Reform advocates have often recommended using interdisciplinary teams, advisory groups, and transition activities to comprise appropriate educational programs for young adolescents. Using 1988 Johns Hopkins University middle grades survey data, researchers explored "real world" use of these components and gauged their effectiveness.…

International schools' responsibility for easing students' entry and exit is becoming an accepted norm. A transition-resource team can serve its community by consolidating transition efforts, increasing transition expertise, and providing transition education (via curriculum redesign and developmental guidance). Teams can promote activities,…

Summarizes a dissertation that compares the transition outcomes of special needs students in Georgetown, South Carolina, with findings from the National Longitudinal Transition Study. Both studies found that special needs students were generally unemployed and underemployed and experienced socialization problems after high school, with greater…

This article provides an overview of educational reform efforts that have been targeted toward assisting homeless students. The authors first review some of the difficulties and barriers that confront homeless children in terms of school access and academic success. The authors then examine four different types of educational reforms for homeless…

Transition from secondary education to adulthood represents a period during which adolescents with disabilities face multiple responsibilities and changing roles that include establishing independence, attending postsecondary education or training, developing social networks, choosing a career, participating in their communities, and managing…

This paper suggests a framework for analyzing needs of students with disabilities in dealing with transition services in their Individualized Education Programs (IEPs). It outlines procedures to follow to ensure adequate service delivery. The framework and procedures are intended to result in IEPs that not only will survive legal challenges but…

This paper is the third in an Education Commission of the States (ECS) series focusing on the problems of youth at risk of not successfully making the transition to adulthood. The topic of this paper is the use of both existing and new information to understand the magnitude, scope, and future of students who are educationally at risk. The first…

This booklet contains questions that are intended to serve as a starting point for asking meaningful questions about the quality of the first year of college so that a two-year college campus can enhance the learning, satisfaction, and retention of new college students. The previous edition considered the first-year experience for both two-year…

This paper examines learning-disabled students' change in legal status as they leave high school, which is structured by Public Law 94-142, and enter college settings structured by Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. The paper discusses implications of the change, transition programs, and guidelines for developing legal transition…

Many schools host kindergarten roundups to facilitate children's transition from home to formal education. Roundups should not assess school readiness, but could be a valuable tool to help teachers' meet students' diverse needs. Roundups should open up parent-teacher communications, check for correctable learning impairments, and share meaningful…

Research suggests that more students with disabilities are pursuing higher education than in years past, and recent legislative changes, such as those in the Higher Education Opportunity Act and Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2008, have the potential to increase the number and diversity of this population. GAO was asked to…

Successful and meaningful transition services are the result of careful planning. This planning is driven by a young person's dreams, desires, and abilities. It builds a youth's participation in school, home and community living. Transition planning helps to prepare young people for their futures. It helps them to develop skills they need to go on…

In this paper, the author would like to put forward a number of issues to think about and discuss. At the same time, she argues for a better articulated system that more closely matches the needs and goals of various subgroups of English language learners. Adult ESL programs serve diverse immigrant populations with different needs and goals. A…

Middle-level education has become a fixture in our educational system. This collection of essays provides the opportunity for readers to examine current policies, programs, and practices in light of recent developments at the middle level. Nine essays include: (1) "Why Middle Schools?" (Donald Eichhorn); (2) "Organizing Middle Level Schools To…

More learning-disabled students could succeed in higher education settings if several inhibiting factors--lack of training for college work, negative attitudes of college faculty, and lack of trained support personnel--were appropriately addressed by educating college faculty, administrative staff, and secondary education personnel about the needs…