Evidence-Based Instructional Strategies for Transition

To meet the high-stakes requirements of IDEA's Indicator 13, professionals need proven and practical ways to support successful transitions for young adults with significant disabilities. Now there's a single guidebook to help them meet that critical goal—straight from David Test, one of today's most highly respected authorities on transitions to adulthood.

Packed with down-to-earth, immediately useful transition strategies, this book has the evidence-based guidance readers need to help students with moderate and severe disabilities prepare for every aspect of adult life, from applying for a job to improving social skills. Special educators, transition specialists, guidance counselors, and other professionals will discover how to'

• align instruction with IDEA requirements. Get tips and tools to ensure full compliance with Indicator 13, including a checklist that shows at a glance whether an IEP meets the requirements.
• pinpoint student needs and interests with formal and informal assessment strategies.
• strengthen IEPs with measurable, relevant, and specific postsecondary goals.
• teach students the skills needed to succeed. Lesson plan starters, drawn from evidence-based practices identified by the National Secondary Transition Technical Assistance Center, make it easy to teach employment skills, life skills, and academic skills
• use the most effective instructional strategies, such as mnemonics, response prompting, peer assistance, visual displays, and computer-assisted instruction.
• assess effectiveness of instruction. Get a quick guide to the who, what, when, and why of data collection.
• increase student and family involvement in transition planning—the best way to ensure positive outcomes that reflect a student's individual choices.

Readers will help make transition as seamless as possible with practical materials that guide the planning process, including IEP templates and worksheets, checklists and key questions, thumbnails of key research studies, and sample scenarios that show teaching strategies in action.

An essential road map for all professionals involved in transition planning, this book will help ensure that students with moderate and severe disabilities reach their destination: a successful adult life that reflects their goals and dreams.

The book is part of theBrookes Publishing Transition to Adulthood Series

Dr. Wehman is Professor of Physical Medicine with joint appointments in the Departments of Rehabilitation Counseling and also Special Education and Disability Policy at Virginia Commonwealth University. He serves as Chairman of the Division of Rehabilitation Research in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. Dr. Wehman has his Ph.D. in Behavioral Disabilities from University of Wisconsin-Madison.

As one of the original founders of supported employment, he has worked closely with business and industry since 1980 and has published over 200 articles and authored or edited more than 40 books primarily in transition, severe disabilities, autism, traumatic brain injury and employment for persons with disabilities. He has been the Principal Investigator on 41 million dollars in grants during his career.

As the father of two young adults with disabilities, he brings a strong parental as well as business perspective to his work. He is highly active in speaking to professionals, parents, advocates and businesses on transition and employment for people with autism, traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury and other developmental disabilities. On a daily basis he works with individuals with disabilities, communicates regularly with professionals in the world of business related to disability and diversity, and is active in teaching and mentoring medical students, residents, and doctoral students in rehabilitation medicine, special education, rehabilitation and psychology. A major focus of Dr. Wehman's work is on expanding the partnerships with businesses of all sizes so that more persons with disabilities can gain entrance into the workplace and retain employment successfully.

He is a recipient of the Kennedy Foundation Award in Mental Retardation in 1990 and President's Committee on Employment for Persons with Disabilities in 1992. Dr. Wehman was recognized as one of the 50 most influential special educators of the millennium by the Remedial and Special Education journal in December, 2000. He is also Editor-in-Chief of The Journal of Vocational Rehabilitation.

Renee Cameto, Ph.D.
Senior Social Science Researcher
SRI International
333 Ravenswood Avenue
Menlo Park, California 94025

Teresa Grossi, Ph.D., is Director of the Center on Community Living and Careers at the Indiana Institute on Disability and Community at Indiana University.

Debra Hart is the Director of the Education and Transition Team for the Institute for Community Inclusion at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. She serves as the Principal Investigator for the NIDRR funded Center on Postsecondary Education for Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities, the ADD funded Consortium on Postsecondary Education for Individuals with Developmental Disabilities and Office of Postsecondary Education funded National Coordinating Center. Debra has over 25 years of experience working with youth and adults with disabilities, their families, faculty, and professionals that support youth in becoming contributing valued members of their community via participation in inclusive secondary and postsecondary education, and competitive employment. Since 1997, Ms. Hart has directed five federal grants designed to create access to postsecondary education for youth with intellectual disabilities.

Peg Lamb, Ph.D.
Director
High School Diploma Completion
Initiative
Lansing Community College
Post Office Box 40010
Lansing, Michigan 48901

Dr. David W. Test, Ph.D. Professor of Special Education at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, teaches courses in single subject research, transition, classroom management, and professional writing.

The majority of Dr. Test's publications have focused on self-determination, transition, community-based training, and supported employment. Along with Dr. Nellie Aspel and Dr. Jane Everson he wrote the first transition methods textbook titled Transition Methods for Youth with Disabilities. Dr. Test currently serves as a Co-Principle Investigator (with Dr. Paula Kohler and Dr. Larry Kortering) of the National Secondary Transition Technical Assistance Center, Co-Director on the North Carolina Indicator 14, Postschool Outcomes Project (with Dr. Claudia Flowers), and the UNC Charlotte Doctoral Leadership Personnel Preparation Program (with Dr. Diane Browder). He and Dr. Bob Algozzine currently serve as co-editors of Career Development for Exceptional Individuals.

Michael L. Wehmeyer, Ph.D. is Professor of Special Education; Director, Kansas University Center on Developmental Disabilities; and Senior Scientist, Beach Center on Disability, all at the University of Kansas. He has published more than 25 books and 250 scholarly articles and book chapters on topics related to self-determination, special education, intellectual disability, and eugenics. He is s co-author of the widely used textbook Exceptional Lives: Special Education in Today's Schools, published by Merrill/Prentice Hall, now in its 7th Edition. His most recent book, co-authored with J. David Smith, is Good Blood, Bad Blood: Science, Nature, and the Myth of the Kallikaks, published by the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (AAIDD). Dr. Wehmeyer is Past-President (2010-2011) of the Board of Directors for and a Fellow of AAIDD; a past president of the Council for Exceptional Children's Division on Career Development and Transition (DCDT); a Fellow of the American Psychological Association (APA), Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Division (Div. 33); a Fellow of the International Association for the Scientific Study of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IASSIDD); and former Editor-in-Chief of the journal Remedial and Special Education. He is a co-author of the AAIDD Supports Intensity Scale, and the 2010 AAIDD Intellectual Disability Terminology, Classification, and Systems of Supports Manual.

Audrey Bartholomew, M.Ed., is currently pursuing her doctorate from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, where she is a graduate research assistant for the National Secondary Transition Technical Assistance Center. She has taught students with moderate to severe disabilities in middle and high school. Her research interests include self-determination, employment, and alignment of transition and standards-based education for students with disabilities.

Melissa Hudson, M.A.Ed., is a graduate research associate and doctoral student in special education at the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Charlotte. Her research interests include general curriculum access, alternate assessment based on alternate achievement standards, and evidence-based practices for students with significant intellectual disability. Before beginning the doctoral program at UNC Charlotte, Melissa taught students with severe intellectual disability in Kentucky for 10 years.

Kelly Kelley, M.A.Ed., is completing her dissertation in a postsecondary educational setting using technology to teach pedestrian navigation skills to young adults with intellectual disabilities. She has published or copublished three book chapters, six refereed journal publications, and three online publications and has presented at more than 15 national or international conferences. Her research interests include secondary transition relating to employment, independent living, and inclusive postsecondary opportunities for individuals with moderate developmental/intellectual disabilities.

Larry Kortering, Ed.D., is Professor of Special Education at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina. His research and related work focuses on school completion and best practices in transition services for youth with disabilities, with an emphasis on developing interventions and services that prove responsive to the student consumer.

Valerie L. Mazzotti, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor of Special Education at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, North Carolina. Dr. Mazzotti received her doctorate in special education from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. As a classroom teacher, Dr. Mazzotti taught students with disabilities in resource and inclusion settings. Her current research interests include students with high-incidence disabilities, self-determination, positive behavior supports, and evidence-based practices.

Sharon M. Richter, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor of Special Education at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina. She teaches a variety of courses, including content related to secondary transition and students with intellectual disabilities. Her current research interests include identifying strategies to facilitate postsecondary success among youth with intellectual disabilities.

Dawn A. Rowe, M.A., is a doctoral student working on her Ph.D. in Special Education at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Her current interests include parent and family involvement in special education, interagency collaboration, and transition from school to adult life for students with disabilities.

Nicole Uphold, Ph.D., was a high school teacher for students with moderate to severe intellectual disabilities. Prior to that, she worked as vocational rehabilitation counselor, assisting students with disabilities with transitioning from school to employment. She is currently Assistant Professor of Special Education at Illinois State University, where her research interests include the transition from school to adult life, teaching self-determination skills to students with disabilities, and personnel preparation.

Allison Walker, Ph.D., earned her doctorate from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. She is Assistant Professor of Special Education at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington and teaches courses in transition, consultation and collaboration, and secondary methods. Her research interests include identifying evidence-based practices in secondary transition, multiculturalism and transition, and self-determination.