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POSTSCHOOLGOALSAND
TRANSITIONSERVICESFORSTUDENTSWITHLEARNINGDISABILITIES
AUTHORS
ALFRED
W. DAVISO
, PH
.D., is an Assistant Professor with the Departmentof Curricular Instructional Studies at Akron University in Akron, Ohio.
STEPHENC. DENNEY, PH.D.,is an Assistant Professor with the Department
of Inclusive Services and Exceptional Learners at Ashland University in Ash-
land, Ohio.
ROBERTM. BAER, PH. D.,is Outreach Director for the Center for Innovation
and Transition and Employment at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio.
ROBERTFLEXER, PH.D.,is a Distinguished Professor with the Department of
Lifespan Development and Educational Sciences at Kent State University in
Kent, Ohio.
ABSTRACT
This article describes the initial findings for students with learning disabilitiesfrom the first year of The Ohio Longitudinal Transition Study (OLTS). Thestudy included 416 participants with learning disabilities who were exitinghigh school. Data from an in-school survey were analyzed by sample demo-graphics (e.g. school setting, school type, gender, and ethnicity) and by vari-ous postschool goals (e.g. employment, postsecondary education). Findingsindicated that the students courses of study were tied to their postschoolgoals. Ratings provided by students indicated that students with learning dis-abilities were discerning consumers of transition planning and services. Rec-
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The identification of transition services that promote positive postschool
outcomes is critical. In spite of almost twenty years of mandated transi-
tion services, students with learning disabilities (LD) continue to experience
postschool outcomes that are less desirable than individuals without dis-
abilities (Mellard & Lancaster, 2003; SRI, 2005). In most studies that follow-
up on postsecondary outcomes, students with LD continue to lag behind
their peers in employment outcomes (Fourqurean et al., 1991; Haring et al.,
1990; Janiga & Costenbader, 2002; Rojewski, 1999; Scuccimarra & Speece,
1990). Their postsecondary education outcomes are also substantially less
favorable than those of individuals without disabilities (Fourqurean et al.,
1991; Haring et al., 1990; Janiga & Costenbader, 2002; Rojewski, 1999;
Scuccimarra & Speece, 1990). Additionally, students with LD who partici-
pate in postsecondary education often have to take remedial classes and
smaller course loads, which lengthen the time required to complete their
degree requirements (Fourqurean et al., 1991; Vogel & Adelman, 2001).
Students with LD have generally perceived their secondary education
as a way to get a better job and a better overall quality of life, as well as a
way to gain college entrance (Kortering & Braziel, 2002); however, the post-
school outcomes they anticipate often differ from the postschool results theyexperience. Thompson et al. (2000) found that, although 86% of students
with LD anticipated participating in postsecondary education, many of them
had not even taken entrance exams. Additionally, transition planning and
services provided for students with LD have varied greatly across schools
(Goldberg et al., 2003; Hitchings et al., 2001), suggesting that there is little
consensus regarding which transition practices are truly effective. Studies
have also found that students with LD were dissatisfied with the information
provided to them at the secondary level regarding college services and theprocess for documenting the need for specific accommodations (Janiga &
Costenbader, 2002; Vogel & Adelman, 2001).
Follow-up studies on employment outcomes for students with LD have
indicated that they were generally satisfied with their current employment,
but few had ever received a raise or a promotion (Haring et al., 1990; Ro-
jewski, 1996, 1999; Scuccimarra & Speece, 1990). Some transition services
were positively correlated with career advancement: vocational training,
opportunities for career exploration, and on the job training (Lindstrom& Benz, 2002), but studies on employment outcomes showed little evi-
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goals and whether those services were satisfactory from the students point
of view. Of primary importance was the congruence between the students
secondary programs, their expected postschool goals, and their satisfaction.
Specifically, the research questions that guided this study were:
1. What were the employment and postsecondary education goals of
individuals with LD exiting secondary education in Ohio?
2. How well did the students secondary program and transition ser-
vices predict their postschool goals after controlling for students
characteristics?
3. What did students perceive as the most helpful in meeting their tran-
sition goals at the time of high school exit?
METHOD
PARTICIPANTS
The population studied was a large sub-sample of students surveyed as part
of the Ohio Longitudinal Transition Study (OLTS). In this study, 250 local
education agencies (LEA) were asked to voluntarily participate and collect
data to represent a cross-section of urban, suburban, and rural areas. Ateach of the 48 LEAs that agreed to participate, all students with an IEP who
graduated or aged out of special education in 2004 were surveyed.
Students with LD made up 57.9% of the total sample. Table 1 shows
how the LD subsample compared to the overall OLTS sample and to stu-
dents with LD statewide. As shown in this table, the subsample generally
matched the profile of students who had exited in 2004 except for a minor
underrepresentation of minorities.
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Table 1. Comparison of Participants in Study to OLTS
Demographics Study Sample OLTS Sample Ohio Diplomates
2000Total n (416) % n (741) % n (9,709) %
Gender
Male 253 60.1 432 58.5 * *
Female 162 38.8 307 41.4 * *
Ethnicity
White 348 83.7 592 81.1 8,257 85.0
African-American 43 10.3 101 13.6 1,283 13.2
Other Ethnicity 25 6.0 37 5.3 169 1.8
School Setting
Urban 118 28.5 230 31.3 * *
Suburban 219 52.2 385 52.4 * *
Rural 75 18.2 120 16.3 * *
Note. *Not available from the 24th Annual Report to Congress (Baer et al., 2005).
INSTRUMENT
The survey used in this study consisted of two partsa student record re-
view and a student/family interview. It was derived from a follow-up sur-
vey developed by Ohios systems change project for transition (Baer, et al.,
2003), and from follow-up surveys developed for the National Longitudinal
Study for Transition (Blackorby & Wagner, 1996). The surveys face validity
was tested over four years at ten LEAs (Baer et al., 2003).
During piloting, the teachers administering the surveys evaluated the
survey process and each question in the survey for clarity, content, and
reliability. Survey questions were discarded or revised if the teachers found
they were hard for students to understand, lacked consistent interpretation,
or elicited unreliable information based on what the teachers administering
the surveys knew about their students. Student responses to some questions
were cross-checked against student records to determine whether they were
congruent with information known about the student. Items with less than
95% agreement were discarded. After the survey questions were refined
and edited the questionnaire was put into a bubble format for easier cod
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PROCEDURE
Participants were surveyed in the spring of their final year in school. Sur-
veys were conducted by the students special education teachers in person,
generally as part of the students exit IEP. In most cases, students provided
all of the information on their own, but for approximately 4% of students
with LD this information was provided by parents or significant others. Prior
to the interview, teachers conducted a record review to obtain information
about student disability designations and the secondary education programs
in which they were involved. Teachers were trained to administer the sur-
veys and code student responses during two half-day sessions. They were al-
lowed to paraphrase questions in order to make them more understandable.A sample copy of the survey can be found at www.olts.org.
ANALYSIS
Descriptive statistics and frequency counts were performed on the data to
indicate the distribution of employment and post-secondary employment
goals of students with LD, courses of study, service participation, and sat-
isfaction. Means and frequencies were analyzed for differences based on
gender, school setting, ethnicity, and type of school. The analysis of descrip-tive statistics was used to answer the first research question and to identify
variables that may significantly impact transition services.
A chi-square analysis was used to identify variables that significantly in-
fluenced students transition services (gender and vocational participation).
It is a goodness of fit test suggested by Huck (2000) to compare two or more
samples on a dichotomous variable. One-way ANOVAs were employed to
assess statistical significance when three or more sub-groups were com-
pared (i.e., ethnicity, school setting, and school type). T-tests and ANOVAsare appropriate statistical measures of mean differences or scores between
sub-groups (Huck). The type of analysis for each comparison depended on
the nature of the dependent variable.
The chi-square analysis and a review of the literature were used to
identify variables for a logistic regression analysis to see whether students
transition services predicted their postschool goals after controlling for other
variables. The use of logistic regression allows odds ratios to be calculated
for prediction. This process was completed twice in order to identify predic-tors for employment and for postsecondary education goals, with or without
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FINDINGS
POSTSCHOOLGOALSANDCOURSESOFSTUDY
The categories of students employment and postsecondary education goalsare listed in Table 2. Students identified as many goals as appropriate. For
example, a student could choose both work and postsecondary education,
or they could indicate multiple postsecondary education options. The post-
school goal responses indicated that over 80% of the students anticipated
some type of employment, and almost 70% of the sample anticipated partici-
pating in some type of postsecondary education. (This was a non-duplicated
count; some students chose more than one postsecondary education option).
Table 2. Expected Postschool Goals for all Students with Learning Disabilities
Postschool goals % of sample ( n= 416)
Work full-time 53.1
Work part-time 30.3
Attend a 2-year college 32.5
Attend a 4-year college 29.8
Attend a technical school 17.5
Enlist in military 6.0
Receive vocational rehabilitative training services 5.3
Receive other training services 5.0
Any postsecondary education 69.6
Other 3.4
The courses of study and transition service categories included edu-cational activities in which students participated while in secondary edu-
cation. Table 3 shows the respondents participation in various courses of
study and transition services.
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Table 3. Course of Study Participation Percentages
Educational activity % ( n= 416)
Some mainstream academics 90.6 (344)
Vocational classes 59.4 (247)
Mainstream academics for specials & electives only 22.8 (95)
Self-contained classes .2 (1)
Work study 30.3 (126)
Career and technical education 57.9 (241)
Option 4/job training services 4.1 (17)
A chi-square analysis of gender indicated that males were significantly
more likely to choose full-time employment (X2= 5.01,p< .016) whereas
females were significantly more likely to expect part-time employment after
graduation (X2= 10.34,p< .001). In regard to postsecondary education, fe-
males were significantly more likely to choose a 2-year college (X2= 4.239,
p< .026) and 4-year college participation (X2= 4.34,p< .025), whereas
males were significantly more likely to choose technical school (X2= 10.46,
p< .001). Males were more likely to expect enlistment in the military (X2=
10.15,p< .001), whereas females were more likely to expect enrollment in
any postsecondary education (X2= 3.93,p< .030).
A chi-square analysis of school settings and students goals revealed
statistically significant differences in school setting for students with goals of
4-year college (X2= 6.54,p< .038) and technical school participation (X2=
11.68,p< .003). Students from rural settings were less likely to anticipate
enrollment in a 4-year college than students from suburban settings (X2=
6.30, p < .012). Expectations of enrolling in technical school enrollment
was significantly less likely for students from suburban settings than for stu-
dents from urban settings (X2= 9.87,p< .002) or students from rural settings
(X2= 5.78,p< .016).
A chi-square analysis indicated a significant difference in vocational
class participation (X2= 5.72,p< .017), with males taking more vocational
classes than females. Males also participated in career and technical educa-
tion at significantly higher rates than females (X2
= 5.34,p< .021). A chisquare analysis also showed that African American students participated in
k t d t i ifi tl hi h t th Whit Hi i
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PREDICTIONOFPOSTSCHOOLGOALS
The second research question focused on the relationship between the stu-
dents demographic characteristics, school characteristics, transition ser-
vices and their postschool goals. A logistic regression analysis was used to
identify predictors for samples of students who chose employment only (See
Table 4) and for those who chose postsecondary education only (See Table
5). The Exp (B) is an index which estimates the likelihood or probability of
an outcome or event occurring (Huck, 2000). For example, after controlling
for demographic covariates, students who participated in vocational educa-
tion were almost four times more likely to choose employment only as a
postschool goal (Exp B= 3.941).
Table 4. Summary of Logistic Regression Analysis for Variables Predicting
Student Employment Only Goals (N = 416)
Variables B SE B df Sig. Exp(B)
Some mainstream academics -.494 .425 1 .245 .610
Mainstream for only specials or electives .813 .287 1 .005* 2.255
Was student in work study? .572 .252 1 .023* 1.771
Was student in vocational education? 1.371 .635 1 .031* 3.941
Was student in Option 4? -1.086 .604 1 .072 .337
Type of school setting -.349 .184 1 .058 .706
Type of school 1.258 .323 1 .000* 3.520
Gender -.409 .222 1 .065 .664
Ethnicity .377 .205 1 .101 1.401
Note. * indicates a significant predictor variable
The employment model correctly identified 73.4% of the students who
chose only employment and 58.2% of the students who did not choose
employment only. The overall employment model correctly classified 67%
of the sample. The postsecondary model identified 56.3% of students who
indicated only postsecondary education and 62.6% of the students who did
not choose postsecondary education as a postschool outcome. The overall
postsecondary model was able to correctly identify 59.4% of the sample.
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Table 5. Summary of Logistic Regression Analysis for Variables Predicting
Postsecondary Education Only Goals (N = 416)
Variables B SE B df Sig. Exp(B)Proficiency testing passage .561 .211 1 .008* 1.753
Was student in vocational education? .073 .252 1 .771 1.076
Type of school setting -.081 .246 1 .743 .922
Type of school (high school) .900 .279 1 .001* 2.461
Gender -.040 .212 1 .850 .961
Ethnicity (White, non-Hispanic) -.074 .282 1 .793 .929
Note. *indicates a significant predictor variable
RATINGSOFEDUCATIONALSERVICES
The third research question in this study focused on students perceptions
of the services they received during their secondary education (See Table
6). Students rated the usefulness of these services using a 4-point scale.
The highest rated activities were paid work on own (3.24) and career
and technical education (3.24). Two other activities received ratings above
three: job shadowing (3.15) and extracurricular activities (3.11).
Table 6. Ratings of School Services and Transitional Activities for all Students
With Learning Disabilities
Services and activities_
X n SD
Proficiency testing 1.89 359 .984
IEP and transition meetings 2.84 391 .932
School supervised work 2.82 146 1.02
School supervised volunteer 2.64 181 .993
Job shadowing 3.15 197 .915
In-school job 2.78 121 .970
Paid work on own 3.24 329 .874
Classes at a community college 2.70 57 1.06
Career and technical education 3.24 253 .764
Extracurricular activities 3.11 259 1.01
P ti f ll t 2 83 161 915
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There were minimal statistical differences in ratings across ethnicity.
Only extracurricular activities showed a statistically significant difference
F(1,243) = 4.154,p< .045, with African American students rating it high-
er than non-Hispanic White students did. No other services or activities
had significant differences across ethnicity. An analysis of school setting
and activities found that school supervised volunteer work varied signifi-
cantly with school setting F(2,178) = 5.424,p< .005. Students from urban
schools rated such volunteer work significantly higher than students from
rural schools did, F(2,181) = 4.88,p< .009 and higher than students from
suburban schools did, F(2,181) = 5.30,p< .006.
TRANSITIONPLANNINGRATINGS
Students were asked to indicate their satisfaction with their transition plan-
ning related to their postschool goals and if school prepared them to meet
their goals. Those goals included: employment, postsecondary education,
independent living, and community participation. Students responded by
indicating their satisfaction or dissatisfaction for each transition goal speci-
fied on their IEP.
Students in the sample indicated that they were satisfied with their em-ployment goals 82% of the time (n=341). This was the strongest area of
student satisfaction across the four postschool goal areas. Satisfaction with
postsecondary education planning and services was indicated by 65.4% of
the students (n= 272). Satisfaction with independent living goals was report-
ed by 56.7% of the students (n=236). The lowest level of approval was in the
area of community participation with only 46.6% of the students indicating
their satisfaction with transition planning (n=194). When students were
asked if school prepared them to meet their postschool goals, however, over98% responded positively.
A chi-square analysis indicated that females in the sample rated post-
secondary education transition planning significantly higher than males (X2
= 13.45,p< .000). No other statistically significant differences were present
across gender. Students from regular high schools rated their postsecondary
education transition plans significantly higher than students that attended
vocational schools (X2 = 28.49,p< .000). Transition planning that focused
on independent living was rated significantly higher by students from urbansettings than by students from suburban settings (X2 = 14.95,p< .000) and
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DISCUSSION
The first question of this study was to identify the anticipated employment
and post-secondary education goals of students with LD as they exited sec-
ondary education and their respective secondary programs. The percentage
of students with employment goals in this sample was slightly lower than
found in the National Longitudinal Transition Study-2 (NLTS2) (SRI, 2005)
which indicated 94% of students with LD expected employment. Employ-
ment expectations in this sample were similar to those in the Thompson et
al. (2000) investigation in which employment expectations were calculated
at 86%. A high number of students with LD anticipated both employment
and postsecondary education after graduation. These findings suggest thatstudents with LD will need to work harder to balance work and school or
they will take more time to complete postsecondary education. It also points
to the importance of employment to pay for postsecondary education.
Postsecondary education expectations, which included entrance into
technical schools as well as two-year and four-year colleges, were reported
by almost 70% of the students in this study. This was a higher rate than the
NLTS2 findings (SRI, 2005) of 54% for students with LD. Even though stu-
dents responding to the NLTS2 ranged from 15 to 19 years in age comparedto the average of 18.3 years in this study, this large difference suggests an
increasing trend in postsecondary education goals. The dramatic increase
in postsecondary education expectations suggests that the traditional transi-
tion models focused on employment (Halpern, 1985; Will, as cited in Flexer
& Baer, 2008) may need to be re-examined for this population. Some more
recent transition models that incorporate a wider range of postschool out-
comes are Kohlers Transition Education Model (1998), Siegels Career Path-
ways Model (1998) and Greenes Career Pathways Model (2003).Over 90% of students with LD in this study participated in some type
of mainstream academics. Colley and Jamison (1998) and Baer et al. (2003)
found that graduates had higher rates of competitive employment when
educated in integrated settings. The rates of general education academic
participation for students in this study were higher than those found in the
NLTS2 (SRI, 2005), which found students with LD participating in general
education language arts at a rate of 62% and mathematics at 66%. Also, in
this study, 60% of the students with LD participated in career and technicaleducation. This rate is significantly higher than the NLTS2 data (SRI, 2005)
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education and work study participation rates for students with LD may be
a result of the difference in student ages between the two samples. In the
NLTS2, older students were more likely to have work-study jobs (Cameto
et al., 2003) because participation in both of these educational activities
primarily takes place during the last two years of secondary education. The
difference between this study and the NLTS2 (SRI, 2005) may possibly be
the result of Ohios relatively strong secondary career and technical educa-
tion programming and the common practice of applying work study cred-
it toward graduation. Along with postschool goal expectations, students
courses of study also varied across gender. Many male students with LD
continued to be directed into traditional career paths emphasizing employ-
ment after graduation while females were directed more toward postsec-
ondary education.
In summary, a considerable percentage (83%) of students with LD ex-
pected to participate in employment after high school, and almost 70%
expected to enroll in a postsecondary institution. This seems to suggest that
students with LD needed employment training and academic preparation
for postschool success. The courses of study rates for this sample included
some general education academics classes (90%), career and technical edu-cation (57.9%), and work study participation (30%). Compared to previ-
ous studies, the students postschool expectations and courses of study in
this sample reflected the multiple postschool goals across employment and
postsecondary education. Students experiences may be reflecting a new
reality that both employment and college will be required for all students to
achieve their desired lifestyles.
The second goal of this study was to find out how well students sec-
ondary programs and transition services predicted their postschool goalsafter controlling for student characteristics. After controlling for other vari-
ables, the following were significant predictors of students having the goal
of employment only after leaving high school: (a) mainstream academics for
specials and electives only, (b) work study participation, (c) vocational edu-
cation, and (d) attendance at a vocational school. This correlational finding
aligns with previous research in which work study participation and voca-
tional education were found to be significant factors in the preventing stu-
dents from dropping out (Karpinski et al., 1992). As in previous studies, thenumber of hours students engaged in vocational education programming
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level had higher rates of employment after graduation. Providing employ-
ment experiences during the last two years of secondary education were
shown to positively influence postschool employment outcomes (Baer et
al., 2003; Benz et al., 1997; Doren & Benz, 1998; Fourqurean et al., 1991;
Karpinski et al., 1992; Rabren et al., 2002).
The predictive model for expectations of participating in postsecond-
ary education indicated that students who attended regular high schools and
passed all areas of their proficiency tests were more likely to identify postsec-
ondary education as a postschool goal. This finding confirmed the study by
Vogel and Adelman (2001) who found that completion of regular high school
English courses predicted postsecondary educational success. A study by Har-
vey (2002) showed that a regular high school diploma was the best predictor
of a students postsecondary education participation and performance.
The variables of gender and ethnicity were not significant predictors
of postsecondary education participation, which may suggest that students
educational and career decisions were primarily based on other factors.
This is interesting because females in regular education have been attending
postsecondary education at higher levels than their male counterparts (SRI,
2005). A study by Coutinho, Oswald, and Best (2006) also found higherpostsecondary education expectations for females with disabilities.
The findings in this study suggest that, for students with LD, postsecond-
ary education goals were highly correlated with participation in mainstream
academics. Skinner and Lindstrom (2003) have suggested that if students
with LD are to have any hope of postsecondary education, schools must
offer rigorous academics. They found that participation in more challeng-
ing academic programming was related to passing high school graduation
tests, which, in turn, was a strong predictor for postsecondary education forstudents with LD (Skinner & Lindstrom).
Students satisfaction ratings identified activities that were highly val-
ued by students with LD: career and technical education, paid work on their
own, extracurricular activities, college classes, and job shadowing. These
activities have been correlated with positive postschool outcomes (Doren &
Benz, 1998; Eisenman, 2003; Evers, 1996; Kohler, 1994; Lindstrom & Benz,
2002; Rabren et al., 2002) and should be encouraged for students with LD.
Students with LD may also be less likely to be absent or leave school early ifthey are engaged in activities that they view as relevant to their future goals.
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to incorporate independent living skills and community participation activi-
ties into the curriculum for students with LD.
LIMITATIONS
The first limitation of this study is that it is a correlational study and cannot
determine causality. A second limitation was the self-selection of schools
involved in this study. The findings of this study are currently limited to the
state of Ohio, and the results may not generalize to other states. As the sam-
ple size increases in coming years, this data will be compared to other state
and national student outcome data to explore validity of findings across de-
mographic sub-groups. This study was also limited in the analysis of schoolsettings. Increases in sample sizes for students from rural and urban settings
need to occur before strong statistical comparisons can be drawn. In addi-
tion, students who attend vocational schools need to be surveyed at a higher
rate in order to make valid comparisons across school type.
Although teachers were used as interviewers to elicit better responses
and understanding by the students, they may have introduced some bias. In
addition, the survey methodology did not verify the student-reported ser-
vices, so misrepresentation may have taken place. As a result of survey-ing only graduating or exiting students with IEPs, this investigation did not
include students who dropped out of high school or those who were not
served under an IEP. This would exclude an estimated 27% of students with
LD who exit secondary education early (Dunn, Chambers, & Rabren, 2004).
These students will need to be included in order to formulate comparisons
to students without disabilities, to gain a better understanding of promising
practices for educating students with LD, and to better prevent students with
LD from exiting school early.
CONCLUSION
It has been almost two decades since IDEA mandated transition services for
all students with disabilities. Today, the question of how well educators are
providing transition services to students with LD continues to be a critical
concern, especially because students postschool goals are rapidly chang-
ing. This study examined the in-school services and postschool expecta-
tions of students with LD. Although limited conclusions can be drawn fromthis investigation, it appears, after controlling for other variables, that the
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The Ohio Longitudinal Transition Study and other investigations of post-
school outcomes have identified predictive factors for students postschool
success. Outcome studies indicate that students with LD experience bet-
ter employment outcomes when they are involved in: career and technical
education, work study opportunities, and paid employment prior to leaving
secondary education. Students with LD frequently have minimal contact
with social and vocational rehabilitative agencies after graduation, so pro-
viding these transition activities at the secondary level is critical.
An increasing number of students with LD are expecting to attend post-
secondary education. In order to meet this expectation, schools should give
students with LD not only the knowledge and skills needed to pass state-
wide graduation assessments, but also an academic curriculum that pre-
pares them for postsecondary enrollment.
Finally, although documenting the postschool outcomes experienced
by students with LD remains important, documenting student expectations
prior to graduation is essential. Achieving continuous improvement of indi-
vidualized education programs requires assessing both students expected
and actual postschool outcomes. Future research should continue to identi-
fy school programming and demographic variables that are associated withpostschool goal attainment. This information can then be used by profes-
sionals who serve students with LD to design programs and services that
better facilitate the transitions from secondary education to employment
and postsecondary education.
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