specific types of information needed for upcoming decisions 2. Methods must be appropriate to the learning and response characteristics of each individual 3. Assessments must incorporate assistive technology or accommodations when necessary 4. Assessments must occur in natural environments

43. Assessment Selection • 5. Assessment methods must produce outcomes that influence the development, planning and implementation of the transition process 6. Methods must include multiple ongoing activities that sample behavior and skills • 7. Methods must be verified by multiple methods and persons 8. Assessment results must be stored in user-friendly format

44. Learning Style Assessment • VARK—Visual, Aural, Read/Write, Kinesthetic—this assessment can help teachers and students determine how students learn best. • http://www.vark-learn.com/english/index.asp • The Learning Style Assessment • http://www.ulc.arizona.edu/learn_styl_ass.html

45. SOME Assessments:  Interest Inventories and Career Exploration • Kuder • http://www.ark.kuder.com • Arkoscar • http://www.arkoscar.org • America’s Career Infonet • http://www.acinet.org • Reading-Free Vocational Interest Inventory • Order information-www.proedinc.com

46. Commercially Available Transition-Referenced Assessment Instruments • Transition Planning Inventory (Clark & Patton, 1997) • For all disability populations, ages 14-25; mild through severe levels of disability.

47. Commercially Available Transition-Referenced Assessment Instruments • Enderle-Severson Transition Rating Scales (Form J) (Enderle & Severson, 1991) • For any disability group; mild to severe levels of disability; ages 14-21. • Order information-http://www.estr.net

48. Commercially Available Transition-Referenced Assessment Instruments • BRIGANCE® Employability Skills Inventory (Brigance, 1995a) • For all disability populations, high school ages and adults; mild cognitive disabilities, with reading grade levels 2-8.

49. Commercially Available Transition-Referenced Assessment Instruments • BRIGANCE® Life Skills Inventory (Brigance, 1995b) • For all disability populations, high school ages and adults; mild cognitive disabilities, with reading grade levels 2-8. • Order information – www.curriculumassociates.com

50. Assessments Employability Skills • Brigance Employability Skills Inventory • Order information- http://www.curriculumassociates.com