AGE APPROPRIATE TRANSITION ASSESSMENT: Some insights and practical information

1. AGE APPROPRIATE TRANSITION ASSESSMENT: Some insights and practical information Larry Kortering & Korteringlj@appstate.edu

3. WHY DO AN AGE APPROPRIATE TRANSITION ASSESSMENT? • Efficient process that is predictive • Great way to develop rapport w/ students • Students enjoy it • Generates useful and relevant information • Legally required in meeting the requirements of Indicator 13 (see http://www.nsttac.org ) • Helps you understand the student in a new way • Provide students with an opportunity to learn about themselves while making connections between school and future careers

4. NSTTAC’S TRANSITION ASSESSMENT GUIDE • Real challenge to get teachers readily accessible information on ‘age appropriate transition assessment’ • We realized most teachers would have little or no background on transition assessment • Our response was the Transition Assessment Guide • LINK: http://www.nsttac.org/?FileName=tag

5. AREAS OF ASSESSMENT INFORMATION • Achievement and Mental Ability scores from the current psychological report • Paper/pencil tests in the areas of interests, personality, career readiness, work adjustment, and aptitude • Physical functioning (observation or tested) • Family and student background (interview or survey) • Job Samplings – recreate community jobs in your school • Work Site Evaluations – placing students on real community jobs

6. VOCATIONAL ASSESSMENT: + and - • Time efficient and cheap:) • Fairly predictive • Non-academic focus • The right instruments are reliable and valid • Students love it while learning about themselves • You learn about students • Indicator 13 requires it • Snapshot of reality • Often requires training and experience for proper interpretation • Requires a conceptual understanding of career development • Norms may be dated and statistical properties suspect • Many instruments promise everything in a short time (think diet pills)

7. TRANSITION ASSESSMENT ACTIVITY • TAKING THE TESTS TO SEE HOW GOOD OR BAD THEY ARE

8. WHAT STUDENTS SAY ABOUT THE ASSESSMENTS: • 90% or more report enjoying the process, recommending it for their friends, and report having learned something about themselves • 85% report what they ‘liked’ best about the process (learning about themselves, learning about jobs, or enjoying it) • 65% report what the liked least (questions were to many or took too long, process was boring) • Note: N of 124 and growing

9. IMPACT ON CAREER DECISION MAKING: • NO significant impact on various indices of career decision making relative to a job they identified as suitable: • Perceived preparedness for a selected job; • readiness for that job; • ability to find job; • knowledge of that job’s requirements; and • knowledge of how to find that job • Note: N = 32

10. GENERAL CHALLENGES YOU WILL ENCOUNTER • Response sets (e.g., flat score or other unique response patterns) • Youth’s with little or now world of work knowledge or experience which affects scores • Interests or preferences are the least stable of measures, yet the most often measured • Impact of limited access to role models • Impact of their handicap • Impact of one’s gender and culture • Matching results to actual programs • The issue of self-reported vs. performance measures • Inaccurate understanding of talents and limitations • Emerging sources of influence including television and the internet

11. CONSIDERATIONS RELATIVE TO THE SDS – various forms • The ‘Rule of 7’ • Round pegs fitting best in round holes concept (person/environment match) • Uneven distribution of job and personal types (rule of asymmetrical distribution) • Hexagon concept • SDS – R reports are complex and warrant assistance

12. HOLLAND CODES AND LABOR DEPT. DATA (2000) • Realistic jobs account for 30% of jobs (though this is declining), S for 20% (fastest growing), I is at 18% (growing), E and C about 15% (slight growth) • Artistic jobs are 1% (very stable rate) • I jobs pay over twice the money as other job areas • SR jobs are the highest area of growth • 75% and 85% of men are in R or E jobs, respectively • Women have a much more even distribution led by C, R, & S • By 2015 the distribution of jobs is projected as SRICEA • Today it is RECSIA

13. NEW WORK WORLD • Emerging knowledge-based economy • Emerging labor pattern of job changes (average of 11 or more for today’s youth) • 21 of the 25 fastest growing occupations require 2 or more years of college • In 1970, 36% of us had not completed high school and 38% had only a high school education; today the respective rates are 15% and 60% • College grads are really the only ones experiencing wage growth (dropouts real median income has dropped by over 20% since 1980)

14. SAMPLE TESTS AND RELATED TOOLS • General interview or survey about school, interests, work history and family jobs at: • http://www.nsttac.org/?FileName=tag • Student Style Questionnaire (Pro-Ed in Austin, TX) • Self-Directed Search Forms Explorer, E, and R (several vendors) • Transition Planning Inventory (Pro Ed in Austin, TX) • Some measure of actual talents or aptitudes (Differential Aptitude Test, Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery, Occupational Aptitude Survey and Interest Schedules - 3, General Aptitude Test Battery & Wiessen Test of Mechanical Comprehension) • Information from current psychological report (e.g., IQ and achievement scores)

15. OTHER USEFUL RESOURCES • A Counselor’s Guide to Career Assessment Instruments (National Career Development Association) • Informal Assessments for Transitions: Independent living and community participation (Pro Ed) • Assess for Success: A practitioner’s handbook on transition assessment (Corwin Press) • Assessment for Effective Intervention (Spring of 2007 issue) • Handbook on Measurement and Evaluation in Rehabilitation (Aspen Publishing) • O’NET website: http://online.onetcenter.org/

16. CONTACT INFORMATION • WWW.NSTTAC.ORG (sign up for NSTTAC Notes and download Transition Assessment Guide) • Larry Kortering (korteringlj@appstate.edu)