Predictors of Post-School Success

1. PredictorsofPost-SchoolSuccess Jessica Hovland & Cindy Kirschman

2. 8Evidence-based predictors of post-school success National Technical Assistance Center on Transition (NTACT) Ohioemploymentfirst.org National Secondary Transition Technical Assistance Center (NSTTAC)

3. Collaborative Networks for Student Support Both “formal” (agency based) networks and “informal” (friends, family, community members) networks enhance youth success. Networks provide individualized planning and services to prepare students to obtain their transition and post-school goals aligned with their preferences, interests, and needs.

4. Collaborative Networks for Student Support Research Findings: • Students who receive assistance from 3 to 6 community-based agencies are more likely to be engaged in post-school employment or education. • Interagency collaboration and coordination lead to tangible transition outcomes. • Students with formal or informal mentors have higher self-esteem and are more likely to be employed during high school, and students with informal mentors are more likely to have greater academic success. • Students who have support from family/friends or formal service agencies like Dept. of Labor or Voc Rehab are more likely to work in community-based work settings.

5. Collaborative Networks for Student Support Implications for Practice: • Create connections for youth in the community that support their preferences, interests, and strengths. • Develop comprehensive plans that expand resources and reduce duplication of effort or services. • Ensure familiarity with each systems’ terms and vocabulary – find a common language! • Institute mentoring programs within the school setting. • Assure that the youth’s network includes individuals that can assist them to explore financial supports and benefits.

6. Individualized career development

7. Individualized career development Research Findings: • Students who exit school with higher career awareness and high job search skills are more likely to be engaged in post-school employment or education. • Students who have measurable post-secondary and employment goals on their IEP are more likely to participate in work experiences. • Students with high occupational guidance and preparation are more likely to work in community-based work.

8. Individualized career development Implications for Practice: • Career development begins at the kindergarten level. • Career development should be a district-wide priority. • Ongoing, individualized assessment data is critical to determining career goals that are appropriate, meaningful, and valued by the youth. • Compile assessment data from multiple sources into one profile of the youth to determine effective services and support needs. • Design experiences so that youth can identify high interest areas as well as situations and careers in which they have no interest or skill.

9. Authentic community-based work experience Participation in real life work experiences that closely resemble adult environments is a highpredictor of successful adult outcomes. Can include work sampling, job shadowing, internships, apprenticeships, and paid employment. For best results: community-based experiences that occur outside of the school setting, supported with in-class instruction, applying academic, social, and general work behavior and skills.

10. Authentic community-based work experience Research Findings: • Students who had a paid job for one full year during high school are 5x more likely to engage in post-school employment and education. • Students who work for pay during high school are more likely to live independently and engage in post-school employment. • Students who have a job at the time of exiting high school are 5.1x more likely to engage in post-school employment. • Students who had paid work experience at any time during high school are more likely to be employed in the first two years after graduation.

11. Authentic community-based work experience Implications for Practice: • Advocate for work-based programs that are embedded in the whole school curriculum. • ALL youth should exit school with meaningful and individually determined community-based work experience. • Provide job development before youth exit school as a key to successful community-based employment. • Use community-based work experiences for assessment, collecting data about student performance, timeliness, following directions, interactions with co-workers, response to environment, skills, interests, etc. • Consider how to provide service and support for ongoing paid employment during students’ last year of high school.

12. Social and social-emotional instruction and skills Employers report that the inability to meet social expectations of the community and workplace is one of the top reasons why employees lose their jobs. Social competencies include skills, behaviors, and attitudes that facilitate communication and cooperation, such as social conventions, problem solving, body language, speaking, listening, responding, and verbal and written communication. Students need repetition of instruction on specific social skills in a variety of situations and environments.

13. Social and social-emotional instruction and skills Research Findings: • High social skills in high school is a predictor of students’ capacity for self-determination and success in and out of school. • Students with high peer social skills are 3.5x more likely to obtain post-school employment. • Students with high communication and self-advocacy skills are more successful in post-school education and employment.

14. Social and social-emotional instruction and skills Implications for Practice: • Standard social skill curriculum taught in group settings may not be sufficient for all students to learn the contextually based social skills of adult environments. • Peer mentorship may offer opportunities to enhance social skill learning across multiple settings. • Utilize technology for self-monitoring, fostering independence, and age-appropriate behavior. • Identify natural supports in community settings. Collaborate and communicate to ensure appropriate supports and understanding of roles. • Provide opportunities to practice in a variety of authentic environments such as work sites, community environments, school, and home.

15. Academic, vocational, occupational education and preparation “Transition planning” is traditionally reserved for students with disabilities on an IEP but is shown to be effective for ALL students. Comprehensive transition planning and education creates opportunities, services, and supports to help students achieve post-school goals in education or training, employment, and independent living.

16. Academic, vocational, occupational education and preparation Research Findings: • Students with vocational education are 2x more likely to engage in full-time post-school employment. • Students who participate in work study are 2x more likely to engage in full-time post-school employment. • Students who participate in programs with career skill assessment, job skills training and internship, tech-prep, or entrepreneurship programs are more likely to engage in paid employment. • Students who participate in school-based programs that include career exploration, cooperative education, and school-sponsored enterprise are 1.2x more likely to engage in post-school employment.

17. Academic, vocational, occupational education and preparation Implications for Practice: • Research the literacy skills expected for students’ desired employment goals and target instruction to these skills. • Students’ course of study needs to be aligned to the skills and academic background required to achieve their post-school goals. • Embed connections to careers and work in all learning. • Begin exploring career and education opportunities no later than middle school. Don’t wait until 11th or 12th grade!

18. Supporting parental involvement and expectations Parent, guardian, or other caretaker participation is essential to an individual’s ongoing success. Involvement means active and knowledgeable participation in all aspects of transition planning. Parental impact also includes family expectations of the student’s life during and after high school.

19. Supporting parental involvement and expectations Research Findings: • Youth who have parents with high expectations are more likely to be engaged in postsecondary employment. • Youth with positive perceptions of career and independent living skills parents taught them have greater postsecondary self-determination skills. • Youth who have support from self-family-friend networks to find a job are more likely to engage in post-school employment. • Youth who spend more time during the week with friends are more likely to experience a higher quality of life.

20. Supporting parental involvement and expectations Implications for Practice: • Families need to be valued as active partners and decision makers in transition planning. • Promote early discussion with families about high expectations and possibilities for their youth. • Make active involvement of youth in transition planning standard practice in the school district. • Assist families in cultivating a network of family members, community members, friends, and formal support agencies. • Families need information and examples of ways to use everyday life events to talk meaningfully with their youth about working and careers.

21. Self-determination, independent living skills instruction and practice Self-determination, self-care and independent living skills are necessary for adults to function effectively and safely in the community. Self-determination skills include the ability to make choices, solve problems, set goals, evaluate options, take initiative, and accept consequences. Independent living skills include interpersonal communication, daily living skills, financial management skills, and managing decisions about healthcare and wellness needs.

22. Self-determination, independent living skills instruction and practice Research Findings: • Youth with high self-care skills are more likely to engage in post-school education, employment, and independent living. • Students with high daily living skills are more likely to have higher quality of life and engage in post-school employment. • Students with strength-based adaptive behavior skills are more likely to engage in post-school independent living. • Students with higher self-determination skills are more likely to engage in post-school employment.

23. Self-determination, independent living skills instruction and practice Implications for Practice: • Emphasize the importance of teaching skills for independence. • Initiate early and ongoing conversations with families about expectations that their child will be self-sufficient as an adult and ways their child can develop independence skills. • Use authentic environments and situations to teach, assess, and practice skills for independence. • Services and supports need to include instruction and experiences designed to maximize students’ self-sufficiency. • Some youth will need explicit, individualized instruction to learn skills such as problem solving and goal setting. Not all strategies and instructions are effective with all youth.

24. Inclusive practices and programs Inclusive practices refer to engagement and participation, not simply access to an environment. Participation in inclusive settings during school years provides opportunities to prepare for integration into the adult community.

25. Inclusive practices and programs Research Findings: • Youth who have teachers who expect them to be employed are more likely to participate in summer employment activities. • Youth who participate in community-based training in natural environments that focus on development of social and domestic skills, transportation, and on-the-job training are more likely to engage in post-school employment. • Youth who are integrated into a regular school setting for most of their schooling are more likely to engage in post-school employment.

26. Inclusive practices and programs Implications for Practice: • Expose youth to role models that provide high levels of expectation for achievement in both school and community environments. • Academic accommodations must preserve academic rigor. • Use of technology can enhance the youth’s access to and participation and in the instruction and learning offered in integrated environments. • Pre-employment activities in a segregated setting are not supportive of community-based work. “Train and Place” is not effective.

27. Let’s discuss What is already going well? What needs to improve? What barriers do you see or experience? Who are your resources and supports?