Ginger Blalock

The Need for Comprehensive Personnel Preparation in Transition and Career Development: A Position Statement of the Division on Career Development and Transition

This paper presents the Division on Career Development and Transitions position statement on preparing personnel in transition. The statement is organized into four sections: (a) the broader context for transition personnel preparation; (b) what should be taught: core content in personnel preparation; (c) recommendations for personnel preparation programs; and (d) implications for educational policy, practice, and future research.

PARAPROFESSIONALS Critical Team Members in Our Special Education Programs - How to successfully utilize the paraprofessional in the special education setting.

In its goals, scope, and implementation, the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (Public Law 94-142, passed on November 29, 1975) is the American Magna Carta for the people it liberates. No less impressive are the state laws. With few exceptions, they have faced the challenge of the disabled child and responded in the 1970s with laws and administrative commitments that would have been unimaginable a decade earlier. But laws and the popular will which generates them do not educate handicapped children. People do. George R. Kaplan, The Vital Link (1987, p. 2)

Transition and Students with Learning Disabilities Creating Sound Futures

This article initiates a double issue that addresses a traditionally absent or rare piece in the system puzzle of preparing individuals with learning disabilities to meet the challenges of adulthood. Most professional efforts have focused on academic preparation forthe 25 years or so that learning disabilities have been recognized. The rest of the persons adult adjustment (self-determination, life skills and community living, vocational preparation and employment, etc.) is presented within the framework of vertical andhorizontal transitions, to organize the reader to consider all the options that youth must consider and prepare for. Individualized transition planning is discussed as a dynamic vehicle by which to empower students and families to utilize strengths, set and reach short-term and long-range goals, and include community variables in the process. Finally, an overview of the two issues describestheir creation, their core common themes, and highlights of each article.

What's Happening in Personnel Preparation in Transition? A National Survey:

The availability of professionals trained to design and deliver transition services is important to implementing the federal mandate for transition services. Yet, there is limited information available on the state of the nation with regard to personnel preparation in transition. To address this lack of information, a national survey of colleges and universities was conducted to determine (a) which transition-related competencies are considered to be most important and (b) how much instructional time is devoted to transition content. Responses received from a total of 573 institutions of higher education across the United States and Puerto Rico indicated that administrators and faculty appear to be attending to transition issues.

Community Transition Teams as the Foundation for Transition Services for Youth with Learning Disabilities

This article synthesizes descriptions of and recommendations for community transition teams found in research articles, model project reports, and state department documents. The levels, composition, and functions of transition teams are described. Community-level transition teams are shown to be critical support vehicles for helping communities improve their transition programs for youth and adults with learning or other disabilities. Highlights of the changes generated by community teams illustrate their potential impact; the experiences of team members illustrate the challenges to which future efforts need to respond.

Research Issues in Career Development and Transition: An Exploratory Survey of Professionals in the Field.

The Research Committee of the Council for Exceptional Childrens Division of Career Development and Transition (DCDT) conducted an exploratory study with professionals in the field in an attempt to identify the research issues most important to the field of transition and career development. Twenty-nine items were prioritized as to their importance as research considerations. Results from 201 respondents yielded research priorities in the following areas: teacher training for transition; facilitation of student self-determination and self-esteem; transition plans, goals and objectives, and linkage activities; functional assessment to support transition planning; inclusion of students with special needs in vocational education; and models of K-12 career development and transition planning. Based on these results, recommendations developed by the committee are elaborated and discussed.

Transition to Work Programs in Rural Areas: Developing Collaborative Ethic

the best practice for the past several years. With the passage of P.L. 101-476, IDEA (the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act), transition planning was translated from a suggested to a mandated service. Some states, fortunately, began experimenting with transition programs and plans both in anticipation of the federal statute and because of the alarming unemployment rates of their local special education graduates. The literature describing the critical components from these pioneer model programs is now comprehensive, especially the importance of the local transition team (Everson, 1990; Moon, Diambra, & Hill, 1990; Wehman, 1990). There is, however, a paucity of literature describing the &dquo;people interaction&dquo; part of the team building process, i.e., the development of cross disciplinary collccborative ethic (Phillips & McCullough, 1990). Collaborative ethic was defined by Phillips and McCullough (1990) as the ability of a cross disciplinary group to communicate and problem solve in order to enhance service delivery and promote student success. The development of collaborative ethic involves five elements, namely, administrative support, participant ownership, multilevel planning and decision making, format feasibility, and staff development (Phillips & McCullough, 1990). This article will describe the development of collaborative ethic in rural transition teams, from the perspective of a transition specialist. The New Mexico State Department of Education’s Vocational Education Division collaborated with the State Department of Special Education Unit and the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation in

Language-Appropriate Assessments for Determining Eligibility of English Language Learners for Special Education Services

Appropriate assessment of English language learners with academic struggles remains problematic (Alvarez, 1991). The purpose of this study was to examine the diagnostic practices of a large culturally diverse district in the Southwest. The researchers collected information from the school records of 146 English language learner (ELL) students who were referred for special education services. Data indicated (a) large numbers of students have incomplete records related to their language abilities, and (b) only half of the students who were bilingual or monolingual speakers of a language other than English took cognitive testing in their native languages.